mrvisser

Yeah, I think this is one of those things where we should be addressing the root. The answer, in my opinion, shouldn't be to remove the bachelor's requirement (to me it doesn't make sense to get a master's when you don't have a bachelor's), but to increase opportunities for people to earn their bachelor's in the first place. Although I do think it's weird that degrees from other countries aren't accepted; that should probably be amended. I don't know too much about India's academic institutions, but my impression was that they are strong.

I think I'm okay with it not being an entirely democratic process. It should be competitive, and though it can be argued whether a subjective decision is right or wrong, I think the people on these committees have earned the right to make those decisions.

The only process I've learned about in detail is Iowa’s. They have two people each read half of applicants' writing samples (about 500 each), and I believe these readers are writers-in-residence. They mark up the writing samples with their thoughts, and then the director, Samantha Chang, reads every writing sample submitted, all 1,000-some of them. Then she selects about 60 of them to go forward, and those she has chosen are read by an admissions committee. The committee selects who gets in from there.

Oh if I get in you better believe I'll be that guy wearing tweed and corduroy jackets.

Looks like going back to 2018 people got acceptances between mid-February and mid-March, so this year is early!

But hopefully answers are still coming back several weeks early!

Don't know if it makes a difference, but the notification on Draft was New Mexico State, not UNM.

I hope you're right. I'm also afraid you're right.

Oh man, I haven't even gotten anything from ThinkND...hope that isn't a bad sign. In all seriousness, nothing yet on my end. Seems like Illinois and Ohio State are the only two big schools who have given out decisions so far.

I doubt it has much of an impact beyond slightly irritating readers. Like everything else, it just depends on how good the sample is. They aren't going to reject great writing for font choice, although they may dislike lesser writing more than usual if it strains the eyes.

One funny thing about Draft is wondering how many people posting are also in this group under some username that would give no hints. Although I've also picked some of you out in that group making comments haha. My username would make it pretty easy to figure out who I am in that group as well.

Damn, I'm sorry! Seems like Ohio State got a lot of applicants and was really competitive. It's all subjective, of course! Garth Greenwell said every school except Iowa rejected him, so sometimes things just work out in odd ways.

Yep, and I saw 8-10 people mentioning being rejected on Draft. Didn't apply to Ohio State, but I'm just bracing myself for mentions of my schools.

I'm new to it, and I think I still like this site a little more for conversation purposes. But of course I don't want to miss any acceptances, so I check Draft fairly often too.

I saw both of them on draft. The first girl who got accepted on Draft didn't even get a call first; they just changed her status. After several stressful hours she was able to confirm that she was in. That was a fun post to follow haha.

It's a liberating-yet-terrifying feeling.

I'm planning to post to both. It's nice for people to be able to just search the results instead of having to look through pages of discussion.

I applied to Ole Miss and haven't heard anything yet. It looks like in years past they haven't moved people forward until February at least.

Looks like an Ohio State acceptance went out for someone in nonfiction!

My back-up plan is pretty vague right now: Just gonna pack up the car and move somewhere else across the country on a whim, write some more, and hope to get in next time.

For me it's pretty straightforward. I go into all submissions with the understanding that everything's subjective, and my stories are sometimes kind of strange, so I understand that they aren't the right fit for everyone. With this understanding, I can believe that I might not necessarily suck. I still could suck, but I won't know for sure because of the subjectivity. If I decide to think that I do suck, then I just think of how old some of my favorite writers were when they published their first novels. I'm only 28, so I have some years to work with if I want to stay on track with them.

Some of us suspected it was the same Marshall all along, but he was (slightly) more tactful this time before making it obvious.

This is great! Short and sweet and reminiscent of those early-quarantine days, when all this virtual stuff was kind of new and, not exactly fun, but a break from monotony. I'm guessing that upstate NY feeder you reference is the Cornell Labs one? I've spent a fair amount of time watching that one.

Yeah, just realized that doesn't look so good for people scrolling. I'll put an edit on that. Edit: Apparently you can't edit a post that old, so I'm editing this post to say I can't edit that post.

I just got accepted a few minutes ago, so you should be getting yours soon!