mrvisser

Welcome! We have four schools in common! I kind of wish I added Wisconsin to my list, but it's on there for next year if things don't work out this time around.

It is a fantastic place. I grew up right outside Portland, so between there and living in Seattle later I've been fortunate to see a lot of both states. Definitely my two favorites.

Have you been to Corvallis? Nice location because of proximity: two hours from Portland, about an hour from the coast, and pretty close to the high desert as well.

When you grow up on the west coast it's hard to accept moving to a place without volcanoes, but I can make do if it's a big city.

Absolutely. There are a bunch of schools I didn't apply to because of their location, even though the programs themselves interested me. Notre Dame and Mississippi are lower on my list because they're kind of remote. Iowa is Iowa, so I wouldn't complain about living in a small town in that case, but I'd be excited about my other choices being in Austin, St. Louis, Nashville, and Seattle, even though I've lived in the latter for the past six years.

Haha well, for me at least, writing is a constant fluctuation between being an egotistical asshole and thinking I'm shit. If I get all rejections, I will simultaneously say "yeah, makes sense" and "why didn't those dumb bastards accept me?" But regardless of admissions decisions you should feel good about the story!

I got my bachelor's in journalism because I really enjoyed politics, history, and writing, of course. I actually always wanted to do fiction, but I chose to major in journalism because I thought it was unrealistic that I would ever go anywhere in creative writing. This application season will tell whether it's still just a pipedream, but I got so burnt out on reporting after three years of doing it, and I found that having a less stable career and making less money while working on novels and short stories was a worthy tradeoff. I quit journalism about a year ago, and I've been much more fulfilled ever since.

Dig the story! And the uniqueness of your voice, which comes through really well. It's such a different style compared to mine. I don't have any fiction published yet, just lots and lots of news stories from my days in journalism.

I sure hope your professor is right about results coming early! I'm pretty stressed, but I think I'm also just generally stressed about being quarantined and society being shut down. I just try to stay reading and writing in the meantime, but I don't put too much of an impetus on getting too much done right now. That might be counterintuitive, and is probably not how most people want to handle their stress, but for me I just try to look at the interim period as a time to relax. I don't want to become too lax; I still want to get better at writing all the time, but I try to tell myself that nothing is so urgent until I find out about MFAs. My life is just kind of up in the air right now, so it doesn't make sense for me to be too concerned with its direction until I find out.Outside of writing, I just watch a lot of football, go hiking, birdwatching, ride my motorcycle. Anything to take up the hours. Sorry, that isn't helpful, but all that is just to say that I'm going through similar emotions, and I'm sure most others are as well.

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I sent my packet in November and got a response a few days later that they received it. In response to your FAFSA question, I'm not really sure because I only applied to fully-funded programs and wasn't planning on filing for any financial aid.

I tend to use melatonin a few nights a week, which is probably too much, but definitely better than sleeping pills. Echoing what pattycat said, I try to read before bed, and when I do look at screens I use blue-light glasses, which help. Other than that I mostly meditate, just to train my mind to stop wandering. I'm not an expert at it, so it doesn't always work.

Hiking is going to be a big, sad change unless I end up back at UW. It's hard to beat the Cascades. But Vanderbilt is one of my very top schools. I would love to live in Nashville, even though I also don't care much for country music.

Thanks for the info! I've definitely heard that Oxford is something of a cultural oasis in Mississippi, and of course I would love to spend some time at Rowan Oak. I don't imagine I'd be doing much partying with the undergrads, but a place to sit and get some drinks with other writers sounds good. I guess Memphis isn't too far away if I need my metropolitan fill. I'd certainly miss the ocean and the volcanoes I have now, but part of grad school is getting away from familiarity.

Yeah, I'd like to think that MFAs are intensive enough that I'd be so distracted by my work, but I'm such a city person and if I went to Iowa or Mississippi I would be a little concerned about whether I could stay entertained.

Your list looks great! I would be happy to go to any of those places. Michener and Iowa are my top choices out of those, personally, but same as you, I'll be happy to go to any of the schools I applied to.

The good news is you're not alone! I found this site for basically the same reason; I finished my applications and felt like I was going through all this waiting alone. Even when I'm distracting myself I just constantly think about MFA. Hell, I'm in the middle of watching a football game and I still check this site every 30 minutes at least.

Welcome to the anticipation support group! Sorry to hear about your unemployment; I've been unemployed since June, but I'm fortunate that my expenses are very minimal while waiting out the pandemic with family.

As a quick aside, I'm not usually the guy to report people, but I was getting so annoyed with the troll that I did, because I know myself enough to know that I'm kind of antagonistic with assholes, so I'm not good at taking the high road when there's a guy like that throwing insults in what should be a fun, mature forum. A moderator confirmed he is in fact the same Marshall Goodman, and threw him out, and just said to let them know if he comes back. But if he does, I'll try to be more adult about it and just ignore him. For now, though, we're in the clear.

Congrats! Even though it sucks to be in the waiting period, it also feels so relieving to be done.

Nice, I'll check it out! Also just realized I posted "what's the book you read?" and forgot to include best in that question.

I've heard similar things about War and Peace, so I haven't been inclined to start it yet. I recommended Under the Volcano before on here and I could keep bringing it up. Very modernist writing, like Woolf. Some of the best sentences I've ever read, and also a book that took me a while to get through. The writing is very dense, so I would go back often to make sure I caught everything. Tender is the Night by Fitzgerald is another one I read in the past year that made it near the top of my list. Much better than Gatsby in my opinion; more nuanced and able to touch on specific emotions. Going in different direction from those, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues is very well-written, but is really self-indulgent in a sarcastic, self-aware way. The author, Tom Robbins, is famous for that kind of stuff, and he used to write a lot at one of my favorite bars on the UW campus.

I've never met anyone else who's read To the Lighthouse! Just incredible writing. I'm putting East of Eden #2 on my all-time list, behind only Anna Karenina.

Hey @archiapelo, since you somehow haven't figured it out or, more likely, continue to ignore obvious social cues: nobody gives a shit what it is you want to hear. We aren't here to work on writing—we're here to discuss applying to grad school and other things that make up casual conversation. This isn't a writing workshop, no matter how much you want it to be, and when we do get into MFA programs, we will each be relieved to discover that none of the instruction resembles in even a faint way whatever your odd, awkward brand of ideology is. If you want to participate in this thread in a cordial, social manner common to decent human beings, then great, do that; if not, kindly get the fuck out. Edit: grammar

Let's do some cliché, sappy reminiscing: What's the book you read in 2020? I'm going to go with a tie between Steinbeck's East of Eden and Woolf's To the Lighthouse.