purgatoryparadise

Lmao got a pretty curt email from Deborah West a few days ago with Sam Chang’s form waitlist rejection letter attached. Subject line just said “Iowa” and the body was a bare-bones “See attached” haha... I guess she wanted to make clear this was not to be mistaken for an invitation to dialogue! Can’t say I blame her though... we are a maniacal bunch. Lol

Of course the usual caveat of this being a year like no other, so nothing is ever over until it's over. A couple folks on Draft just recently got accepted to programs (in the last couple days) they were already rejected from, and one even just got full funding!

I’m still waiting on word from Iowa’s fiction waitlist, but honestly if I haven’t been called by this point I’m really just waiting on the letter saying all spots have been filled. Historically they’ve been pretty prompt about mailing out those consolation letters to non-accepted waitlistees after the 15th.

Bingo. It’ll unfortunately take some upfront costs to make that initial move. I’m not sure what resources are out there to help with that cost since I had to dip into my savings to do that. Asking the department directly for advice or pointing to resources might be worthwhile, as I’m sure many of their incoming students have to deal with that. I read somewhere that someone even got their program to help with moving costs? That’s probably extremely rare though. George Saunders had a funny story about how he was utterly clueless when he moved to Syracuse for his MFA. If I recall correctly, it involved having to sleep in his truck for awhile because he had no idea he couldn’t just show up and get an apartment without any money to his name.

Not a dumb question at all. So US graduate programs in general calculate an amount that is called the total Cost of Attendance (COA) or some variation of that. This is the sum of tuition, fees, estimated housing costs (varies whether you select on or off-campus), food, transportation, med. insurance (if applicable), etc.--basically everything it will take for you to live and go to class there. Then from that they will subtract your EFC (estimated financial contribution, i.e. money out of your pocket) based on your FAFSA results, grants, fellowships, scholarships, etc--we'll call this "Funds." The resulting amount will be the gap between COA (cost of attendance) and your funds, i.e. your "Need." As a US citizen/permanent resident, you are entitled to federal loans with fixed low interest rates in amounts up to this total "Need" estimated by the school. Yearly, up to $20,500 of this "Need" will be covered by the Federal Unsubsidized Stafford Loan (about 4.3% this year, which is fixed for the life of the loan), then anything beyond that can be covered by the Grad PLUS Loan (about 5.3% this year, again, fixed for the life of the loan). Again, the max amount of that PLUS loan will depend on the remaining "Need" calculated by the university, and you don't even have to borrow the full amount if you think it's unnecessary. This Grad PLUS loan is the only loan that will do a credit check, but I know people who have had pretty bad credit be approved easily. So all of this aid is packaged to you, and after it's applied to tuition and fees, the remaining amount is refunded to your account in one big check (each semester). That money you can spend however you wish, but obviously you'll want to actually spend it how it was intended--to live. Lol One of the primary benefits of these federal loans, aside from ease of access and low fixed rate, are the various income-based federal repayment options that allow you to not live life in total abject poverty after graduation by handing over 50% of your paycheck every month. https://studentaid.gov/manage-loans/repayment/plans Pro Tip: I'm not a fan of going into debt at all, BUT for anyone who plans to take out these low-interest federal loans AND has any sort of higher-interest balance on a credit card/car/private loan, consider utilizing the generous COA estimate (really it's almost always more than you need) and borrow enough to also pay down those debts and essentially convert them to lower interest long-term federal loans. It makes general financial sense and your credit rating will improve immediately.

Sorry to dig up a month-old post but does anyone know if this post was legit? Their details don't really line up with any other Iowa fiction waitlistee details I've seen, either in terms of notification date (8th vs. 19th), the form (a letter versus an email like others), or the content (specifying length of list and April timeline). I mean I feel kind of like a jerk not taking this person at face value, but knowing the history of trolling on this board and considering they dropped just a single "la-la-I-was-barely-trying-teehee" post then bounced... I just don't know if it was a troll just trying to stir up anxiety about many people's dream school or a really busy senior who forgot about Gradcafe (although I'd think being on a waitlist, like me, would only increase one's monitoring of GC lol). If you're reading this @timiwee and you were sincere, I do apologize!

Maybe take some time for hard self-reflection. Perhaps the same impulses and unresolved issues that drive you to be a negative and needlessly contentious presence within this community is also coming across in your writing or essays/recommendations. Despite the rancor you seem to cause, if writing is truly your passion then I hope you continue to pursue it.

Also keep in mind that the person in question was already in a Writing MFA and wanted to transfer to a new one, so she might have had her old (successful) one to work off of? Just a guess. Either way, she got it done so good for her.

This analogy is neither relevant nor necessary. The main thrust of the matter is whether we wish to allow current sex offenders to be celebrated while they are living and benefitting financially/reputationally from that celebration--Woody Allen, Roman Polanski, Kevin Spacey, etc. are relevant examples. None of them literally used a film to sexually assault someone, but there is no doubt that the power and renown they accrued due to their artistic success played a large part in a huge power disparity where the underage victim was coerced and/or silenced. No one is saying this sex offender can't write or to pass some legislation that forbids him from submitting to magazines, but we can sure as hell make it hard for him. Let him write all day and make delightful anthologies if it makes him feel better, and maybe one day some edgy publisher will put his work out. Maybe some people similar to you, who don't find child pornography a dealbreaker, will go ahead and buy his book and put some money in his pocket. Then he'll lean back in his steel chair and pleasantly remark, "Well, at least child porn didn't take away this from me" and slap his leather-bound notebook with a smile.

Just fyi, U-Wisconsin Madison (if that's the program you're speaking of) alternates every other year between admitting poetry and fiction. So apps this past cycle were for poetry in Fall 2021, and Fall 2022 will be for fiction.