M-Lin

Wanted to thank everyone for going through this together for the past months, it felt like forever! I'll be attending Brooklyn College in the fall. To those who are going to apply again next year, hats off to you -- you are some strong minds! To share another anecdote - I learned today that a writer was rejected by every school she applied but Iowa (not this year, a while ago). Just want to remind everyone again how subjective this application process can be. After all, what is good writing anyway? I will be on my way to figure that out, hope everyone here will, too, inside or outside the university system. Good luck to all of us!!! 

You've read this on Draft already. If they gave a "pittance," you weren't one of their chosen ones. They thought you better than the ones rejected and worse than the chosen ones.
They read your sample. They read a lot of samples. They just won't remember it. The signal for how good they thought the sample is the funding. They know most people turn them down if they ask for tuition. They know most anyone would rather go to one of the 60 funded programs than pay for them.  You said your sample had typos. It was up against samples that were not done at the last minute.

Wanted to thank everyone for going through this together for the past months, it felt like forever! I'll be attending Brooklyn College in the fall. To those who are going to apply again next year, hats off to you -- you are some strong minds! To share another anecdote - I learned today that a writer was rejected by every school she applied but Iowa (not this year, a while ago). Just want to remind everyone again how subjective this application process can be. After all, what is good writing anyway? I will be on my way to figure that out, hope everyone here will, too, inside or outside the university system. Good luck to all of us!!! 

Wanted to thank everyone for going through this together for the past months, it felt like forever! I'll be attending Brooklyn College in the fall. To those who are going to apply again next year, hats off to you -- you are some strong minds! To share another anecdote - I learned today that a writer was rejected by every school she applied but Iowa (not this year, a while ago). Just want to remind everyone again how subjective this application process can be. After all, what is good writing anyway? I will be on my way to figure that out, hope everyone here will, too, inside or outside the university system. Good luck to all of us!!! 

To all the peeps out there applying again next year or considering it, this was my second go-round, and I'm glad I didn't get in last year. Everything about my life is more settled, my writing and reading range continue to get honed and grow, and I'm better able to push forward in the path I want. So maybe that will be the same for you. 

Also Covid. Things prolly still won't be quite close to normal this fall, there will still be anxiety and things not really falling into place well, so you may be dodging it all to have a much more full three years than the rest.

Hope everything works out. Cheers

Wanted to thank everyone for going through this together for the past months, it felt like forever! I'll be attending Brooklyn College in the fall. To those who are going to apply again next year, hats off to you -- you are some strong minds! To share another anecdote - I learned today that a writer was rejected by every school she applied but Iowa (not this year, a while ago). Just want to remind everyone again how subjective this application process can be. After all, what is good writing anyway? I will be on my way to figure that out, hope everyone here will, too, inside or outside the university system. Good luck to all of us!!! 

Wanted to thank everyone for going through this together for the past months, it felt like forever! I'll be attending Brooklyn College in the fall. To those who are going to apply again next year, hats off to you -- you are some strong minds! To share another anecdote - I learned today that a writer was rejected by every school she applied but Iowa (not this year, a while ago). Just want to remind everyone again how subjective this application process can be. After all, what is good writing anyway? I will be on my way to figure that out, hope everyone here will, too, inside or outside the university system. Good luck to all of us!!! 

Wanted to thank everyone for going through this together for the past months, it felt like forever! I'll be attending Brooklyn College in the fall. To those who are going to apply again next year, hats off to you -- you are some strong minds! To share another anecdote - I learned today that a writer was rejected by every school she applied but Iowa (not this year, a while ago). Just want to remind everyone again how subjective this application process can be. After all, what is good writing anyway? I will be on my way to figure that out, hope everyone here will, too, inside or outside the university system. Good luck to all of us!!! 

Wanted to thank everyone for going through this together for the past months, it felt like forever! I'll be attending Brooklyn College in the fall. To those who are going to apply again next year, hats off to you -- you are some strong minds! To share another anecdote - I learned today that a writer was rejected by every school she applied but Iowa (not this year, a while ago). Just want to remind everyone again how subjective this application process can be. After all, what is good writing anyway? I will be on my way to figure that out, hope everyone here will, too, inside or outside the university system. Good luck to all of us!!! 

yay. I am so happy for you. you said it. it is all subjective. we never know who reads our apps and what are their life experiences.

Wanted to thank everyone for going through this together for the past months, it felt like forever! I'll be attending Brooklyn College in the fall. To those who are going to apply again next year, hats off to you -- you are some strong minds! To share another anecdote - I learned today that a writer was rejected by every school she applied but Iowa (not this year, a while ago). Just want to remind everyone again how subjective this application process can be. After all, what is good writing anyway? I will be on my way to figure that out, hope everyone here will, too, inside or outside the university system. Good luck to all of us!!! 

Wanted to thank everyone for going through this together for the past months, it felt like forever! I'll be attending Brooklyn College in the fall. To those who are going to apply again next year, hats off to you -- you are some strong minds! To share another anecdote - I learned today that a writer was rejected by every school she applied but Iowa (not this year, a while ago). Just want to remind everyone again how subjective this application process can be. After all, what is good writing anyway? I will be on my way to figure that out, hope everyone here will, too, inside or outside the university system. Good luck to all of us!!! 

Wanted to thank everyone for going through this together for the past months, it felt like forever! I'll be attending Brooklyn College in the fall. To those who are going to apply again next year, hats off to you -- you are some strong minds! To share another anecdote - I learned today that a writer was rejected by every school she applied but Iowa (not this year, a while ago). Just want to remind everyone again how subjective this application process can be. After all, what is good writing anyway? I will be on my way to figure that out, hope everyone here will, too, inside or outside the university system. Good luck to all of us!!! 

Wanted to thank everyone for going through this together for the past months, it felt like forever! I'll be attending Brooklyn College in the fall. To those who are going to apply again next year, hats off to you -- you are some strong minds! To share another anecdote - I learned today that a writer was rejected by every school she applied but Iowa (not this year, a while ago). Just want to remind everyone again how subjective this application process can be. After all, what is good writing anyway? I will be on my way to figure that out, hope everyone here will, too, inside or outside the university system. Good luck to all of us!!! 

Wanted to thank everyone for going through this together for the past months, it felt like forever! I'll be attending Brooklyn College in the fall. To those who are going to apply again next year, hats off to you -- you are some strong minds! To share another anecdote - I learned today that a writer was rejected by every school she applied but Iowa (not this year, a while ago). Just want to remind everyone again how subjective this application process can be. After all, what is good writing anyway? I will be on my way to figure that out, hope everyone here will, too, inside or outside the university system. Good luck to all of us!!! 

Hey guys! I had thought myself logged out for the year but...UC Irvine had other plans. Just received a waitlist this morning. It's a bit funny because I've just seen it 10 hrs later, bc I had really thought everything was over and done with after months of checking my email every 3 minutes. That leaves me with two waitlists (NYU) and two acceptances (SLC and TNS). SLC and TNS are virtually offering me no money, and over the past couple days my thought process has been leaning towards that meaning its just not the right time for me. Especially just getting out of undergrad, going to either of those programs would mean me depending on my parents for moving costs and day to day until I can find a job, and they're older so I just don't want to do that to them. I'm not really holding out much hope for NYU based on what I've heard about how their wait list either. I would welcome any news/advise on how UCI's waitlist tends to work. Outside of that, it's starting to look like I might do a one year political science masters which has a sort of pipeline to human rights organizations at the same school i'm graduating from next month, I'm hoping that might lead me to a bit of job security, and even writing inspiration. Honestly without this forum I'm sure I would've gone insane around February. Godspeed! & wishing you all the best!

I'm pretty sure I'll be accepting my offer from UVA!!! I've been hesitate to talk about it because things feel up in the air still in some ways. The faculty are so insanely talented and the faculty member I spoke to was very kind and happy to answer my questions. Honestly feel like this is the best fit for me. At this point I'm taking myself off a few waitlists, but I'm still waiting to hear back about my waitlist to University of Michigan, mostly because the funding is so great but also because I miss living near my family in the midwest. If I was fortunate enough to get accepted off the waitlist, I would at least consider it. I think what makes me anxious about UVA is the fact that I've never lived in the south east part of the US! But I think it would be pretty exciting, too. 

Hey just wanted to let you know that this thread has a tireless troll that's been around the whole season. Don't mind them! 
Best of luck with your negotiations! 

I just had a Zoom call with Maryland about the waitlist. Apparently, they are only accepting 2 this year (which I had heard previously), and both encouragingly and tragically I was told that in a previous year when they had 4 spots open they would've accepted me. So now I just have to hope someone declines their fiction offer from Maryland so I can go!

Hey just wanted to let you know that this thread has a tireless troll that's been around the whole season. Don't mind them! 
Best of luck with your negotiations! 

Hey just wanted to let you know that this thread has a tireless troll that's been around the whole season. Don't mind them! 
Best of luck with your negotiations! 

Hey just wanted to let you know that this thread has a tireless troll that's been around the whole season. Don't mind them! 
Best of luck with your negotiations! 

hi all, was just accepted to BU for fiction. I received a phone call from Leslie Epstein this morning. I'm in shock! I was not expecting this after getting so many rejections. Anyone else attending? 
 
edit: also, to the person who said anyone rejected from NYU hasn't the slightest idea what literary fiction is (and recommended community college), go back under your bridge. I was rejected from NYU!

Hi ya'll!
I saw some questions about BU. I got accepted and was notified via phone call last Friday. I am not sure what's up with fiction, but I was told I should know who else is in the poetry program by the end of this week. I will be attending BU and I'm turning down my offer to Sarah Lawrence and withdrawing my name from the NYU waitlist. Good luck to everyone!
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(First time applicant, BFA '18)
Applying to: Boston University, Brown, Columbia, Northwestern, New York University, Purdue, Sarah Lawrence, University of Michigan, University of Virginia
Accepted: Boston University, Sarah Lawrence 
Waitlisted: New York University
Rejected: Brown, Columbia, Northwestern, University of Michigan, University of Virginia
????: Purdue 
Attending: Boston University 

My two cents on why people should think hard before attending Columbia for grad school:
I am a current 2nd year PhD student at Columbia. The majority of grad students are currently on strike for a living wage, better healthcare, and protection from harassment and discrimination. I have been watching the process of our new graduate union try to bargain for our first contract for over two years. In these sessions, I have seen admin (and their sleazy lawyer, who charges $1,500/hr) do everything possible to stall negotiations, belittle us, and play down heartfelt testimonials that make clear why our demands are reasonable and necessary. Every time we've gotten a raise in the past, our Columbia rent magically goes up by a higher percentage. Our wages are not enough to live in NYC. There is no dental or vision coverage, and they recently removed the better health insurance plan option. The school has a terrible history with harassment and discrimination cases brought by both undergrads and grads (Google it), and at the moment they are doing everything possible to avoid meeting our contract demand about changing the investigation process to give more rights to the complainant (see link below).
We're entering the 3rd week of the strike, and Columbia has made very clear that they plan to not only doc our bi-weekly pay (which we receive for TA/RA work), but our academic stipends--yep, they are going to debit our student accounts, thereby jeopardizing course registration, degree progress, visas, and health insurance. We have a legal right to strike, but this later action constitutes illegal academic retaliation.
Long story short: I'm sure a lot of schools are as corrupt as Columbia, but I've just seen first hand how rotten this place is to the core. They only care about profit (their endowment grew $300 million during the pandemic alone), squeezing as much our of grad workers and adjuncts for as little pay as possible, sweeping bad press under the rug, and gentrifying Harlem with multi-million dollar campus expansions.
I encourage folks thinking about attending/applying to Columbia to express concerns to department chairs and administrators, and ask them why they insist on denying grad workers a fair contract: 
President Lee Bollinger officeofthepresident@columbia.edu, Phone: (212) 854-9970 Provost Ira Katznelson provost@columbia.edu,  +1 212 854 2404 GSAS Grad Admissions: gsas-admissions@columbia.edu  
https://gothamist.com/news/columbia-grad-students-strike-over-wages-and-harassment-policies-nyu-counterparts-vote-similar-actions