eternalwhitenights

I got into Temple for fiction!

I think it largely depends on the program. For instance, more sought-after, fully funded programs are (I think) more likely to get who they want, and I think there's generally not much movement on their waitlists. But the big exception there is that if the programs are of roughly equal standing and are looking for similar qualities in applicants, they're often vying for one another's applicants (for example, I know Iowa and Michener often have overlap).
In terms of personal experience, I was waitlisted for half the programs I applied to last year (Minnesota, Madison-Wisconsin, and Michener). It's hard to know what it means when you're told you're on a waitlist because schools differ greatly in how long their waitlists are (some only have five students while others seem to have upward of 15), and they don't usually tell you exactly what number you are. For example, Madison-Wisconsin said I was "near the top" of their waitlist; in the end they took three people who they'd made original offers to and three from the waitlist, so I could have been #4 or even lower and it's just impossible to know. Minnesota told me upfront I was #7 on their waitlist, and I moved closer to the top as it drew nearer to the 14th. Ultimately, it was looking likely that I'd get in, but at the very last moment I got an email saying the program had been "asked to admit fewer students for next year" due to covid and therefore wouldn't be taking students from the waitlist. And I don't know where I was on Michener's waitlist. But from what I've seen on gradcafe, I *think* it's rare for them to have more than one person move on from their waitlist. Don't quote me on this, lol.
Anyway, all of this is to say, it's really really hard to know what your chances are of making it off a waitlist. However, you might be able to advocate for yourself and/or for more information by letting a program whose waitlist you're on know that you've been accepted at another competitive program. 
(Hope there was something helpful there! Good luck!)

Excuse me wtf? I got into U New Hampshire????? WHAT

Congrats, congrats!!!! That's so exciting!
YAY!!!!!!!!!! All the balloons and chocolate and hearts to you!!!! 

Thank you so much for your responses!  I'm definitely going to follow your advice and go job hunting as soon as possible! Even the thought of having a few more options other than grad school makes me feel more secure! 

Congrats, congrats!!!! That's so exciting!
YAY!!!!!!!!!! All the balloons and chocolate and hearts to you!!!! 

Now that's just fowl.

Hi y'all! First time poster, looooooooong time lurker. I received a call from Iowa for fiction yesterday, and the director flat-out told me that they're pretty far behind on notification calls this year. Also, I know of someone (from last app cycle) who wasn't notified until the second week of march. 

Just got accepted to Temple! First acceptance, over the moon

I just messaged everyone who expressed interest in forming a fiction workshp group. If I missed you or if you're interested, send me a private message with what days/times you're available!  

Syracuse. ETA: Still holding out hope that I’ll get the call and waiting to hear from Iowa. 

Nah, I wouldn't think that. It's more if there have been a ton of schools that have already made their calls or sent out their offers, but honestly, just seeing all of the history on the results page here, some people have gotten offers at the last minute as funding switched around, sometimes calls are staggered--you just don't know until you have the official notification from the university. I wouldn't give up hope, but, even if it doesn't work out acceptance-wise this round, don't stop believing in yourself. You can do it, and that acceptance from a lit mag is phenomenal. Congratulations on your success.

I wouldn't!  On Draft, there were a couple of people who got into both programs, and it (looked?--don't quote me on this) like via conversations in the comments that some people were leaning more towards accepting Michener offers over Iowa. Michener apparently had over 700 fiction applications this year, so if you haven't heard yet, maybe that means a waitlist?  Hoping for the best for you!

I wouldn't!  On Draft, there were a couple of people who got into both programs, and it (looked?--don't quote me on this) like via conversations in the comments that some people were leaning more towards accepting Michener offers over Iowa. Michener apparently had over 700 fiction applications this year, so if you haven't heard yet, maybe that means a waitlist?  Hoping for the best for you!

Nah, I wouldn't think that. It's more if there have been a ton of schools that have already made their calls or sent out their offers, but honestly, just seeing all of the history on the results page here, some people have gotten offers at the last minute as funding switched around, sometimes calls are staggered--you just don't know until you have the official notification from the university. I wouldn't give up hope, but, even if it doesn't work out acceptance-wise this round, don't stop believing in yourself. You can do it, and that acceptance from a lit mag is phenomenal. Congratulations on your success.

Missed commenting on this, but I wanted to say that it's gorgeous!!! It reminds me of Van Gogh's "Starry Night."
 
Thank you so much. ❤️ I really am hoping I do, too, ha! I hope you hear back from all of your other apps soon--I'll be hoping/praying for you!
My heart is waitlisted, if that counts? It's like a horse ready to go out of the gate at the races, atm...
Haha, in all seriousness, though, is this the program you posted about a few weeks back? I hope you hear soon!!

Missed commenting on this, but I wanted to say that it's gorgeous!!! It reminds me of Van Gogh's "Starry Night."
 
Thank you so much. ❤️ I really am hoping I do, too, ha! I hope you hear back from all of your other apps soon--I'll be hoping/praying for you!
My heart is waitlisted, if that counts? It's like a horse ready to go out of the gate at the races, atm...
Haha, in all seriousness, though, is this the program you posted about a few weeks back? I hope you hear soon!!

Took me awhile but I made a pastel drawing.
It’s called “On my way to eat your planet”
 

Awww, I'm so sorry. ❤️❤️❤️ Are you doing okay? Were you fiction or poetry?
Hugs to you--how many more schools do you have to hear back from? Still rooting for you!

NOPE NOPE NOPE

Congrats on all of your hard work in applying, and I hope your heart is okay. I'm so glad you have the courage to share your voice with the world in the first place. ❤️ 

Congrats on all of your hard work in applying, and I hope your heart is okay. I'm so glad you have the courage to share your voice with the world in the first place. ❤️ 

Congrats on all of your hard work in applying, and I hope your heart is okay. I'm so glad you have the courage to share your voice with the world in the first place. ❤️ 

Rejected from Cornell!

Look, marshall/frock, one thing I have noticed is that you seem to be coming from a place of pain in your posts. I'm not sure if you're bored, or you're burnt out, or someone told you once that your writing wasn't up to par, or what. I have no idea where your pain stems from, and I don't want to judge you, because I don't know your story. If you want to share anything, I'm happy to listen, if you're going through something, but regardless, just because you're disillusioned, it doesn't mean the rest of us have to be. 
I'm wondering if you're maybe someone that was told it wasn't okay to fail, and you just kind of go through life expecting bad sh*t to happen to you. (Not saying you are; it's just a hunch on my end.) I get it (if that is indeed what you're going through); you know, it took me a really, really long time to forgive myself for some choices I made in my past that went against my values, and sometimes I still struggle with bracing myself for things to just come collapsing down around me again, because hoping again after you've gone through some crap is really, really, really hard, and requires the most courageous thing anyone can do: being vulnerable again. That means you risk, well, risk, and you risk being hurt. If you harden and numb yourself, though, and retreat into your shell, ultimately, you deprive yourself of the depth of the human experience, because in avoiding the pain and numbing yourself, you also throttle your capacity to experience deep, freewheeling joy at its lifesource: your heart. I don't know about you, but living in perpetual gray and trudging through life seems pretty bleary to me.
Ultimately, too, to be even more cliche ?, I think so much of it really boils down to how it is all about perspective. The thing is, life, and people, ultimately, are fundamentally good. I know you've mentioned a couple of times giving "false promises" to people via encouragement; have you thought about reframing that perspective and viewing that expression of positivity from a place of anchoring yourself in a belief that good, that love, ultimately is the force that courses through the fabric of our world, and that it's okay to believe that, in the end, love and hope do triumph, and win? I would argue that asserting that truth doesn't warrant a notion of false promises; it simply means that despair, and hopelessness do not get the last say, and that even if you can't see it in the moment, even if it all looks bleak, lost, thrashed about and gray, hope always finds a place to sprout through.

For a more practical example, think of a rainbow after a storm, or how a forest fire can be regenerative. (In the case of the forest fire process, at first glance, it seems to destroy everything in its path, but what's going on underneath the surface, is that the heat of the fire is actually what activates the melting of the coating of the serotinously-covered seeds in the very plants the fire is burning down in its destruction, and that heat and that force catapults and scatters those seeds into the earth around it, so, in the end, the very element that seemed to destroy the vegetation and the life in the forest, actually, through and in its burning process, activated the release of new seeds and new life in its wake. Even in destruction, new life springs forth.)
I hope that however you have been hurt or are hurting heals, and that you don't stop believing in yourself. I'm just letting you know right now, that none of us on this board are going to treat this process as if everything is effed and there's no hope at all. We're a tenacious bunch, and if you'd like to join us, awesome. If not, I mean, there's no other way to say it, but you're truly just wasting your time on here, because we're not going to entertain or engage with your premise that all is effed when it comes to MFA processes.
I hope you choose to hope, and to have faith in yourself. Sometimes, it doesn't turn out how we expected, but how do you know something better isn't right around the corner, something that may have never been possible if your past plans had succeeded in the interim? 
I hope you have a nice day, marshall/frock, and I hope you don't give up. You're worth more than despair, and so are the rest of us on this forum as well.
Best of luck. ❤️