cosmictones

The troll is mostly right about acceptance rates and the cost of an MFA not being worth it. If you have trust fund, go to Columbia learn poetry from Timothy Donnelly! If you're just a regular person, it's wiser to not go into a ton of debt and only apply to fully funded places (maybe 1 or 2 partially funded if you are desperate to get the degree and have a shot at full funding). Don't bury yourself in unmanageable debt. You have to be able to live to make your art. The job market for writers is not great, but most of us are all doing this because we care about making good art, not getting the highest paying job. This is not meant to discourage anyone. You should keep applying, keep working on your stuff, keep submitting to journals, etc. Just, you know, go to the place that is best suited for your situation. Don't be so consumed with getting the degree anywhere right away.

Thanks! I got a Carhart so I guess I'm good to go.

Just got accepted to Idaho for poetry off the waitlist! Pretty stoked. Still waitlisted at Houston. Anyone have thoughts on Idaho? I know it's not the most prestigious program, but the profs are super accomplished and it seems like they have a top ten pedigree in terms of poets getting published in Best American poetry and getting Pushcart Prizes. I know that only tells part of the story, but it's an encouraging part.

Congrats! You should email them and ask and make it clear you will go if accepted. I'm on 3 waitlists right now. It sucks but we can make it!

This is off topic, but does anyone know if writer's conferences are worth attending? I got into Looking Glass Rock that I randomly applied to on Submittable. No scholarship, but I could afford it if it's gonna do something a regular workshop through Lighthouse or whatever wouldn't. Anyone know anything about this?

I feel like Houston is like rejecting a couple people every few days just to mess with me.

Seriously, what is up with Houston?

Where are these ranking numbers coming from anyway? No one has developed a generally accepted ranking system for MFA programs as far as I know. Columbia is expensive, it's an ivy, people go there, not me though, who cares, this is boring.

@cecsav No it's on the bottom haha, can't accept if I don't get an TA job. Hadara was basically the only reason I applied. Georgia sucks, I didn't apply anywhere in the southeast other than Mississippi because it was free. Waitlisted a couple good places so hopefully one of those comes through if a TAship doesnt happen.

@cecsav yeah that sounds right. we just keep waiting

me! no I talked with Whitney Terrell and he said probably middle of march

Just got waitlisted at Idaho for poetry! and so the waiting continues...

I haven't gotten anything yet and my portal isn't updated. Just reject me already guys! I wasn't even going to apply to ND and then I had a dream I got in so I applied. Now I'm starting to think I don't have prophetic visions or something.

yeah, the letter said funding news comes in a separate letter. rude.

ME TOO! What genre? NVM just saw poetry too, awesome.

I talked about Rae Armantrout, Charles Simic, James Merrill, and Elaine Equi. All my mentors said to keep the influence stuff (although one said not to mention Armantrout lol). Thought about adding Terrance Hayes because I was worried about not having a BIPOC on the list, but felt like I could talk more about those four. Still kind of kicking myself over it, so many app regrets.

Yeah I read similar stuff, but all my profs/mentors were like "include your publications," so I did. I got one piece in a top 30 mag, but the rest were published in very low tier places. Of course, I haven't gotten any acceptances yet so maybe it did screw me.

Excuse me sir, this is a McDonald's.

nah dude we just hadn't fucked in a couple days, now I'm fine. thanks for the cold hard facts of life though lol.

I've reached peak bitchyness from constantly checking Draft and app statuses, Ohio State rejection, and nothing from Illinois or Boise. Last night my wife was like "are you going to be like this forever?" Damn I hope not.

Totally, if I had the money to go to NYU or Columbia I would have applied. Plenty of really talented people go there and the faculty seem great. The post I responded to just asked if fully funded programs were harder to get into.

More or less. Places like NYU and Columbia have tons of spots available. Most fully funded programs have 8-12 spots. Most people don't have parents with tons of money and/or don't enjoy having a job while doing grad school so fully funded programs tend to get more applications.

Someone in the Draft Facebook Group got accepted to Illinois, but yeah seems like OSU is the first to send out acceptances to a bunch of people. Ohio State is fully funded; that's always a big deal.

yeah dude a couple poetry people have been saying they got acceptances.

After seeing 2 people get accepted in the Draft I'm already looking up resources to help my application for next year. Then I get a poem accepted for publication in a small online journal and I feel like there is hope. Then I realize UNLV's application was due Jan 15th, but I thought it was Feb 1st and I realize I'm an idiot again. Man, the next few months are gonna suck.