DeepSyntax

Just noticing that there doesn't seem to be any Michener fiction activity either here or on Facebook. Possibly the acceptances are so few that there's no overlap. Interesting. @ Mr Shakey - congrats on the move! Seems like someone posted about a Poetry acceptance from IWW on the Facebook group just today. However it's not clear whether they are done notifying for any genre yet. They also do waitlists via snail mail so could take a while.

For anyone keeping track, a fiction applicant posted that Brooklyn College had requested an interview via email.

I went from optimistic to hopes demolished in record speed ;_;

Last year looks like Michener notified on Fri 2/26 so tomorrow could very well be the day...

There has been nothing from Michener in any genre... unless you are saying you heard back?

Yeah, I felt this as well. I would expect there to be at least one other round of notifications before March. But it's not impossible that everyone was notified and only a few posted. There are definitely folks who get accepted on there who don't say anything. But it's unlikely that there are that many.

Maybe copium but Iowa tends to snail mail waitlists and rejections. So if you don’t hear this week hope is not lost. You’ll just have to wait another month.

In the comments of the fully funded poetry acceptance at NYU, someone says they received one for fiction as well. Maybe the funded calls are going out today.

In all seriousness they do seem to spread notifications over the course of a week or so, looking at last year’s MFA Draft, some on the 24, then the 26 and then the 28. Though I will say starting the process on a Friday afternoon is both conspicuous and little cruel. Though of course after I posted this two more people posted that they received calls.

Heavy is the head that wears the first Iowa acceptance

Found the troll

Hello, another year two here! I think you choose what is better written, period. The sci-fi elements should not be an impediment if the writing is as strong as "literary" fiction. If that is your very best, most developed material, use it. It's really impossible to predict who responds to what, so you cannot reverse engineer a writing sample based on what you think will improve your chances.

I was in a similar situation and chose to decline. I looked at the amount of money I would have to borrow from myself (from my own / my spouse's liquid savings) as well as the loans I would have to take out. Even if you got a $20,000 annual fellowship, that would still be $50,000 a year, $100,000 total. Paying out of pocket seems difficult unless you have a lot of cash on hand. If you were making $70,000 after tax and paying $30,000 annual for rent / food / utilities, you'd still not be able to afford it. That's assuming you keep working full time. In a vacuum, I guess I would ask you if the price is worth it to you, as though you were gauging buying a car or a house. You might as well be taking out a mortgage. The consensus from instructors and students in the program seemed to be that you could work part time (20 hrs / week) but probably not full time. Make sure to use a debt calculator with accurate interest included so you know what you are paying in interest as well as the principle for the repayment period. Not sure what your deadline is or if it passed already but those are my two cents. I would love to go if I had the money, but just about any other program in the city is probably going to cost much less to achieve similar ends.

Hi, I think I saw your post on draft. I'll respond here. In spite of the unkillable troll on this board, I find the people on draft weirdly more aggressive when it comes to Columbia. In the info session, I think the Columbia admin said something like they wanted the essay to be "deeply nonacademic" and they wanted to know "what makes you the most excited" about the book while seeing you "address the text in a voice that feels authentic to you." I tried to look at it like coming up with a creative metaphor for a book you really like. I also tried to choose a book that feels significant but still speaks to my particular reading niche: a short, somewhat surreal book published in translation that had won a major prize in its country of origin. I write literary fiction, and it felt like the book I chose for my response piece was a bit different than the pieces I submitted. They did mention that the sample and the response essay were the most important components of the submission, so it's good that you are thinking about it! For the other troll victims on this board thinking about Columbia, I kind of think the "chosen one" stuff they espouse is B.S. By and large Columbia is very stingy with funding, so even the "top candidates" are getting what amounts to small discounts. Columbia is an academic brand, and if it weren't perceived to be worth the money they wouldn't get away with charging so much. If you live in Ohio and work at Starbucks it looks like a ton of money. If you live in New York (or another major urban center) and work in media, it doesn't seem quite as crazy. At the end of the day, your employer, agent or publisher won't care if your program was funded or not. It's about the work you do and who you know. It's ironic to see people sit around on these internet boards all day trying to tear down other posters for considering Columbia and preying on insecurities about money, talent etc. Just seems like the ultimate sour grapes. I mean it in the nicest possible way when I say: Get a life!

I was recently accepted to Columbia as well, and for what it's worth the person I was speaking to didn't mention a scholarship at all, so I'm just waiting for the admissions packet. So if you got one that's certainly something. Probably doesn't address the core problem of 40k versus 60k, but I would still be proud of that. I don't know what this poster above (with 0 reputation) is getting out of trashing these programs. I'm about as cynical as you can get when it comes to institutions like NYU or Columbia. But it is simply inaccurate to say that they run "open" admissions. They are among the most highly visible and famous programs of their kind in the world, and so while the classes may be larger than state schools where you have 3 to 12 admits, you have to factor in the fact that they are getting many more applications than, say, a Hopkins or a Wyoming. The international attendance at Columbia's virtual open house was crazy compared to Hunter's. It's a real brand. I may not be able to afford the tuition but clearly someone is paying for it. Sure, Columbia won't compete with funded programs, but really this board's entire discussion is predicated on the fact that there are great writers who don't get admitted everywhere, or anywhere. For every person who gets into Iowa, Amherst, Michener and Columbia (and therefore has the luxury of choice) there is a great writer who only gets into Columbia. I promise I don't normally lick institutional boots like this. Columbia is a messed up school. So is NYU. So are most places when you look at them holistically. But that doesn't change how we can choose to feel about the admissions results.