catastroph

When I said something along those lines earlier, I was coming from the perspective of a first time applicant and thinking very specifically about my own samples and SOP. I just meant now that I know more about the process, I don't think my application was very strong this year. I didn't mean to sound pessimistic overall-- it's definitely not over until it's over when it comes to hearing back! Obviously I'd be thrilled to get into one of my pending schools, but it's been helpful to treat this like a learning experience rather than a failed attempt so far Congrats on the publication!

I'd be down for sure. I have a local group (which is really fun), but everyone there is interested in hobby writing, not an MFA. It would be really nice to see what other people are considering for writing samples and SOPs specifically. I've already learned a lot after finding this thread. Even though I'm still waiting to hear back from 8 schools, I've pretty much emotionally moved on for this round. I'm totally rethinking my samples and actually feeling motivated to redo everything now that I have a better sense of what I'm aiming for.

I worked my way through all James Baldwin's fiction and now I guess I'm on to Baldwin's recommendations-- I'm reading City of Night by John Rechy and really enjoying it. I'm thinking I'll only read non-MFA writers for the next while to keep my writing dreams alive, lol ? (Rechy applied to a writing program at Columbia and was not admitted! Baldwin did not attend college!)

I also figured I might as well say hi to you all, since I'm refreshing this page every 20 minutes or so during work anyway! This is my first time applying and my confidence is pretty low after reading through this forum (I found it last week) and seeing how competitive things are. But I also decided to apply last-minute, so I'll be ok either way. If I don't get into any, it was definitely a learning experience for future attempts. The only school I applied to that has sent out results so far is University of Oregon. I didn't hear anything, so I'm scratching it off my list. Nine left to go! Glad this forum is here, bc I'm trying not to rant to my friends too much-- I'm sure they're all sick of hearing me talk about it. But this process is so all-consuming. Anyway, thanks for all your posts. It's nice to help pass the time when there's nothing to do now but wait.