Jjayy

CONGRATS

I can't believe this, but I just got my first acceptance. I got an email from the University of Maryland, with details of TAship. I am so happy. My heart is pounding its way out of my chest right now. I'm shaking and crying, and my heart won't stop pounding. I can't believe it happened. I am so overjoyed, I can barely type, or move, or breathe. I am so happy. It feels unreal.

Hi! I've been really in it the past week or so, processing some rejections and the possibility of things not working out this cycle. This forum has been helpful--so many of you are knowledgeable and compassionate people.
I just got accepted to Sarah Lawrence for Fiction. I'm happy to have an acceptance, but not sure about practicality / funding yet. 
Glad to have you all to go through the rest of this process with!
- mess

I JUST GOT INTO SARAH LAWRENCE !!!!!

First acceptance! Sarah Lawrence, Poetry. Lovely, warm phone call from Paige-Ackerson Kiely. She mentioned that AWP is this week and that they were generally swamped, but that next week would be more clear. Makes sense that other programs might also be experiencing delays due to AWP.
Anyone have experience with Sarah Lawrence and/or Bronxville? Long ago, I dated a guy whose Mom lived in Westchester. It was beautiful, but tony and filled with a lot of white people (don't get me wrong, some of my best friends -- also me; although my birthfather is from Bolivia; but I currently work with uber-rich white people and I'm pretty over it). I wonder about cost of living, especially since the program is only partially funded. Would love any insights about the program or the area.
Thanks so much for letting me hang with y'all here in GradCafe. I would be feeling insane right now without your generous sharing.

as someone who only just joined Draft somewhat recently, I'll quickly pass on what others said to me—don't worry too much about getting accepted into the group in the meanwhile, it can take a few weeks to get approved because of how many requests they get etc!
Here's, to the best of my knowledge, all the current info about these schools that I've seen (apologies in advance if any of this is outdated, others pls feel free to correct or add on!) 
UVA: a student indicated that acceptances should go out by email sometime in early-mid March, with rejections and waitlists following later.  Brown: as some others have posted here, there's some possibly sus reports on results for a single poetry admission and several rejections, but everyone on Draft is of the consensus that these may be fake, as no one else has reported any news.  NYU has made several calls to candidates accepted with major fellowships, but it's atm unclear if or when more acceptances/waitlists will be going out. It sounds like frequently people hear back all the way through April (though that can go for lots of programs!)  No news on Columbia (yet!) Several Michener and NWP decisions have gone out to my knowledge, though I don't believe all have so I'll be holding onto that hope for ya in the meanwhile ❤️  Quite a lot of other programs seem to begin with poetry admissions, and at the very least it seems like fiction and poetry don't always inform about decisions at the same time, so it's worth keeping that in mind if you start to see acceptances coming from the other genres at any of the above schools!

Well, after feeling demoralized by my rejections from Cornell and Syracuse, and by radio silence from Iowa, I got a very nice email acceptance, including a graduate teaching assistantship, for poetry at VCU. I'm thrilled. Their funding's not as good as the other places I applied, but their faculty and journal and location made it one of my top choices. I'm wishing you all tremendous luck as the rest of this cycle plays out. 

Syracuse-Helen Zell-Rutgers-Iowa-Michener-and now I can't think of programs beginning with P... Pittsburgh? 

The shrimp thing is great ? and the person seems very genuine - I believe they are just having their work noticed by great programs! I do not  think they are trolling.

Nope haha, nice use of schools in your answer though.

Ahh I stopped obsessively carrying my phone everywhere because I had given up hope but then I go and MISS an acceptance call! I got into University of San Fransisco guys! I'm not so sure about funding yet so I'm still on the fence, but I got an incredibly kind and validating voicemail from Laleh Khadivi so I'm going to celebrate ☺️

Syracuse-Helen Zell-Rutgers-Iowa-Michener-and now I can't think of programs beginning with P... Pittsburgh? 

I got into Temple for fiction!

Congrats!!! 
And hi everyone, friendly reminder, it's March! You've made through February

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

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. 

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!

Hello all, I've been lurking for a while. Thought I'd say hi and give my wishes to everyone applying this cycle. Good luck!

Like everyone else, I'm anxiously waiting on Iowa and U-Wash Seattle, seeing as there have been a few results for those this past week. I've been smashing that refresh button on the results page even though I know what matters is the e-mail... I keep worrying when I see a missed call on my phone, even though it's unlikely any school would reach out to me via call since I live far from the US.

Also I haven't been able to write anything for a month since sending my last app—anyone else have this problem? I keep looking at drafts I haven't touched in ages and tabbing away.
 

For those of us who are staring down a possible clean sweep of rejections this year and want to prepare for next season, would any fiction kids be willing to form a critique group? Thoughts are that it would either be over zoom (traditional workshop-style) or maybe just laid back exchange of google docs over email.

Nobody is censoring those thoughts; it's just that those thoughts are well known by virtually anyone who's spent any time at all thinking about getting an MFA seriously. Pointing out something that everyone knows isn't helpful. It's just harping on basic information that's being presented in the most negative way possible.
For example, yes it's true that Columbia does not offer full funding and that paying their full tuition is very expensive. Is it also true that only a fool would go to Columbia? No. That is an opinion, not a fact. It also assumes that everyone will have to pay full price, or that any specific individual could not afford to pay that very expensive cost.
I didn't apply to Columbia even though it's within walking distance from my home because of the costs. However, I did apply to NYU even though NYU similarly doesn't offer full funding. I decided that it was worth applying to NYU despite the low odds that I could afford to attend because there are not many schools available to me that offer full funding and I wanted to increase the possibility that I would be able to grad school next year.
Result? I have been accepted to NYU with full funding and a stipend.
It was very unlikely that this would happen, but it did.
If I listened to your "truths" I would have cost myself a tremendous opportunity.
Just because something is unlikely doesn't make it impossible. Unlikely things happen, and any honest assessment acknowledges that actual fact.
Negativity and honestly are not the same thing.
I will continue to encourage people to pursue their dreams and passions and I still give them the respect to assume they understand that doing so comes with the risk of disappointment.

I've been keeping track of the Iowa notifications and I hate myself for having gotten to this point, but, so far, it's:
- 2 acceptances in Draft 
- 1 on GradCafe (from one person referenced above from Draft)
- 2 on Twitter 
- 2 that I'm not sure about because the info didn't come directly from the applicants: one comes from someone who said that their friend received an email from Iowa and another was someone on Twitter congratulating their friend who got in. 
That's all I've seen. 

I've been keeping track of the Iowa notifications and I hate myself for having gotten to this point, but, so far, it's:
- 2 acceptances in Draft 
- 1 on GradCafe (from one person referenced above from Draft)
- 2 on Twitter 
- 2 that I'm not sure about because the info didn't come directly from the applicants: one comes from someone who said that their friend received an email from Iowa and another was someone on Twitter congratulating their friend who got in. 
That's all I've seen. 

I've been keeping track of the Iowa notifications and I hate myself for having gotten to this point, but, so far, it's:
- 2 acceptances in Draft 
- 1 on GradCafe (from one person referenced above from Draft)
- 2 on Twitter 
- 2 that I'm not sure about because the info didn't come directly from the applicants: one comes from someone who said that their friend received an email from Iowa and another was someone on Twitter congratulating their friend who got in. 
That's all I've seen. 

Iowa takes in like 50 students each year. That's a lot of notifications to send out, a lot of calls to make, and, so far, there is one post indicating acceptance on GradCafe and two posts in Drafts. I know the chances are slim, but here's to hoping that not all of those IWW calls went out today, and some more are due to go out tomorrow.

I'm a little bit afraid to ask, but has anyone heard anything about Iowa poetry acceptances beyond "someone I know got an email" on Draft?