Ash...

Got into The New School with a 75% scholarship. I’m so happy and excited. Good luck to everyone and remember an MFA program does not define your success or ability! 

Thank you! And yes, for fiction:)

Got into The New School with a 75% scholarship. I’m so happy and excited. Good luck to everyone and remember an MFA program does not define your success or ability! 

Got into The New School with a 75% scholarship. I’m so happy and excited. Good luck to everyone and remember an MFA program does not define your success or ability! 

Got into The New School with a 75% scholarship. I’m so happy and excited. Good luck to everyone and remember an MFA program does not define your success or ability! 

Got into The New School with a 75% scholarship. I’m so happy and excited. Good luck to everyone and remember an MFA program does not define your success or ability! 

Got into The New School with a 75% scholarship. I’m so happy and excited. Good luck to everyone and remember an MFA program does not define your success or ability! 

Thank you! And yes, for fiction:)

Got into The New School with a 75% scholarship. I’m so happy and excited. Good luck to everyone and remember an MFA program does not define your success or ability! 

Got into The New School with a 75% scholarship. I’m so happy and excited. Good luck to everyone and remember an MFA program does not define your success or ability! 

When did you hear from NYU? Also CONGRATS 

Hey Everyone!
I just wanted to say I will be attending University of New Hampshire's MFA Creative Writing program in the fall! If any of you are as well I would love to say hi!

Hi! I got an acceptance and a scholarship. If you are chosen for funding then it comes up as an extra letter in the admissions portal. Congrats on getting in!

Hi friends! LONG POST INCOMING. I hope it is helpful.
Some weeks back I mentioned that my institution has one final-year student in each genre join the admissions committee and review incoming apps. I got to review incoming fiction applications. I'm very grateful for the behind-the-scenes view I got of the admissions process. This week we finally had our meeting to finalize our list of offers (it was a 3-hour meeting). I wanted to offer some advice and share some observations for anyone applying again next cycle. 
As a note, of course no advice will be universal. Every department and every writer is different. There is no surefire way to guarantee admission to a program. These are just things I've realized as an MFA student/adcom member and wished I knew before applying. 
Your writing sample is the most important thing. I think people have been told this already, but I want to emphasis this point. Your CV is not as important. Of course, it might not hurt to have a flourishing CV, but having more publications and experience in literature/writing won't mean much if your writing sample doesn't stand out from the bunch. The CV was the last thing we looked at in applications.  
Perfect and polished work isn't always the best. It sounds a bit weird -- I know. Of course, you should send what you are confident in. But ultimately, you are meant to grow stronger as a writer in an MFA program. If your writing sample doesn't show that you would benefit from graduate school, then some profs in admissions question what they would even be able to teach you. Think about whether you would benefit from workshop and formal education. The most excited manuscripts to read (which we all agreed on unanimously) were the ones that did something interesting and were kind of rough around the edges. This might not be the case for institutions that value something different than ours, but it is important to us that writers can really grow and get something out of our program. We weren't as excited about people who sent by-the-books "perfect" stories. The writing was great, but it was hard to picture these applicants in a workshop. This is difficult because we always want to submit the best work possible to programs. But to the admissions committees, this sample is all they can use to determine if you would benefit from graduate school. This is something I didn't think about until I was behind the scenes. I noticed myself much less interested in pieces that were perfect. Everyone on the committee was excited about the possibilities for growth they saw in a manuscript and for the successful risk takers that tried something interesting that surprised them. (Again, though, every program and committee will be different)  
The mindset behind reviewing MFA apps is very different from the mindset behind reviewing litmag submissions. Luckily, I have years of experience reading for litmags. In that scenario, you want to find the polished, well-written, balanced stories that don't need as much work. The ones that are ready for publication. The mindset is different when reviewing writing samples for MFA apps. We generally were interested in innovative forms/perspectives/styles that would greatly benefit from years of workshop and formal education.   
You do not need an MFA from a highly-ranked program. You do not need the shortest program possible. Look at funding and program fit before anything else!  Really think about why you want an MFA. Hopefully you want it because you want to become a stronger writer and work with a community of other writers. Maybe there is a faculty member at the institution you're applying to that you really admire and want to work with. Maybe you want it to pursue a teaching career in creative writing. These are all great reasons to me. But if you just want the MFA to have the MFA, chances are you will make the wrong choices when it comes to which programs to apply to. You might get accepted to these places and not feel fulfilled. When I was first applying to MFAs in 2017, I was really interested in the big-name schools that would make me feel accomplished and important on paper. And I was really interested in the shortest programs possible. I think big-name schools are still worth applying to, of course, if you genuinely believe you could thrive and grow in that school's environment then I definitely think you should apply. And I always encourage "aiming high" because why not? But make sure the faculty and culture of that place fit with your goals. And I genuinely can say that most people I know who have MFAs agree on longer, fully-funded programs being the better choice over 1-year ones. After all, you are there to learn and work on a manuscript. If you can get paid for years to really dig into your work, I would take that. 1-year programs might be stressful and overbearing, and you might finish feeling like you were able to grow or absorb any actual information. Having the time and space to experiment and question everything is really valuable. But everyone is different! Maybe you thrive under pressure or you have other commitments and life situations that make shorter programs more ideal. That totally makes sense. No matter what though, please please please look for FUNDING. If you only aim for the most popular programs, your chances for funding are lower. There is a larger applicant pool. That is a fact. Try adding some lesser-known schools with great faculties. They often have a bunch of funding for you and a smaller applicant pool. After all, if your reasoning for getting an MFA is to learn and grow as a writer, then the name of the school shouldn't be what is most important to you. I stand by this fully. And again, I still think its great to try for more famous programs...don't say no for them. AGAIN: This advice may vary by writer, by program, by admissions committee. Nothing is black-and-white. I just found these things to be really important to consider. 
This is a lot of writing lol. I'm sorry for the wall of text. I'm happy to DM anyone who wants to talk more. I am graduating with my MFA (fiction) in May, and I've been accepted into a PhD program for English Lit and Creative Writing for the Fall. I am happy to answer any questions! Good luck!

just got waitlisted at NYU as well, but I don’t think I’m going to stay on it. I’m ready for the stress of ~waiting~ to be over. ☹️

Hi, I was accepted to NYU for fiction. IIRC they accepted 16 in fiction this year. Not sure about other genres or the waitlist (other than what is generally known - they are known to call people off of it later in the year than most). 
Good luck, everyone!

I got into Emerson also for creative non fiction and did have a separate funding letter in my portal. I didn’t get much though. 
 

Just got accepted into Emerson!!

*for Creative Writing.

I was also just waitlisted at NYU for fiction! I lurked the previous draft groups and I couldn't find anything concrete, but it seems like they traditionally keep a long list. I'm not hoping out hope, but imo it's really cool that someone read our work and found merit in it  Congrats!

also waitlisted at nyu for fiction!!! it's the first positive news i've heard but i'm feeling pretty mixed since i wasn't expecting to hear ANY positive news this year....but anyway not getting my hopes up too much. i'm wondering if anyone can point me to any data about how many people they've accepted from waitlists in the past. thank you!!

When I was deciding whether to accept two unfunded + one partially funded offer, I made a spreadsheet calculating the total cost of the degree for both schools. I added up the tuition and estimated living expenses for each city. Then I looked at a loan calculator (this is a simple, decent one) to see how my monthly payments would look post-graduation. I'd recommend doing something similar so you have a full picture of what you're getting into.
Personally, after doing all that, I chose to reapply. I wasn't comfortable taking on debt in this job market. My outlook is that if you're good enough to get in unfunded, you'll probably be good enough for funding next year (assuming you're working hard on your portfolio while you wait).

Hamlet's mom makes some good points here. But for me the test of "good" writing is how long the writing can sustain my interest and what at the moment I'm looking to get out of it (laughs, escape, frisson, distraction, etc.). Under this test, though, I do find myself enjoying a lot of commercial genre fiction that some discerning folk may look down on. But I do agree with the overall idea that good writing involves a kind of rhetorical manipulation of reader by writer and to some extent those rhetorical skills can be measured and judged. 

Guys, what the flying fuck is going on with the rest of the colleges? I haven’t heard from six of them still, how???

This is generally good. "Breathing" is concrete. "Foundational" is unnecessary fluff. "Silent" is concrete. "the Guy" is kinda spunky. "Heart" is concrete. "Brink five or six years ago": be careful about the redemption story; it's a trope. "Long haul" is cliché. Consider "in it so long as I still breath."  Read Flannery O'Connor. Every theme of hers was Christian, but her stories don't preach and have many bad guys. 

Yay!!!! I'm so happy for you!!!! Are you leaning towards one or the other? Also, YOU. ARE. KILLING. IT!!! Woot woot!!
Congrats, Ash!!!! Here is how I feel for you:

 
Happy for y'all, and lehgo March.