lunch

Will a video of the panel be posted online for those unable to attend?

Northwestern's program is also a dual MFA+MA.

I can't help with where the schools you listed fall, but two schools I'm surprised don't come up more given that they're fully funded and have (at least in poetry) well-known people are North Carolina State University and Purdue.

Yeah, those are two exciting programs. Being able to work with Natalie Diaz and Solmaz Sharif sounds like a dream, but Alabama giving support for four years is fantastic, and would give more time to work. This isn't helpful at all to you!, but that's just to say that those are two great programs, and I'm sure either choice will be fantastic.

I also get these Chinese language phone calls, and they use number spoofing so that even after I block them, they just call from a different number. A few weeks ago, I got a call from a Syracuse area code, and my heart truly skipped a beat, and then I remembered that I didn't apply to Syracuse. (The acceptance call I did get was from a different state than the school is in; presumably, it was the cell phone of the professor who called me.)

I'll be sad about Brown with you. ? I do want to emphasize your point about a program not being the place for you. Obviously, I'd love to have been accepted into Brown (and part of what stings about a rejection is that in writing your SOP and looking up all these places, you sort of fantasize about attending the school and living in whatever city), but I can also honestly say that having read the work of their poetry faculty, the poetry I've written and the themes I've been interested in and their more theoretical, academic poetry don't particularly overlap. It's hard not to take the rejection hard, especially when it comes with that Ivy name, but I also know that there are candidates who would gel better with their style than I would. I'm still waiting on one other program, but of the six(ish) programs I've heard back from, the one I got into has a gay faculty member whose work was foundational to me when I first encountered it. I spent my last three years of workshops trying to carve out my own sort of queer poetry in classes that had no insight into the culture or its literature, and it always felt like I was sort of working in the dark, with little sense of how my work would actually land for the virtual audience I was writing for. And while I didn't get into any of the big name programs I applied to, it's incredibly validating to have the one acceptance I have received be from a poet who's working in the space I want to be in. That faculty member is a great fit for the kind of writing I want to develop, and I have a much better chance of being a good fit for that program. I know the idea of not fitting with a program often sounds like a euphemistic way to try and kindly reject someone, but I do also believe it's true, and I hope that we all remember that just because our work might not be right for a specific program and might not speak to the admissions committees of various schools, that can be as much a reflection of their whims and fancies and obsessions and biases as it is a reflection of your work.

Hm, still nothing. This is the error: "It may have been removed or the person who shared it may not have permission to share it to this location." It's possible that the forum doesn't actually allow people to share attachments? You might need to upload it to something like Dropbox or Google Drive.

Unfortunately, it doesn't look like I'm able to view the attachment -- GradCafe says I don't have permission or that the file is unavailable.

There oughta be a law.

I assume it's the little envelope icon in the top right hand corner? https://forum.thegradcafe.com/messenger/

I think you might be on the ApplyTexas site. You want to look at your MyStatus page: https://admissions.utexas.edu/mystatus

Congrats! The program seems great, and we love a win.

I'm assuming that Brown and UW are finished with their poetry acceptances, so I've been eagerly awaiting hearing from Purdue, after which point I'll be more or less done. I'm really hoping they send out decisions soon -- all this late notifying isn't good for my health.

Going off previous years, it does seem like Michener's portal notifies people based on their last name, so people whose last names start with A get their portals updated first, and so on. It looks like the last name Ydrl has on their application and my last name both start with the same letter (F), so it's also possible the portal updates are still rolling out, especially given that there isn't an email notification for anyone yet.

Fingers crossed for you, but the rejections weren't emailed out; they only changed the status on people's applicant portals.

Thank you to everyone who showed their work; I'm always curious about what other MFA applicants' writing looks like, and I loved looking at it all. I'm still waiting on some journal submissions. I submitted a few poems three or four months before applying to MFA programs in hopes that an acceptance from a journal would help my chances, but the few I applied to turned me down. I've now been so caught up in MFA apps that I've sort of forgotten about submitting to journals altogether.

Look at me, hearing this news and not throwing up or anything!

Holy shit, congrats!

I don't have any input on the programs, but congrats on getting two acceptances for fully funded programs, especially this year. That's awesome.

Oh gosh, sorry to hear that; I'm surprised that rejections aren't all sent out at once. Best of luck with the rest of your programs.

I saw that too and also checked my portal. Still says I'm in review. I assume whoever posted the rejection mixed up Michener and the NWP.

I would hope that wouldn't be a problem (although some of my worst experiences have been in places thought to be liberal). I do think many people assume Las Vegas to be more progressive than it is, largely because their experience is shaped by the tourist culture (although that's changing as more and more left-leaning transplants move to the city), but I would put Las Vegas more in the "maybe someone silently staring at you while trying to be inconspicuous" camp than the "someone shouting at you" camp. There isn't a queer bookstore, although I think that's sadly pretty common now, but there are gay bars, and as someone who is fairly sensitive to feeling unwelcome in predominantly straight spaces, I feel pretty comfortable. I'm sure UNLV will also be good in that regard. Also, I imagine you know this from looking at their MFA program, but UNLV and The Believer have really tried to create a literary community that certainly wasn't here while I was growing up. I'm back in the city after spending a long time away at undergrad, and I wasn't able to go to the last Believer Festival because of Coronavirus, but it's exciting to see that kind of progress be made as well.

Congrats on the acceptance! It's funny to learn about programs only after I've already applied and am waiting to receive decisions, but I just looked up the program and it sounds fantastic. I don't know about anyone else, but especially with the possibility that the fall 2021 semester will be virtual/hybrid, three year programs are looking more and more appealing.

I didn't attend UNLV, but I'm a gay man who grew up in Las Vegas and currently lives here, so if you have any questions about the city, I'd be happy to answer them to the best of my ability.

You're my favorite person for doing this. I was just looking at previous decision dates this morning.