SteveHolt

Just received the phone call for University of Florida! Very surprising as after eight rejections I had emotionally prepared for applying again next year. Anyways, they said they're only accepting two fiction and two poetry applicants this year, so I'm posting on the off chance that anyone here has attended and can answer questions about the program, or if any of my fellow acceptees are here.

My god, all of your opinions are cringe. Do you even apply for these MFAs? Surely a writer would be able to come up with an opinion that isn't as absurdly reductionist as "why expect to get money when some people are starving?"

I was rejected as well Cowboys we are not

Based on admissions reports for other schools, most of the time acceptances are sent out all at once or over the course of a few days. But you never know for sure until you receive a rejection, there are plenty of exceptions.

No, poetry responses have come out, but I have not received nor have I heard of anyone else receiving fiction responses for phase 2.

I think most college towns are pretty similar in that if you have an academically focused family (like I did, and many do as children of UO faculty) then it's pretty much standard that the child will look somewhere else for undergrad because UO isn't very prestigious in that regard. And those places are usually all over, quite far away. I went to NYC for school and I've stayed here since, and don't know anyone that's moved back to the Eug after graduation. I think it's also because Eugene has such a progressive, hippy/outdoorsman culture. We grew up with people like Ken Kesey and Phil Knight and loggers and like even Christopher McCandless as our local heros. So there's a sense of eccentrism and adventure that's important to the culture there, so I know a some people who left to travel the world or become full time rock climbers. I haven't lived there for over five years so I can't really say how that culture is changing. I think real-estate prices have been rising steadily for a while as it becomes a 'cooler' town; people moving from Portland for a smaller but similar taste of Oregon weirdness. It definitely is somewhat undiverse, only small Latino and other non-white communities, and that probably is not changing considering the Portland-Eugene migration. But overall it's a good place for instilling a hippy-progressive-academic sensibility in kids, and I have a lot of nostalgia for it. Also congrats! I applied to Mississippi for fiction. So in some distant, unlikely universe we'll be cohort buds

Can confirm; I grew up in Eugene. Other than being a little college-towney, it is a very nice place to start a family (especially if you like outdoor sports). I was happy to grow up there, although it is the type of place that kids are driven to leave as adults, as me and my brother and most people I know did.