Thunderroad12
-
Posts
10 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Posts posted by Thunderroad12
-
-
3 minutes ago, retrotyping said:
Any chance you applied to UNCG, VA tech, or WVU and can subject them to your impatient neuroses?? Lol
Sorry, Notre Dame is the only other one I’m waiting on and they haven’t responded to my begging yet.
Cowards!!! But I kid, I kid. Unless they don’t like weakness . . .
-
Continuing my notifications stemming from my own impatient neuroses—I just heard from NC State that they haven’t sent out all admissions notifications yet. They plan to notify all applicants by early April (!). This is per Shervon Cassim, the Assistant Director for their MFA program. I applied for the fiction track, so I’m uncertain if this applies to all tracks, but the email I just received implies that to be the case.
…
……
………
I’d like to find whoever said no news is good news and kick him right in the dick. But I’m fine.
-
Just FYI for anyone applied to the fiction track for Johns Hopkins:
They have contacted all waitlisted and accepted applicants and if you’re not in that group, then you’re on the rejected list. Formal notifications tho that effect will be going out soon. I don’t know about other tracks for certain, but I got the sense that was the case for them too. This is directly from James Arthur (Director of Graduate Studies).
Full disclosure—I didn’t get in or get waitlisted. I’m just an impatient pain in the ass who wrote an email yesterday and got that response this morning. Sincere empathy to those who share my pain. Jealous congratulations to those who got good news. -
7 minutes ago, koep said:
@Ydrl, do we really need another announcement that you turned down Florida? Of course, you’re just trying to help, but that makes three posts in a row where you rub in that you’re going to Iowa, while the rest of us are going to crappier places or no place at all.
Really? I’m hoping this whining comes from a place of jealousy rather than an ongoing character flaw on your part. I’ve been rejected by 10 schools this cycle. It sucks. It hurts. But I’m so happy that I can see someone else get into one of the top places in the world, which seems nearly impossible. That makes it seem not quite as impossible for me next cycle. Take that jealous energy and use it to better yourself and maybe you will get into Iowa next cycle. Trying to knock someone else down doesn’t make you taller. Be better.
- fireflystasis, Ydrl, MDP and 2 others
-
5
-
30 minutes ago, a1a said:
@Thunderroad12 , if you search a bit through Draft, you’ll find veterans making the claim that Adcoms often say 80% of applicants to fully funded programs are rejected after one page of their sample. The samples aren't following conventions of literary fiction, and you don’t need a lot of words to figure that out. If you look at the writing samples @koechophe has posted here, for instance, you will notice after one page that 50% of his words are for explaining.
Under the test, you take the last six fiction stories from the New Yorker. You mix that in with two stories from the applicant. You ask anyone, no matter how illiterate, to seek the two odd men out. If they pick your two stories, that means your stories don’t follow contemporary conventions from literary fiction. You are in the 80%. You don’t need to wait with baited breach for your admit decisions. You’ve basically been told by your high school guidance counselor that your B grade point average can’t get you into Harvard. So you apply to non-fully funded programs, or read more and apply next year. The test does not work for experimental fiction.
Some people here don’t like the test. They say it is too discouraging. They say the status quo, where most people wait with baited breath to get rejected everywhere is preferable. But the test really works. @mrvisser would have passed it.
@neche, it is no work at all. I write quickly. Editing, I do slowly, but I don't do real editing here.
Thanks for the explanation. I saw reference to it, but couldn’t find the genesis.
-
14 minutes ago, a1a said:
The New Yorker test has lately been getting a bad rap around here. It usually happens through a straw man argument. Take what @koechophe just posted: “They were wrong about me. They were wrong about @mrvisserand @Ydrl too. Remember that if you're ever tempted to let the troll's discouraging comments get to you.”
The New Yorker test doesn’t purport to predict with perfect reliability every admission decision. The test predicts only one thing: are you in the 80% of applicants that are rejected to every fully funded program after one page of your writing sample?
@mrvisser was probably accepted to UC Irvine, but he never posted a writing for the New Yorker test. @ydrl got into Iowa, but she never posted a writing. @koechophe posted a writing, but his program isn’t fully funded. The New Yorker test does not address that school.
The test serves an important purpose. When you apply to college, the guidance counselor can tell you that your B average rules out Harvard. The New Yorker test serves the same function for fully funded programs. If you fail the test, you can either apply to non-fully funded programs, or read more and wait till next year. Disproving the New Yorker test with false evidence profits no one.
I’m probably going to regret this, but can anyone enlighten me? What is the New Yorker test?
-
10 hours ago, freddyfazbear said:
with tomorrow being President's Day should we still expect schools to send out notifications? most American schools aren't even taking the day off tomorrow so i'm keeping my fingers crossed-- especially with us approaching the window of cornell/syracuse/etc (from recent years)
Apparently not, as I just got a rejection from University of Wisconsin-Madison. They do work holidays!
2023 Creative Writing MFA Applicants Forum
in Literary
Posted · Edited by Thunderroad12
This is low-hanging fruit, but the best book on writing I've read is George Saunders' A Swim in a Pond in the Rain. It is related to a course he teaches at Syracuse on the four great Russian story writers--Tolstoy, Chekov, Gogol, and Turgenev. It is wonderful and funny and fantastic to read whether or not you want to write stories, but especially fantastic and funny and wonderful if you want to write stories.
Another book that's not as obvious is by Stephen King. It's called On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. A professor of mine assigned that as part of a class in undergrad, and I sneered at the author's name and then read it all in a day and a half. It's a wonderful book and inspired me to write every single day. A paragraph or a novella, but every single day.
As far as a podcast, there's this guy named Jared McCormack who does interviews with students at various MFA programs around the country, and has a special episode here and there--one with George Saunders, for example. The episodes are usually about an hour, but well done and informative. The title is simply MFA Writers. I hope this helps and that you find what you're looking for, and good luck to you this MFA cycle. If you are a fiction writer, I sincerely hope you are the second best applicant at everywhere I applied.
While I'm here--to milken--I am genuinely curious as to where you applied and your actual thoughts on your own hopes or chances of getting in somewhere. Without calling you names or going overboard on your pessimism, I'm more curious if you could turn that looking glass on yourself and offer a dispassionate assessment of your work and chances of getting into a top flight, or even not so top flight, MFA program? I'd be curious to read your introspection and hope you oblige me. Thanks!