lanadelreystan
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Posts
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Posts posted by lanadelreystan
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21 hours ago, lenagator1997 said:
Hey Guys,
This is probably off topic, but has anyone heard anything from University of Cincinnati or Ohio University? I am still waiting to hear back from both on PhD applications.
To those who are still waiting on MFA notifications, good luck to all! I know the process is harrowing. I'm just trying to graduate in one piece from University of New Hampshire! 💙
Applying: PhD in Creative Writing
Applied: 8
Rejected: 5
Accepted 1 University of Binghamton! 💚
Graduating: May 2023 MFA
A PhD in creative writing! Can you speak more to that? I'm not familiar with it and thought the master was the terminal degree? (Congrats on the acceptance!!)
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7 hours ago, shhhh said:
Mine has that paragraph, and also a personal note from Lan Samantha Chang saying I was a finalist--ugh! Not sure how to take that lol. Because I got fully-funded elsewhere, it feels stupid to turn it down to apply again to Iowa. And yet...
Can't you accept the current offer, attend the program for the fall and spring, and reapply in the fall to Iowa? If you get accepted, you can renege from the initial program
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39 minutes ago, crosie said:
Via email? I’m not seeing anything and I don’t need this false hope lol
Got an email to check the portal!
- FloridaMan and crosie
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Brown rejections are out!
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1 hour ago, dagreenkat said:
Dear spam callers with area codes from the northeast… now is NOT the time.
literally I made a sample college app account to see how it looks so I can help my younger sibling apply to local colleges and I got a phone call and voicemail from that undergrad program and it had the area code from a school I'm still waiting to hear from I was... upset lol. like no I'm not finishing my app and do not ever contact me again I'll call the authorities on you
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8 hours ago, michelleee said:
I'll never understand when people post a waitlist for a program but the note is 'has anyone heard from this program' on the results board--Im pretty sure you cant even reply to those posts? I feel like if people are religiously checking the board anyway theyd post their results when they got them you know
My favorite type of gradcafe notification result is when the person writes something like "I've been waitlisted and this is my DREAM SCHOOL so please please please pleeaaaassse make your decision quickly!!! thanks!! it would make me really happy" like girl 😭 no one's going to make a life-changing decision that'll impact their life for the upcoming 2-8 years more quickly just because you're asking them to in the results part of the gradcafe website, they aren't even reading it lol
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13 minutes ago, rell said:
It is illegal to discriminate against applicants for being old. But two years ago, in Hunter's open house, the professor didn't know this, and he said they favor minds young enough to mold. Also, Iowa got sued a few years ago by an old guy who was rejected. The lawsuit revealed that the admission rate for people 40+ was lower than for younger people. So some people believe that MFAs are discriminating against old people, but at least in Fiction the general consensus is the discrimination is with people 37+.
Poets tend to go to MFA school shortly after ugrad. It is not clear if this is because schools are discriminating or because that is just poets tend to apply younger than fiction people.
YIKES to the Hunter prof saying the quiet part out loud and for even thinking the quiet part... It's giving 33-year-old bum living at his parents' house with no admirable qualities who says women over the age of 21 hit the wall and that young girls are easier to mold lol. Not surprised by some of the assault scandals at these programs if this is how their faculty members think!
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19 minutes ago, rell said:
If a school has already accepted any other person, it is near certain you were rejected. The only exception is Iowa which strings out its acceptances. There is probably about one seat left for Iowa to give out, so you have 1/50 (2%) of the chance you started with.
The schools that have not given one acceptance yet like Brown and UVA are still possibilities.
I don't know what your hurry is. There is no advantage to getting an MFA real young.
Mary Shelly wrote Frankenstein at 19, but most people get rejected when they apply before 25. There is only so much you could have read so far.
This is not how the schools see it. They say they are losing money on each fully funded student. They think they are teaching writing and have no interest in rewarding anyone.
This is so interesting because I have the opposite view of MFAs in regards to age! I've noticed that MFA admits, especially for poetry, tend to be younger and closer to their undergrad years than "real life" years lol. The program that accepted me wrote in their admit letter that we'll have a chance to work alongside "young" writers, as if that was some kind of draw! So I do think MFA programs, at least poetry ones, prefer younger writers, which is kind of disheartening since I do agree that there's not a good advantage of getting an MFA young in terms of knowing what you want to do with it. I applied straight from undergrad because school was all I had known and I didn't know what else to do. Now, I have a clearer vision for my writing and what I want to do with an MFA
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10 minutes ago, ACPF said:
Waitlisted by Michener. Understand it's competitive, but a little bummed since it's been my top choice since I started this process!
OK SLAY FOR POETRY OR FICTION?
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16 minutes ago, dagreenkat said:
Did anybody get in somewhere where they missed a call at first? Second day missing a call but it’s from a completely different number than yesterday. I’m 99% it’s spam since they didn’t leave any message. Tired of them playing with my heart!
I really wanted to wake up to more news but alas.
When I had gotten an acceptance call, I didn't answer, and they left a voicemail and then followed up by email that day or a few days later. I think my portal also changed a few days after the missed call
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Does anyone know the teaching assistant workload at Vanderbilt? I can't find it anywhere on the website and want to know if they teach one class per semester or more
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2 hours ago, dagreenkat said:
I don't know where all you've applied, but I envy whoever has the pleasure of completing an MFA with you in the room. You've been very pleasant and helpful on this forum throughout the crapshoot this process is, and I'm glad you've gotten a second chance at attending a program this round.
Edit: I'll be streaming A&W extra hard in your honor.omg this is literally so sweet thank you!!
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7 hours ago, bananabread123 said:
Hi all! I had a quick question - so I got into NYU MFA (fiction) with full funding, but I am not totally sure if I should take it or wait another year.
My reasoning is that 1) I didn't get into a ton of schools so it makes me nervous about my abilities / if I am too green or inexperienced for an MFA, 2) I applied to MFAs this 2023 cycle while a lot of personal stresses were happening and so wasn't able to really fully give it 200% effort / maybe if I try again next year I will be able to spend more time and do better and 3) I currently work at a pretty lucrative job and would need to quit and forgo building up my savings so I want to do it for the right program and experience that helps me grow and provides the best future opportunities.
I realize that this is definitely a first world problem and I am not meaning to be entitled or rude with my question, I guess I am just nervous because I don't have any financial cushion other than my personal savings, I have no family to fall back on, and I am not like married etc so if I flounder it may be bad. I also did not study literature / arts in college so I don't have a lot of people from college to ask opinions of. The other side that I am considering is that: I love writing and know that my ideal life would be as a writer (whether that be my own work, or in the industry); though my current job is lucrative I don't like it, the hours are pretty rough / does not provide much time for writing; I might do worse with grad programs next year and then basically be wasting time.
I guess to say that even with good news in hand, I can't stave away the nervousness!
So, what are your thoughts on whether I should take the opportunity, and how I should be thinking about it?
Thank you so much!!
It's ultimately up to you to decide, but I just want to share my own experience. I was accepted in 2020 to two fully funded programs, and I turned both of them down for another opportunity. I communicated my reasoning clearly and openly with the faculty, who seemed very accommodating and understanding and told me I'd most likely get in if I reapplied. I applied again two years later to one of those programs along with a handful of other top tier places, and I got rejections across the board. This year, I've been waitlisted at a few places and accepted to one, none of them being the programs that initially accepted me back in 2020. I really feel like MFA admissions are a lottery in the way they can be "once in a lifetime" opportunities that you can't necessarily guarantee will ever happen again. Your writing sample and the cohort they wanted to create plus the competition for the year along with whatever personal reasons afflicted the reader that day all aligned perfectly to be in your favor this time. How likely is that to happen again? omg not to sound doom and gloom, but I feel like I was so ignorant of how *hard* it is to get accepted when I first did in 2020 and assumed I would just get in again, which I didn't that first reapplication cycle, even with an objectively stronger writing sample and more work and life experience. Sometimes, you're dealt cards you'll never be dealt again, and I think that's an important thing to note!! Congrats on NYU, especially being completely funded! Your writing abilities are clearly up to par, so don't worry about that
- Catpaw, halsklo, dagreenkat and 1 other
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8 hours ago, michelleee said:
Hi everyone! If I have a small typo in my portfolio, would it be better to A. send a modest email to the school saying that I noticed this upon another read through and apologize or B. just hope they don't notice? It's not super noticeable but it's an obvious grammatical error ugh. I triple checked everything I don't know how I missed this one.
No, don't call attention to any defects in your application. Plus, they probably either didn't notice or noticed and don't care. I had an error in my writing sample and got accepted to one program and waitlisted at three
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Have either of UT Austin’s programs notified?
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15 minutes ago, Ydrl said:
I don't want to alarm anyone, but the poetry decisions for Iowa might finalized. Don't know when notifications are going out though... Watching the professors spend hours of their weekends here just pouring over the manuscripts together around a table was a wild sight. Godspeed to you all, drink water.
Omg do you know any more info? Like cohort size? Or when they might notify?
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Michigan seems to have notified two poetry acceptances by phone in the past week. It’s weird to me since they’ve typically notified everyone about their acceptance, waitlist, or rejection all at once on the same day. Has anyone heard back from Michigan in any capacity?
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6 minutes ago, stannecarson said:
Hi everyone! I just got an email telling me I “advanced to finalist status” for Notre Dame (!) and that they want to talk to me over Zoom to “get to know (me) better”. This means I haven’t been accepted, right? But I’m close? So either acceptance or waitlist? I didn’t even realize this was something Notre Dame did…
That is so slay but also not a fan of how they're conducting this as a job interview process?? That's so weird, especially when you submitted a complete application in the fall and don't need this stress. This sounds like you're definitely on the way for an acceptance, though! Maybe they'll even accept you on the call ?
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5 minutes ago, Nightmaric said:
Thank you for explaining that, @lanadelreystan! I had seen that IWW staggers responses, but was feeling apprehensive about remaining hopeful, so I wanted to see what others here thought. Keeping my fingers crossed for others still waiting to hear back!
No problem! This process is so not transparent, and I wish it were, especially as results come out. Would love to know the mindset adcoms have and the process by which they execute it so that I can like... get a better grip on why I'm accepted to one program but not another. Also, question for you and anyone else: did Iowa start notifying poetry yet? I only saw fiction updates
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4 minutes ago, Nightmaric said:
Hi everyone!
This is my first application cycle and I have been benefitting greatly from reading all of your responses in this thread! I know that two IWW fiction acceptances have been posted in the MFA Draft Facebook group. As acceptances seem to have gone out on Monday and Tuesday this week, does that mean that those who haven't heard have been either waitlisted or rejected at this point?Iowa staggers the notifications of their accepted applicants. Last year, they made phone calls over the course of a few weeks. Someone in the Facebook group for MFA applicants was accepted into the IWW for fiction and commented that the faculty member told them they're still making calls and that she was the fourth acceptance they had notified at that point. They are making calls based on funding packages based on that accepted person's comment. So I assume the people getting called first have a higher stipend/more funding with less teaching duties?
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I can't find any updated info on this and wanted to ask: what are the top fully funded MFA in CW programs right now? We all know the IWW for fiction and poetry is considered number one, with Michener and Michigan following very closely after. Which programs follow those top few? Which programs are typically considered prestigious in today's literary landscape? Prestige as in you say you went there, and publishers/agents/lit mag editors are like "We want to read YOUR work" and move it to the top of the pile? Super interested in knowing people's opinion and insider knowledge on this!!
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2 minutes ago, CBeuley said:
Hello! Been lurking on the thread for a while. One Northwestern rejection so far, waiting on everything else. Does anyone know how long it typically takes Iowa to make their phone calls? Basically want to know at what point I should stop hoping haha
Iowa seems to notify its acceptances over days and weeks, unlike most other programs, so it could be a while ? plus their portal takes forever to say "rejected" and I think they send a snail mail rejection as well that arrives in March/April
2023 Creative Writing MFA Applicants Forum
in Literary
Posted
Thank you so much! And I just want to inform everyone that lana del Rey’s new album just released, so go buy “did you know that there’s a tunnel under ocean boulevard” ❤️😎💅 love it, my personal fave song from the album is paris, Texas. Anyone else been listening?