shoopster

As an update: I remain completely baffled by this entire experience. So far, I've received a paper rejection from Iowa (not surprising in the slightest), and an email notification from The New School that I should check my application status online, which I did, and was accepted with the same 25% scholarship everyone else has mentioned. I still haven't heard from NYU, which I'll assume means I've been rejected. I've also not heard anything from Alabama, so who knows. Why do some accepted people get called, while others just get a form email notification? Why are certain schools twice as expensive as others? Why do some programs wait a full month after their acceptance calls to notify the rejected folks, via snail mail, of all things?? I feel like I've taken up competitive figure skating in a Cold-War-era Olympic cycle and all the judges are drunk.

Congratulations! I'm waiting to hear back from them, myself. What genre are you?

To be clear: I believe the woman I spoke with over the phone was probably communicating some pre-drafted 'talking points.' I'm sure she was told to say that to anyone who asked, just to cover the bases. I do actually think everyone who was accepted has been called.

Sorry for the multiple posts this morning, but thought folks might be interested in this... I just called the IWW to ask about their decisions timeline. I was told that acceptances are being mailed today (Feb. 26), poetry rejections will be mailed tomorrow (she did not know when fiction rejections would be mailed). She said that online portal (unfortunately called ISIS) will be updated 2 weeks after decisions are mailed out. She also said that they do not always call accepted students.

The same for a lot of schools. That's why I'm not holding out particular hope for either Iowa or NYU, which both made calls last week/this week. Only a couple people posted acceptances, but honestly, I doubt GradCafe gets a huge amount of traffic. Not sure if you want to take this risk, but I was already in the rabbit hole -- if you go to Twitter and do some searches of keywords, chances are that you'll find more people. I found 4 additional Iowa WW acceptances that way.

While I sit here twiddling my thumbs for the 4 decisions I'm waiting on, here's a question: I already have a Masters degree. Think that makes me a less desirable MFA candidate than someone who does not? I've heard that most programs look (almost) exclusively at your writing sample, but I have a hard time believing that...

I really need to remove myself from the MFA Draft page, but it's like telling yourself to stop looking back at the car accident you just passed. RE: Iowa -- I only saw 2 fiction acceptances posted on Draft, and 3-4 poetry. Someone posted today that she got a rejection letter, but not sure if it was email or snail mail. I haven't seen anything about an Iowa waitlist yet, but would be surprised if they maintained much of one. I'm guessing their yield is close to 100%.

Of all the things on all the sites, this was the most comforting to me. Thanks for reminding me that, just because one school says no, doesn't mean all of my others will too. I only applied to 4 programs, haven't heard back from any of them, and am dangerously close to going down the rabbit hole. Edited to add: good luck HeyIowa, particularly if you end up in Iowa City. I went to Iowa for undergrad, and had really hoped to get back there.

Here's my morning so far: 1. Opened my inbox to an email from Iowa!! 2. The subject line was related to financial aid, so surely this meant I was accepted!! 3. Upon review, the email was letting me know that, "We are in the process of reviewing your financial aid information for the 2015 - 2016 academic year; however, we are unable to consider you for financial aid at this time since you have not been admitted to a degree program for 2015 - 2016." 4. Major, stomach-sinking, heart-dropping, tear-shedding, every-other-cliche-imaginable level disappointment. 5. Still trying to figure out if this was a form email, or a preview of a rejection to come.

+a million. I actually have another Masters in a completely different field, and don't remember that admissions process being like this at all. I chalk it up (at least partially) to the size of these programs. They're all accepting a handful of people, many of whom are the exact same people, but they're attracting applications from hundreds upon hundreds more.

You know, Octoberstormxx, I'm beginning to feel the same way. I don't think I would have nearly this amount of anxiety if I didn't (obsessively?) check the Draft page. I got myself into such a funk last night just watching Iowa acceptances roll in.

I'd say that's a little strong for what the posters on Draft have said about Iowa. No one said that most notifications have gone out. In fact, someone looked at the stats from last year and reassured everyone that the calls usually take place over the course of 3 days or so. Consider yourself still in the running until you hear otherwise, would be my advice.

SAIS says late March/early April for decisions, WWS says March 15, and my other two schools are big fat question marks. Perhaps I should have applied at schools who send out their decision letters earlier?

Well the other programs I applied to all have "early April" as their decision dates. I guess it will be a long month and a half for me!!

Why must they wait until THE last minute for this?? The worst part about it, is that WWS will probably be the first school to send out MPP/MPA decisions.