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The Litowitz program rotates which genres they're accepting, and this year they were only accepting fiction and creative non-fiction, anyways, so 2025 would be open to poetry if you have to reapply next year.

Don't want to dampen your achievement, but I don't think Northwestern grants any funding for the MFA (aside from the Litowitz MA+MFA program).

I think a pub will usually say if they require one or not (and most don't). But it never hurts to have a standard, brief one ready that you can customize or add to. I think The Adroit Journal has some good advice on this subject: theadroitjournal.org/2019/08/09/how-to-write-a-cover-letter-for-a-literary-journal-magazine-or-publication/

Seconding @BarryDairy, I've had more success being intentional about where I'm submitting rather than just applying across the board. The rejections haven't affected me much, since it's just for publication and not an MFA program. I'm not particularly that experienced in getting published; since my first ever submission when I was a college freshman, I've submitted poems to 38 different publications and I have a 23.33% acceptance rate, (omitting 8 that are currently pending, that percentage will definitely go down). I don't really have any advice since I'm not that active, but I try to look for pubs that are small/community-oriented, perhaps newer to the scene and don't post issues too frequently/or that focus on a limited number of authors per issue. Mostly, now that I have met some people online through these pubs over instagram, I look to where their writing is getting published and seeing if it would be a good fit for my work.

Yes, it doesn't matter, generally speaking, if you're in-state or out-of-state re: tuition remission. Some schools (Bowling Green, IIRC) do require you to formally become a resident of that state after the first year to reduce the tuition amount to the in-state number, though.

Congrats! It looks like Oregon State accepts and waitlists must be out now. I need the poetry people out there to step it up and post their results lol

I would look at the MFA as the opportunity to hone your craft and start on your first book. It's not really in a professor's wheelhouse to focus on the book publishing side of things. I also just wouldn't worry about that; people who don't go to Michigan or Iowa still have books published.

@jadedoptimist I haven't seen anything for UMich on Draft. This would make them an entire week early based on when they notified last year. I wouldn't worry yet. However, VTech gave out a poetry waitlist on 2/2, so I imagine they're done with making decisions. I think Syracuse poetry also already went out too.

There was someone posting fake results to Grad Cafe (or maybe they typed the wrong school); Michigan likely won't start notifying until next week. edit: I thought you were referring to an older one. I see there was one just posted... hmm.

It's not universally accepted; not every university has to follow it. It also probably wouldn't apply if it was a low-res program or an unfunded program.

Congrats! Was it a phone call or email? I was waitlisted there last year so I'm hoping for some better news this time.

No, the new FAFSA has been a mess and every university is dealing with it. I filled mine out as soon as it opened and I don't think it has even been sent out yet. Grad students often don't even bother filling the FAFSA out in the first place.

Just a heads up, Oregon State occasionally has to give out early admits if they want to consider a few applicants for a specific fellowship, and it looks like two people were considered for those (1 in fiction, 1 in poetry). Last year, someone was admitted in late Jan, with the rest of the admits/waitlists in mid-Feb.

It's possible; for last cycle, the earliest acceptance (for fiction) from Iowa was 2/13, so it's plausible.

There's one poetry acceptance for Vanderbilt reported on the GradCafe results.

Just got an email from the University of Houston advertising their events at AWP to all their applicants. Made me jump.

FYI last year, Syracuse poets were accepted on 1/25. I believe they were either told to not tell people publicly or those accepted didn't announce it on Draft/GradCafe.

Poetry or fiction?

No, I just meant that in the last 20 reported results on Draft, they've all been for fiction, and that includes a wide variety of acceptances/waitlists/rejections from various programs.

University of Oregon acceptances/waitlists are popping up in Draft, at least for fiction. I've noticed that the last 20 results on the spreadsheet are all for fiction... are the poetry people just not submitting their results or is every program just lagging behind on the poetry decisions lol

Just a heads up to everyone (to hopefully save you some sanity)—Ohio State was likely an outlier in terms of getting decisions via the application portal before the official email. Last year, a few of my applications didn't update with the decision until late March/early April, even though I knew I hadn't gotten an acceptance or waitlist. (I'm waitlisted at UIUC, but my portal doesn't reflect that either.) Please please please spare yourselves and don't check the application portals too frequently/at all. You will be called on the phone or sent a direct email when news comes in.

It could; I've noticed less activity than last year, (or rather a lot of the same people making posts/commenting). But it could also be the trend of the younger, largely American crowd not using Facebook as much or at all. FWIW I'm not Gen Z, but I had to make a Facebook to join Draft and that's the only thing I use it for. There is also the larger trend that's been theorized: the enrollment cliff. According to... whoever looks at this stuff... we're currently at the peak of college enrollments, and after 2026 or so these numbers will either stagnate or decline. I'm genuinely not sure what might happen to the arts/humanities if it turns out to be true. Hell—Purdue even ended their MFA program because their English department overcommitted on graduate students during the pandemic, so I can only imagine when universities start axing things, MFA programs would be among the first to go.

I'm not sure about the mystery school in question, but it maybe is trending toward fewer applications for MFA programs. If you look at Michigan's Rackham Graduate School statistics, (one of the only schools that I know posts these numbers), Creative Writing MFA applications there seemingly peaked in 2021 and have dropped steadily. (I'd link to it directly, but I think it would get flagged as spam, but if you search for 'University of Michigan Graduate Stats' it should pop up.) 2019 - 986 applications 2020 - 1020 apps 2021 - 1044 apps 2022 - 807 apps 2023 - 728 apps Knowing that Michigan is one of the top programs that most writers are going to apply to, it doesn't seem to me to be a huge leap in thinking that MFA applications overall might be declining a little bit. edit: I'm also looking at their English PhD app numbers and the same story occurs: a peak in 2021 and a more swift drop-off. (It's also somewhat similar trajectory in History, Slavics, Germanics...) This could be a general unattractiveness with graduate degrees in the humanities. Hard to say, really.

Where did you hear this? I was waitlisted for poetry at UIUC on 1/8 and mine was from a faculty member, but I didn't have any inclination that it was a "top 3" situation.