GoldenTree

I'm not sure about other schools but I do know the University of South Carolina doesn't send them out all at once. On their FAQ page they say: "We typically email first-round acceptances by late February and send out additional acceptances on a rolling basis through April. Once the entire admissions process is complete (usually late April), our university notifies applicants who were not admitted" I'm not sure how many other schools do this but that's all the information I have.

I definitely see what you're saying about programs wanting to make sure we'll fit the community. You're on point when you mention that all these programs have cultures and some part of it is seeing to see if an applicant fits into said culture. I do stand by what I heard at the panel though about the writing sample being the bulk of the application's importance. I think both things can be simultaneously true and or differ school to school. I will add that this is quite a subjective process and after reading your post it only made me view it as even more subjective. I wouldn't view someone who had the goal of getting a Pulitzer prize as lacking humility, I'd view that as ambition and a goal. Clearly though, these people are going to be making hard judgements on us they likely wouldn't want on themselves. It kind of makes me sad and upset at the same time in all honesty. I understand there is a give and a take in these programs. Still, most fully funded programs don't offer a livable wage (some only offer 12k per year before taxes). At the end of the day, these schools do use MFA students, I've seen it first hand at one of the top MFA schools in the country. I don't think anyone should be upset students want a lot out of the experience when the experience is going to take a lot from them.

I definitely wish I could fast forward until early March too but there is so much to look forward to outside of these applications. Namely, some of those small joyful moments of life we often taken for granted. At my uni, there was a MFA panel, and one thing they emphasized was 90% was on the writing sample. If they love the writing, and they see little issues with anything else, chances are, you'll definitely get in. I don't think mentioning the publication and nomination is necessarily a bad thing. I for one, listed my entire publication record within my CV (as I've seen some CW profs do) and gave it to all schools. I also directly stated "I was interested in teaching" and I don't regret it at all because it's the truth. Plus, not all schools are the same. I know Syracuse actually wanted a teaching statement from me, so not all of them will be turned off by it. And if they are, it is something I'm interested in. My poetry mentor did tell me that in these SOPs I shouldn't be something I'm not, and neither should any of us. I for one am a bit tired of pretending to be something I'm not. I'm definitely past that point in my life. What's done is done. Nothing is 100% perfect to everyone at every point in time. Plus, I think we need to look at rejection a bit differently. I once heard a quote from a friend one time. "Rejection is redirection and protection." So remember that all of us will end up where we're supposed to be. And there's still hope. Who knows, maybe in a couple weeks, you'll be so excited about the program you got in.

I'm currently finishing out my BA which I had hoped would take up all my mental focus (it definitely isn't working, maybe also because I've already finished out my major). What I've been doing mostly though is watching the whole slew of Tolkien movies (The Hobbit & LOTR). I've been getting distracted when I've tried to read lately, but those movies have successfully relaxed me and are quite long to get through. Also, since I haven't watched the Hobbit in 10 years, it was almost like I got to re-experience it for the first time. Other than movies, I've been spending time with my mother and boyfriend, two super supportive realtionships of mine I'm eternally grateful for.

Yeah. I think that's all any of us can do in all honesty—our best. And whatever happens, we'll have known we tried our best with whatever resources we had at the time. There's peace in that I think.

Thank you! Mine also has a fake name, literally dubbed "sparkle queen" back from when i was 13/14. 😂 I'm starting to wish I would've joined early as well. I'll get on FB soon and send a request. Good luck to you too!

I'm not on the Draft sadly. I don't really have a FB I use regularly and I didn't think they'd accept my request. My FB is basically a blank account I only use to chat my Aunt every few months. I kinda wish I would've tried to get in though. I had no idea about Michigan. Now I'm wishing I would've applied in fiction too there even though their acceptance is so low. Iowa State sounds really nice, it does. And I appreciate your perspective about it not being totally what you write but how you write. I think I should've been thinking that more during this whole process. It's nice we share some school choices in common!

Let's hope that's the case. 🤞

Thanks for the welcome and well wishes! Fingers crossed you get in too! And I definitely wish there would be a list somewhere of the programs where cross-genre/multi genre is encouraged. I tried to apply to some places where I heard about more cross-genre work like Pittsburgh and Ohio State but I don't think I did enough research in all honesty. I didn't know about Iowa State or UC-Riverside but I appreciate you sharing! In Poetry I applied to OSU, ARK, Ole Miss, Michigan, Vandy, Greensboro, UVA, Pittsburgh, and Notre Dame. I'm a dual genre applicant to Alabama and VCU. And I applied in fiction to the University of Kansas and NC-State. I tried to somewhat look at faculty. I do write literary speculative fiction/magical realism (which I know isn't well liked in MFA programs, thus me applying more in poetry) and I only applied in fiction or dual-genre to places that had speculative writers on MFA staff that seemed like a good fit. I guess I'll see how everything goes.

Hi everyone, I've been monitoring the thread since it was created, read through the past years threads for research, but finally decided to be a part of it. I'm not sure it'll help my anxiety with the application process but at least I'll be able to contribute. I'm coming right out of undergrad and applied to 15 fully funded programs (11 poetry, 2 dual-genre, 2 fiction). I just got a Poetry rejection from OSU on the 19th. I'm not sure if anyone else has applied in more than one genre but as a dual-genre writer who has been published in both it made sense to me. Anyway, I wanted to share something I found on the Grad Cafe with you all. So if you go to this page. https://www.thegradcafe.com/survey/?per_page=20&q=creative+writing&institution=&program=&degree= You can input the term "creative writing" alongside whatever university you applied to and get an idea of when the decision will come out based off of prior years results. I found it helpful to know when I'd likely be getting responses back so I wanted to share.