itsbeensnowing

Thank you for the info! Considering it's been a few days, I hope they'd have let me know by now if the cohort is locked, but you never know. If I don't hear anything by the end of the day tomorrow I might email. I'm mostly antsy because my current best plan would require a lot of preparation that I can't really begin until I'm fully committed, which I can't do with this waitlist hanging over me.

Because I'm still on a waitlist, every hour post-April 15 has been moving at an absolute snail's pace. I wish I could get constant play-by-play updates about everything going on behind the scenes lol

Congrats! I'm also waitlisted for fiction at UIUC, so I hope yours wasn't the last slot! (They didn't happen to mention any intel, did they?)

Have you already reached out to the top choice program to ask about the likelihood of getting off the waitlist? I feel like if you explained your exact situation, there's some chance of a candid answer that might help inform your decision. It's a bit weird that the one you're accepted at wants your decision by Friday. Have you tried asking for an extension? If neither of the above gets you anywhere, I'd personally make a decision with the assumption that the waitlist won't work out, which essentially comes down to either accepting the offer or committing to waiting an additional year. And that alone is a difficult decision, and I don't know your particular circumstances. I'm in a somewhat similar situation, so I empathize. The timing of everything is seldom ideal and it gets complicated.

Finally, a rejection from UCI 😅 It really seems like a great program but idk how many times I'd be able to go through this whole "wait until the week before the deadline to get an official rejection" thing

Anyone know wtf is going on with Southern Illinois University? Guessing not a lot of people here applied there but I haven't seen any acceptances on the results page. It's getting quite late for any program to still not even have their first wave of acceptances out. But maybe they do and it just doesn't include anybody on this site. (I'm not on facebook, so if there's been any word there, let me know.) Also, any intel on waitlist movement for Urbana-Champaign? (Or if they're getting close to finalizing their slots?) Dunno if I should be waiting on them. Anyways, less than three weeks until the big decision day. Hang in there, everyone!

This is truly the most excruciating stage of the season. Waitlists, uncertain funding, presumed rejections without any official notification, and a couple random stragglers that seemingly haven't even sent acceptances yet. It's a strange limbo to be in: Pretty much done, yet can't finalize any plans yet because there's still technically a chance of something happening. Hoping the finish line is near!

Yes, tis true. My rejection last year was on April 18th, and I think that's true of everyone. They were also quite late in 2022, albeit a few days before April 15. Based on the results page, it seems like they used to be a lot more prompt about it (mid-March). I don't know if the past two years have been fluke years or if the late notifications is the new norm. (Based on the fact we haven't heard anything yet this year, I'm guessing it's the latter.)

The semi-answer to all of your questions is that people do tend to wait until the last minute to accept or decline their offers of admission, meaning the most waitlist movement is going to be happening around the April 15 deadline and in the immediate afterwards. The ripple effect is pretty much inevitable. When someone gets accepted off a waitlist, they either decline the offer, opening the slot up for another person, or they accept it and decline their other offers, opening those up for other people. So a lot can happen in a short period of time. It's even not unheard of for someone to get off the waitlist in May or June if someone falls through or if they have to go through a large portion of the waitlist before finding someone who accepts. So, it's not over until it's over. I think by mid-April it'd be worth reaching out to the school to ask if they've filled all their slots if they haven't already volunteered that information. I'm waitlisted for admission at one school and waitlisted for funding at another, so I'm trying to keep myself sane through this purgatory more than anything.

People on draft, has there been anything from Hollins or Southern Illinois University? I think SIU is the only one I've applied to that hasn't sent any acceptances out yet. Hollins has an apparent acceptance on the results page here, but they didn't state the genre.

Got this one too. Talk about an impersonal rejection 😭

I've also been accepted at Temple, waitlisted for funding. They tout themselves as being more affordable than other MFAs, but that's not saying much and I'm not totally sure how feasible it'd be for me to attend without funding. It really seems like a lovely program, so I'm hoping for some movement on that waitlist! Right now it's my only MFA acceptance, though I also have been accepted into a 1 year MA program that costs about as much as Temple's 2 years.

My general impression has been that most programs are pretty amenable to spec fic, but most do expect said spec fic to be of that nebulous "literary" quality. If you're writing "popular" sci-fi, it might be a harder fit. (But I put those terms in quotes, because how are we really supposed to define them and draw the line between them?) I've mostly gauged a program's attitude toward genre lit through its faculty's work. If none of them write spec fic, it doesn't mean they'd be hostile towards it, but the inverse is a pretty good sign that they are open to it. For example, Megan Giddings from University of Minnesota pretty much exclusively writes horror sci-fi/fantasy. Alex Shakar from University of Illinois writes a literary, philosophical sort of sci-fi. Claire Vaye Watkins from UC Irvine has written a literary dystopian novel. University of Colorado has a range of genres represented among its faculty. Some programs do have a stuffier reputation than others and may turn away from any sort of genre fiction, but I'm not really clued into which ones those are.

Is that for fiction? Rutgers-Camden takes forever to get rejections out (mine didn't come until April 18th last year), so yeah I think an assumed rejection is the best we'll get for a while. Maybe give it a few days before losing all hope, though.

Ahhh I see. I don't like thinking about these programs googling me, because one of the only things that comes up with my name is a book of short stories I wrote when I was 10 that my dad self published for me. There's no escaping it, it haunts me

How did you know they searched you??

Iowa rejections will probably be out within a week. If you haven't heard anything after that, then it'd make sense to contact. Afaik, Brown hasn't sent any notifications yet (accepted or otherwise), so I don't think emailing them would gain much beyond them potentially giving you a mid-to-late March timeframe.

Based on the results page, it seems like people usually just get an email telling them to check their status in the portal, even for acceptances. Someone mentioned being asked to schedule a phone call. So it sounds like, unlike many other programs, they don't call before the official acceptance has gone through online.

I just got a telemarketer spam call from an Irvine phone number. I know UCI is done calling, but it still gave me a heart attack when I saw the missed call.

Also wondering about this. Wyoming was a very last minute addition for me so I'm not expecting much, but still. I'm antsy!

Having an agent isn't the be all and end all, so I think there'd still be plenty of motivation for someone to pursue an MFA. Most people who write still have to keep other jobs regardless of representation, so having funded time to write and improve is important, as is gaining a degree that could open the door to teaching, which is what a lot of writers end up doing to keep the lights on. Don't be discouraged, though, it really shouldn't be a factor in your admission. Not only is it rare for someone to apply while already having an agent, but what an agent looks for isn't necessarily what an admissions committee is looking for. Plenty of people get in without having any sort of publication or representation.

For the waitlists I'm on (one for funding, one for acceptance), the schools have said people tend to wait til the last minute to turn down (or accept) their offer, so a lot of waitlist movement won't happen until mid April. It's like a vicious cycle where people are waiting on their own waitlists, so they don't turn down offers yet, thus preventing movement on those waitlists. It can definitely happen before then, but for sanity's sake it's probably best to assume nothing will happen til then.

Here's what University of Arizona's MFA program says on the matter: "Is the program typically made up of younger writers or more mature writers? It’s a mix, and it varies year to year. The average age of our grad students is about 27 most years, but we have several students in their 30s and 40s too. Compared to a 30 year old, a 22 year old is less likely to be competitive in terms of life experiences and their craft in writing, but a 35 year old is less likely to have the freedom to attend a residential MFA program." I'd guess anything 50+ or even 40+ is pretty seldom represented among full residency MFA programs, but it's hard to say how much of that comes down to the relative lack of applications, considering many people in that age range have life factors that would complicate being able to attend, hence why you tend to see older writers going for low res options. I imagine the vast majority of applications for full res are coming from young people straight out of their undergrads (or within a couple years), so I have to wonder how the % acceptance would shake out for different age ranges.

Let's hope it's the calm before the storm

I'd personally definitely attend a program that's 90% funded. The "don't pay anything out of pocket" is a solid rule since MFAs don't have the same tangible return on investment as other degrees and you'd rather focus on writing during the program than have to do a lot of outside work just to pay for it (let alone keep up with living expenses), but there's still an intrinsic value to a master's degree that'd be worth the 10% to me. Nobody should put themselves in a debt hole for an MFA, that's for sure. So it does depend on one's own financials and post-degree plans. Also, some programs are more diploma-mill-y than others, obviously I wouldn't pay any amount for a program I don't believe in. Last cycle, I only applied to fully funded programs, because I figured it just wouldn't be worthwhile otherwise. Not just financially, but because I shouldn't go down this path if I'm not a good enough writer to get into one of these programs. But, idk, I have a computer science degree and was able to keep the costs down for that, so it wouldn't be so bad to turn the tables and pay for a not-so-useful degree. I think this past year of relative aimlessness has me a little more desperate. I still ended up applying mostly to fully funded programs again this time around, but I wanted to give myself more leeway. (I think two of mine aren't fully funded, and I'd be happy to get into either. Not that they're really any more likely than the others.)