Scribe

Look into Syracuse, Houston, Miami, Indiana, Houston, Washington, Johns Hops, and New Mexico. They all seem to ring a bell. At least some of them asked for teaching statements. No way should they read bone dry. you have a voice, use it. Obviously you don't want to come off crazy but it's about you and what you want. stick with that and the you that is you should come through without any effort. oh, and regarding the Michener/NWP thing. same professors, same workshops, same resources, same students, same building. Different funding and different screeners and juries selecting the cohort.

That's not true. It's not true at all. Not getting funding means you didn't get funding. Trust me on this. Don't take on debt, but do not think a funding number is tied to skill or talent.

a quick warning about northwester. someone here last year applied and got in , but it was to an unfunded program. apparently they have two and one is unfunded. As far as your alternatives, what are your parameters? what boxes does a program need to tick for you?

It sounds like you're interested in the city only. if that's true, you should still look into Rutgers. I applied there and live in Queens. It's not a crazy commute and the funding is delicious. If it's just an East Coast thing, Syracuse and Cornell are supergood and also superfunded. Columbia on very rare occasions does give free rides, but I'm not even sure it's a yearly thing. regardless, it's a very exclusive, prestigious, competitive 90,000 dollar a year racket. I'm firmly of the belief one should not go into debt for this.

Just popping to say Hi. Best of luck to everyone this year. For at least the next few weeks I'll be lurking. I promise to not try and break any posting records this year.

20 rejections. 6 acceptances. and that’s the game baby.

yup.

so I didn't know exactly how much (or little) funding many schools offered until I was accepted. occasionally someone on draft would post the offer and now that there's a separate sheet just for acceptances I'm learning a lot more. Look into teaching loads. some schools give funding but with heavier teaching loads, like 2:2. if they do, i don't know how much time is left to write. but if they don't!!! - there's time for a side gig. I don't want it but i will probably have to at some point. consider everything. if you're in class 3-4 hours a week, teaching and grading paper for another 20 (they can't possibly think they're going to get that out of me) studying and writing for classwork another 6, and workshopping and writing another X? (I suddenly have a new question for the group), then there might be a few hours a week available to tutor some high school snot or drive an uber or some other make-your-own hours thing. do not count out a great program solely because you might have to do part time or summers. there were women on draft openly discussing sex work. There's always a way.

I'm glad they filled their cohort. And now for UCR. I know it's stupid, but i feel like this leg of the journey isn't over until I get it. maybe it's because I kept telling everyone to hang in until the end. That or I lived with so much anxiety for so long I don't know how to live without it.

Yeah , except it looks like they’ve sent out acceptances and waitlists. So unless they’re planning on going to the folks they didn’t want in the first place, something is wrong. I’ve been saying for months now that there’s no excuse. Once you have your waitlist established it is stupid and wrong to not send out waitlists. What allows it is a mentality which makes the April 15 agreement necessary to begin with. This sort of thing should be addressed as well. The school that drags its feet may well find itself victim of the practice. is it not entirely possible, in fact likely, usf is in the position it is because they’re acceptees are in limbo somewhere else. Not everyone is here or on draft. Not everyone knows about the April 15 deadline. it’s a shitshow and no one benefits from pretending it isn’t.

what happened?? i just revisited the draft thread and someone there SUSPECTS they're making offers one by one and giving each person a day to decide.

I'm in the same place with UCR, it's ridiculous. They're the last school I'm waiting on just to close the book, ya know? As for USF, I posted here last Friday (the 12th) that as of that date NO ONE had accepted OR declined an offer. I was contacted just in case on Monday (the 15th), they had no cohort. By Tuesday they sent an email to what I had presumed were the remaining (I took myself off during the call) wailtisters, "Are you still interested in and available for the USF MFA?". Since then at least one person off the waitlist, but maybe more, has accepted an offer. I say call and if there are still spaces remind them you were waitlisted. I don't know why you didn't get that email. It seems to have gone out en masse. But it's also possible they're going in some kind of order. As far as i know, i'm the only one they cold called either Friday night or after. Now I'm wondering how many were on the waitlist and how many were given offers. I've seen three, five, and ten but I have no idea if any numbers are true. I suspect it's ten with 5 in poetry and 5 in prose. I think they have a CNF too. I know there were acceptance for both poetry and CNF before the 15th. Call and let us all know what's up. we don't know you but we're pulling for you.

first question: genre? this is important. poet? fiction? creative nonfiction? ? whatever you do, be careful. i knew this one cat who died of being frowned upon. horrible death too. it took like 60 years. it was a conspiracy. the fuckers who killed him are still at large. I'm not sure it will affect your applications next year. i suppose you could be put on a double secret probation list that's shared by all the programs. Maybe your picture goes up on their radar "do not take checks from this person" style. yeah, that specific program might remember you - maybe. or jurist may be on the committee of another school next year. But there's hundreds of programs out there. i mean, are they really going to blacklist you? it's a crazy level of effort to put in. I do think you do it asap, which you are. And I think you make it personal, which it seems you are. I would not in any way indicate you got a better offer, which you wouldn't, but you may neglect to say you will be reapplying next year. do NOT neglect that. tell them you will be applying next year, this could not be helped, and you will not be attending another program. You should probably ask about a deferral policy. it's almost certainly a "no" but just asking shows you want to attend and really regret not being able to. seriously, what genre? (Don't laugh at me. you could be a songwriter.)

UTK - denied!

It's not unheard of and unless you get douchey about it (like I did that one time) I doubt it will make any difference in your life going forward. As far as it being intrusive, are you not asked about this sort of thing all the time? How was your experience shopping at home depot today? did you find everything you were looking for? How likely are you to recommend Peter Pan Peanut Butter to a friend? Was your customer service representative polite? were they able to answer your question? Please describe your Amazon delivery experience? Would you lie to thank your driver? (Always say yes.) This is no different. Programs want to know who and what they're competing with. I've learned a lot this year, one of the biggest things was how little these programs know about each other. When asked, I told them. I was kind and honest. (Except for that one time.) I'm actually going to email a couple of governors.

Here's a kick in the head, as of about an hour ago NO ONE has accepted OR declined USF. so if you're on that waitlist...

So two years of classes and one semester writing. and rewriting. and rewriting. and...

Superhappy! did we ever figure out whether it was two or three years?

"wants" your decision, or "requires" your decision? Some programs even after signing the agreement will play cute about the deadline. they shouldn't. make sure you don't have until the 15. if you do, take that time. you wouldn't be the first person i've heard about who was "asked" for a decision before the deadline.

usps has an almost supernatural ability to deliver all mail to the proper destination so it's unlikely it was lost. however, if they sent out say 800 or so letters, about 100 of them will be late. this is pretty late though. you could get it years from now; that happens. as for me... 6 days until i start asking for my money back.

I know it's frustrating. I'm hoping those who are only finding out there options now have lived with the possibilities long enough to be able to make quick and painless decisions for themselves. I'm angry about it myself. There are still three schools who sent out acceptances and waitlists a long time ago - over a month, one i think over two months! - I am yet to hear back from and it feels insulting and dismissive. I won't say more because of been bitching about this for months and i'm sure people are tired of it but it's important for people to know they aren't alone in their rage.

ADVICE FOR NEXT YEAR'S APPLICANTS This is just some of what I learned this year. Every word is true. Please pass this on to whomever may need it and add your own knowledge. And know this is just what one single (although brilliant) applicant has learned. Spread yourself around a bit. I got 15 rejections (so far). What if they were the only places I applied? Go where you WANT. I also believed “I only need one A” and that’s true, but I didn’t apply only to places I thought I might get into. I was rejected from those too and got admitted to a school I thought was a real long shot. Research Research Research. Before you commit to an application, find out as much as you can. You have as many options as almost all of these schools have applicants. This is not the time to shoot from the hip. Think that every school to which you apply is one you can’t. choose wisely. Consider funding, cost of living in the school’s location, distance from home, employment and educational prospects you and for family if they’re coming with you, … There are things to research you might not think about and may not be able to find out but it’s worth knowing. Your sample is your sample and, I believe, should not be geared to where you apply. You don’t want to be in a program that doesn’t have full support of your work. However, it may well be different for SOP’s and other essays. (That’s another place you don’t want to be surprised. ) Some schools will ask for more than an SOP. They may ask for an SOP, Teaching Statement, Personal Statement, Autobiographical Statement, Diversity Statement, or anything else. One school asked for an SOP, Personal and Autobiographical. More importantly, they weighed them more heavily than expected. If you can find these things out about your school, it can go a long way to not crafting something quickly for which you are unprepared. Just as important as research is knowing what you do not know. I believed even had I gotten into my longshot, I couldn’t afford to go. Not only was the stipend 50% higher than the last available numbers, the housing situation there had wildly changed. Until you know hard numbers, rule nothing out. In fact, remember how fast things can change year to year. Make no assumptions. Start your applications early. You don’t have to finish them… ever, but certainly not the day or week or maybe month you start. But open them all as soon as possible. Finding out what’s required may actually free up time if you realize the school isn’t for you. Another benefit is that some schools offer multiple rounds of assessment, the first of which might be free. These applications can get expensive. Which brings us to another advantage of starting early – you can spread out submissions and spread out fees. Wait until the deadlines for final submission. As you craft your statements for each school, you will think of things you left out of other statements, better things to say, or better ways to say them. Maybe some things not to say? You can then go back to those essays and rework them with the process gains. Once you submit them, they’re out there. It’s not typical to allow editing after submission. Play to the buzzer. Do not start thinking it’s over because of the first notices you received. I've so far received received 14 rejections, not including waitlists. What if they happened to be the first notices? Ultimately I was accepted at 4 places (so far) and am waitlisted at four more. Notices are not handed out in order of the programs you were most likely to be accepted by. It isn’t over until it’s over. With that in mind, don’t give up on waitlists and especially don’t abandon possible acceptances because you’re on a waitlist. Even when you have real options in which you’re confident, do not decline offers or take yourself off of a waitlist just because you have a good option. If you have multiple offers and waitlists, you can start thinking about the ones you want to drop and give other applicants a shot at having a little less anxiety. Learn as much as you can about how a school gets its funding. It may determine the cohort make up. This may be truer for public institutions. In the case of international students, no funding may be available. Check though. Sometimes there are scholarships and fellowships available only to certain groups. The possibility and amount of funding should absolutely be a factor in whether or not you apply. I don’t believe, at least as much as others, in a “fit” for a program - I’m speaking about genre. Personality, what you wish to do with your work, these things might matter more than genre. If your magical realism writing is good, I don’t think a professor who specializes in science fiction or graphic novels is going to reject you outright. You should consider where you want to go for yourself more than them. You may be able to use your essays to contextualize your writing (I would NOT suggest your writing sample specifically) in general. A personal statement or SOP can be used to reveal your social or political goals, if they apply. Yeah, you might want to be careful here but my experience says go for it. Where I think fit does matter? The culture of the program. Some schools, for example, have graduated and/or contingent funding. Not everybody gets the same broccoli and who gets what can change year to year. this may foster a type of competition within the cohort. Other schools may foster competition by way of attention from a mentor. I would not do well in such an environment. Some people ( I have a brother who comes to mind) absolutely thrive in that situation. Be a little introspective here. And don't think competition is the only variable. My school bans agents on campus, other schools invite them. Some schools focus on art, others on product. Many lean into the business end, others avoid it. Judge them only in terms of what you need, not they way you think "things oughta be". Finally (until I remember something I've forgotten), do not think of any of this as a litmus for the quality of your work or your worth as a writer. That isn't a cuddly, feel-good sentiment. A look at the schools and their acceptances in both pattern and review reveals just how much of a subjective and even incidental, almost random, process this is. Let's take the 800 lb gorilla as an example. The Writer's Workshop accepts a dozen or so per genre per year. They have a very large applicant pool, most of whom applied to all of the other big gorillas. You can divide the cohort in three not necessarily equal parts. The first is people like me who applied all over the place and hit with some and missed with others. The second are those evil fucks who got into almost if not everywhere they fucking applied. The last group are people who may have applied all over the place and were rejected everywhere EXCEPT the workshop! All of these people are not at all unusual, how is that possible? Before we guess let me give you another scenario from my own experience. I applied to two programs at the same university. Each program is funded differently and each takes three people. Those six people take the same classes, with the same teachers, at the same time. They workshop together. They all filled out two different applications but paid ONE application fee. They are however selected by different screeners before going on to the juries who decide the final cohort by rounds. Some people are accepted at both programs, some are waitlisted at both, some are accepted at one and waitlisted at the other or accepted at one and told to kick rocks by the other. I was accepted by one and didn't even make it past the first screeners at the other. What gives? Simple. Different people are looking for different things at different times. In at least one of her hand written notes to a rejectee L S C told her "Sorry it didn't happen this year." (Italics mine). Do not give up. Ever. Sick of reading about mfa’s? maybe this will help. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mfa-writers/id1514694295

I'm all about hard facts so just take this for what it is. 20K is not a big chunk of money. It is not. If you are more than 20K in debt it is nothing. I do not know your income, debt amount, what your current MFA is in or what the one you wish to attain would be but I believe firmly you should not go into debt - AT ALL - for an MFA. There's millions and millions and MILLIONS of dollars in funding out there. Go get it. If moving back home is about the money, go ahead. Move home, apply next year, and take all that money you're planning to save and pay down your debt. If you don't want to do that, fine. But apply next year and pay down what you can in the meantime. If you work remote, you can likely continue while in a program for extra money. Do what you want. Do not put things in the way of that.

Look at what you know, faculty, cohort size, funding, alumni, etc. and ABSOLUTELY speak with current students.

With respect to waitlists, you have to understand it’s a weird game of chicken. If someone’s waitlisted at their holy grail school, they’re going to wait as long as possible before saying yes somewhere else. So there’s a collective catch 22 because the person they’re waiting on to decline is waiting for a waitlist spot to open for their top choice. I’m sure there’s been occasions where two people are waiting on each other.