Scribe

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.

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Yay. Super congratulations.

there is a fiction acceptance on draft dated 3/13. oh, and an interview for poetry way back on feb 1.

I’m guessing yes. I was accepted off a waitlist yesterday, a Sunday the director called from out of town (although in mine!) and asked if I declined, to please let them know so they could move on to the next person on the list. I don’t think it would be as likely but spring break falls close to the April 15 deadline so no one can afford a week long delay. I’m betting weekends, vacations, holidays are all compromised right now.

Jesus. What is so hard about a little courtesy. #justhitsend

U Miami says thanks but no thanks

official rejection from UNM. 'Bout time.

It's official: 1. waitlists are moving 2. there is rampant substance abuse among MFA program selection committees. I'm accepted at NWP.

I don't know where you live currently but... quoting this from Draft: I’m going to say it. It’s almost $90,000 a year. Then you have to live in NYC. If you don’t have a solid plan to pay for it, think long and hard. And remember there’s more than one chance in life. If your writing is such that you were waitlisted out of as many as 1200 people, you can be confident that the next round will be no more a long shot than this one. Your writing will only get better. AND you ALREADY know more about the process than you did a few months back. I want you to be where you want to be. I do NOT want to shit on your tomatoes. But I want you happy in both the long and short term. And the medium term. All the terms. But this is a huge move. Be good to yourself. I have a home, family, available work,a small passive income stream, a gainfully employed spouse, and huge support system right here in NYC. I turned down Columbia. I believe in the program or I wouldn’t have applied. But there’s more to life and education than the brass ring. Or what you think is the brass ring. YOU are the brass ring.

just to be a dick... When is it okay to ask a university to refund your application fee? I mean you paid to have your application reviewed. If you don't receive a rejection by April 15, how do we know they even looked at it? (BTW, anyone heard from UF yet?)

I know at least six final decisions aren’t out. It’s super frustrating. They are likely all rejections as their acceptances went out quite some time ago. #justhitsend.

Either program should be willing to put you in touch with current students. They can tell you real specifics and they will. you’re totally right about maximum clarity. Fellowship duties could be more hours than teaching and they certainly may not allow for as much flexibility. But then u may be assisting someone who asks for very little.

I can tell you very little but I’ll do what I can. I recently found out I’ll be expected to put 20 hours a week into teaching a single class. I was also told to absolutely set that as an upper limit. So if you’re doing 15 I would say that’s pretty good but also set that as your upper. Limit. in my program it seems other students do find ways to make money on the side without compromising their writing time. BUT we also only take one class, not two. The remaining credits are comprised of the workshop element which is demanding but seems to have at least some of the writing time built in to the credit load. I’ve heard this about other programs as well. finally, my director has told me that it’s “bad” to spend too much time writing. I think what’s going to happen is my writing time will be more scheduled, directed, and disciplined. As such it will be more efficient. I hope this for both of us.

This. Look into Jess Silfa. They are an admin on Draft and offer workshops JUST for the admissions process. They've been on Jared McCormack's 'MFA Writer's Podcast' twice, once for just being an MFA expert.

Honestly, I’m not really in limbo. I know where I’m going and it’s a good package. I’ll be going BACK to living paycheck to paycheck. No matter what I’m almost certainly going to have to pick up the occasional side gig, unless we hit the lottery or my wife suddenly gets a huge pay bump. But I figure it’s that way for everyone. Well, almost everyone. Very few schools offer livable money. I’ll be okay and so will you. Consider how much time the teaching load takes and gives. Don’t forget about summers. This is doable.

I'm not sure about the heaviest movement. I mean, I'm projecting here but i want to pull the trigger as soon as possible. (I'm actually having trouble declining an offer) What affects the speed of waitlist movement the most is the drag of acceptance and rejection. It's a month out from D-day and I'm still waiting on 7 official notifications. Of course there's plenty of overlap too. I'm on 5 waitlists, but I'm only waiting on one really. By the end of next week I alone wil be responsible for a one point movement at two schools at least. That doesn't count my waitlists because if i'm last, i may not move them at all. But yes, this will easily continue into May which will make housing an issue for many. then there's the separate waitlists for funding - which is just fucking cruel. that fucks shit up for a lot of people.

This. and there's more coming.