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Everyone!!! I've been off the forums for a couple of weeks (for my own sanity), but my application round has officially come to a close... with an acceptance from San Francisco State University. I got the email last night and I'm still kind of in shock?! Trying not to let the imposter syndrome tell me it's not the achievement that it is. SFSU was the only program I applied to that isn't fully funded, so all of it will depend on whether or not I get any scholarships (I applied by the priority consideration deadline), and I'll probably want to apply to some other fellowships on their list. But I would be able to stay local, continue working part-time at my current job, and not have to rush my wedding this summer. NC State is still lingering out there, with waitlist decisions expected May 1. I'm not as wedded to it as I was before. If SFSU was meant to be, then I will take this as a sign! It's made me so proud to see all of your accomplishments, and I'm grateful that you all made a space for me here. You are all phenomenal writers with infinite promise, and life is full of chances. If there's one thing I've learned since submitting work professionally in the past couple of years, it's that a rejection is ultimately meaningless. Your acceptance is out there, your moment will come, and in the meantime, cultivate your craft and your love for it, continue to make it yours, and cherish the connection you have with your words, when it's just the two of you in a quiet room, and no one is listening. That will be your anchor, I promise! Much love! EDIT: Also, while all of this was going down... I made my first paid sale for a story earlier this month, in a magazine that I LOVE. The story had been rejected 5 times, subbed around for over a year. NEVER GIVE UP!

I have nothing exciting to add just that one of my best friends drew the art in your icon and it gave me a much-needed laugh ❤️

AZ rejection came in right as I was joining a Zoom meeting. I had to be like 🙂🙂🙂

I didn’t apply, but I love SMC! I did my undergrad there (in French, mind) and know Marilyn Abildskov pretty well. I also have an uncle in the Brothers’ community. Fingers crossed for you, their MFA program was just beginning when I went there and it seemed like they were really, really invested in their students. Plus the campus is beautiful.

Thanks! It was at around 5:30 PM Pacific.

OMG. OMG. I’M WAITLISTED AT NC STATE!!!!!!!!!!!!

I mean I assume they’re thinking that far out because of waitlists, but if you’re concerned you can always email them yourself. They were perfectly cordial and responsive. Good luck!

Hi everyone! Thought I would drop in and share this for the folks waiting on word from Arizona. I reached out to them recently and asked if they had a rough timeframe for when in March to expect decisions (mentioning that I had some things up in the air and was trying to plan around them accordingly). This was their response: Thank you for your message. Admission decisions remains in process and typically continues through the end of May, and occasionally through June. All decision notices will be sent to the email address listed on your application file. We understand that this spans the course of several months and we appreciate your patience as we move forward with the admissions process. I suspect that they will be taking a while this year, and this was also a helpful reminder that not all programs are going to be shooting off all their decisions before March 1—if anything I think I've gotten a little spoiled by these super early notifications, lol. EDIT: Another update—I shared this in Draft but not here, but I also called NCSU earlier this week to ask if they could clarify the change in application status from "Awaiting Decision" to "Department Review." They said this just means the application is with the admissions committee. I alluded to the fact that acceptances and waitlists had gone out and said I was assuming I didn't make it to the final round. Direct quote: "Unless you receive a definite 'no,' you still have a chance." Deep breaths!

CHEX, OMG!!!!!!! This is so wonderful! Congratulations!

I come bearing news of today's minor heart attack: I logged in to my NCSU application and the status has changed from "Awaiting Decision" to "Department Review." Which seems like a step backwards somehow? I suspect this means that rejection (or, who knows, maybe a waitlist!) is on its way this week. Also, over the weekend, I saw I had an email from "The University of Arizona" in my Updates tab (which only shows the sender). I had a brief out-of-body experience only to click in and see that it was their undergrad program asking me to complete my undergrad account creation. Because I created an undergrad account by accident while trying to access the MFA application. Classique! It's not weird to say at all—I feel the same way! :') Who knows, maybe our paths will cross in 2025; I'll definitely be applying again. Your insight is super valuable and it means a lot to me that you took the time to share it. I'm soooo happy that your hard work re-applying paid off and that you'll get to thrive at a program that's local to you!!! And with such amazing faculty, too. I will file away that networking might be something that they look for in an applicant and will do everything in my power to be as annoying as possible to them over the next year so that they recognize my name when they're forced to see it and read my sample again this winter. >:) Strength to everyone this week!

YEEEEEESSSSSSS!!!!!

Just curious if anyone has applied to and is waiting to hear back from NCSU still! I know someone here/in Draft got a call from Belle Boggs last week for fiction, but so far that’s the only report I’ve seen so I’m wondering if maybe it was an early notification? Possibly just completely deluded at this point but wondering if anyone is in the same boat… I’m still waiting on NCSU, Arizona Tucson, and SF State. :3 Yayyyyyy for all the acceptances!

Filing a claim as a victim of the Cornell Fiction rejectalanche of February 19 2024 o(—<

(waves) I did the same thing! I was really selective about which schools I was applying to and did a lot of research into ones that were provably open to “genre” fiction (a meaningless distinction if you ask me but whatever). It was wild to see one or two programs that literally said in their FAQ not to apply if you wrote specfic. The elitism is real & bizarre. I write almost exclusively specfic and went to Clarion in 2022, which I can’t recommend enough for writers of the genre. Similar workshops like Odyssey and Taos Toolbox are also, I hear, excellent. And the Lambda Literary retreat now has a track for speculative fiction! Clarion alumni have also gone on to get MFAs (Alyssa Wong & Carmen Maria Machado are the two that come to mind) after their time at the workshop, so it is possible! Carmen Maria Machado went to Iowa! I don’t think it’s a mistake to have applied as the writer that you truly are. If you had to deny the kind of stories you like to write in order to attend a program, would that really be the right place for you? There are many, many spaces out there for your work and plenty to discover. If you ever want to chat about Clarion or specfic magazines/submitting in the speculative fiction world, please DM me!! AND GOOD LUCK!

I think one of the most important things to recognize in these situations is that you’re up against an entirely different set of applicants than you were before, and possibly being read by entirely different faculty than before! The odds change so drastically from year to year, and when it comes to a rejection there’s no concrete difference between “you were equally excellent but we didn’t have the space” and “you weren’t a good fit.” It’s not remotely a reflection on your writing or your worth! ❤️

OHHHHH MY GOODNESS!!!! Congrats on getting into NCSU that is amazing! So happy for you!!! :’) Truly a dream program. I haven’t heard anything from them, so I assume I didn’t make the cut… alas. So happy that someone here made it in! AND JADEDOPTIMIST ON THE VANDY WAITLIST AAAAH! Big morning! ❤️

In the tradition of poet jadedoptimist: I need to be placed gently into cryosleep. I need to slip into a tank of pure green Jell-O. I need sensory deprivation. I need to be airlifted to a sprawling wheat field with no electricity or internet and reminded that in this massive world the only thing we really need to care about is one another. I need to shrink ten sizes and crawl into an oyster shell and take a nap there. I need my sole responsibility to be methodically watching every episode of Perry Mason until April. I need to have never applied to any MFA so that I can be cool and normal on Valentine’s Day instead of gnawing on the edge of my desk like, “What are they doing at University of Arizona RIGHT NOW????” I’m dying. As recommendations go, seconding A Song for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers! Also Never Have I Ever by Isabel Yap, The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo, The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin, The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner, and… all of Bad Machinery by John Allison (it’s a webcomic!).

I had a heart attack yesterday because I was checking in on one of the alumni I cited as an inspiration in my statement of purpose and realized I had used outdated pronouns for them!!!!!! I wasn’t really sure what to do since it’s been so long since I submitted my application materials and it seems like it would be a GLARING oversight on my part for someone I’m claiming is a career example for me—so I was like, they (the MFA department) must think I’m totally inauthentic… but it would have left an awful taste in my mouth not to address it. I emailed the Admissions Coordinator with a corrected personal statement and said that I’d realized I’d referred to the person with the wrong pronouns. I hope that didn’t just make things worse. 😰 Did I do the right thing…?

Delightful update this Monday: I logged in to my ASU portal this morning to check if there had been any movement, as you do, and just saw “We regret we were unable to admit you” as the application status. No other kind of notification, nothing. Just a fun little surprise waiting for me. First rejection of the season! It stings, but on we go… congratulations to those accepted! EDIT: Okay, I'm slightly less cranky... about half an hour after I saw the note in the portal I did receive a formal email from Justin and Sally notifying me that I was not accepted. As form rejections go it was considerate. Looks like I just got ahead of them by a few minutes!

Thank you, GoldenTree!! :') So wonderful to meet a fellow specfic writer. Just because I always have to give shoutouts to the workshops and residencies offered in the genre, friendly tip: If you haven't, consider applying to Clarion, Odyssey, Futurescapes, and/or Taos Toolbox! And yep, I knew about John Kessel. I saw he was still listed on their website in some places though so I'm not sure if he's still around in, like, an advisory capacity? I figured I'd name-drop him in my app just in case, and hopefully even if he's moved on the fact that he was there at all is a testament to their openness to scifi/fantasy, but the one I was truly devastated to miss out on was Cadwell Turnbull. Would have been ELATED to learn from him. (I don't know if you had this experience applying, but I feel like a lot of their resources are... out of date? Like they continue to list faculty members who I know for a fact aren't there anymore, e.g. Cadwell and John. Shrug!) Chex!! Thank you! Scary and exciting is one way of putting it :') Like, I'd be kidding myself if I said the rejection wouldn't hurt, but I'm also trying to remember that there are other avenues, just like there were last time. ❤️ The same is true for you! I hope you get everything you could have wished for. I majored in French in undergrad and honestly loved how much writing in another language changed how I wrote in and thought about English as a mode of expression. Most of the programs I'm looking at are translation-focused. French literature has a pretty rich fantasy scene or so I'm given to understand and not a lot of English translations? So I'd looooove to translate French speculative works! I'm wishing you the BEST of luck too.

HELLO EVERYONE, lurker-turned-poster here!!! I have been following your journeys and rooting for you all! I'm turning 32 this year, and work full-time at an office-job that's super supportive of my writing. I applied to MFAs straight out of college and was rejected everywhere, which was pretty crushing at the time! I decided to channel my desire to write into building & bettering my practice on my own terms. I was fortunate enough to go to a speculative fiction workshop in 2022 and it rekindled my desire to seriously improve my craft and approach writing in a structured environment!! So I was like damn... time to put myself through applying to MFAs again... because it was so fun last time. I didn't apply to too many places because I wanted to shoot for programs that are speculative-friendly or have faculty I really admire... by the end of it all I felt like I was just blowing smoke onto a page, sobs. I applied to University of Arizona Tucson, North Carolina State, Arizona State, San Francisco State, and Cornell (all for Fiction). I'm also applying for a couple of French MAs. If I get in anywhere it will be a HUGE shift in my life—my future has a lot of possibilities rn and I'm honestly going to embrace whichever one I get. Even if I don't get in anywhere, I've been able to cultivate a writing practice that meshes well with my career and has built so many wonderful connections for me in the speculative community, so I have faith that I can keep writing on my own terms. BUT I REALLY REALLY WANT TO GET IN TO NC STATE!!! Haha. I haven't heard back from anywhere yet. So: 0a/0w/0r/5p ❤️ Although the acceptance from ASU gave me a small heart attack yesterday. I have a feeling if I was accepted I'd have heard back by now... sigh... Also, for what it's worth: my Cornell application that was rejected in 2015 still just says "Submitted." I don't think online portals can be trusted unless you receive an email saying to check the portal for a result. So chin up! I am celebrating all of your wins with you and commiserating over rejections! Strength & faith & patience to all!