3feetofsnow

Sorry for the confusion! I hope I DO receive that email tho…

I’m not ready to call it an R just yet bc we haven’t heard anything about either poetry or fiction but it’s not looking promising, no

copy-pasted from the spreadsheet: "This year we’re trying out a new stage of our admissions process, in which we invite some of the strongest candidates (this is you) to an optional brief zoom conversation about the program and what you’re hoping to get out of an/our MFA this week." Acceptances/waitlists expected to go out by the end of the month @Scribe I’m also in for fiction I just mean in general that’s all we’ve heard from them in any capacity

I’m still wondering what’s going on with U of Arizona, the spreadsheet says they’re adding an interview step to their selection process but it still looks like only one nonfiction applicant has been contacted and there’s been silence since. They also said acceptances and waitlists are supposed to go out by the end of the month, so you’d think they’d have set up more interviews

Sort of glad to have missed all the insanity around Michigan sending stuff out lol, even if it means another official unofficial rejection on my list 😔 still 4 more to go for me tho, and I’m trying to stay positive! If nothing else, either of my Ws could still turn into As eventually. If I don’t get in anywhere, I want to apply again next year, but the whole reason I’m applying is that at this point it’s hard for me to see the weaknesses in my own work, so I don’t want to make the same mistakes and have to go through the same thing all over again…

I think numbers-wise it could have just been an extreme outlier, especially since the same thing doesn’t appear to be happening this year. Maybe that person really was just that good, haha (or that unique, where they could round out basically any program). They also might have tailored their application to each school. But yeah, I do think at the end of the day most schools are looking at the writing above anything, even if they do have particular things they favor.

The person you are talking about got waitlisted at a “less selective” school so there’s still hope for us waitlisters🕯️

I know, right? I want to know what they did that I didn’t haha

I’m inclined to believe it, that person was the first to log their acceptances from both Madison and Vandy right before a wave of them hit so looks like they’re just quick on the trigger

Some programs notify by call, some by email, either way the acceptance is valid

Oh man an acceptance was just logged for Michener. It’s someone who got into UW Madison so here’s hoping they free up some space and the waitlist starts moving…

I’m down to Brown and Michigan (long shots to begin with) along with USC (still hoping…), Rutgers-Newark, Arizona and Georgia College. I’m trying to stay positive but it’s hard!

From the site: 2023 (closed) Creative Nonfiction, Poetry 2024: Creative Nonfiction, Fiction 2025: Fiction, Poetry 2026: Creative Nonfiction, Poetry Oh wait yeah that’s by application year very weird to do it that way…

I’m definitely getting more nervous now that I’ve heard back from as many schools as I have left (if you count the unofficial official vandy rejection) with no As yet 😬

I’m not sure, there’s no contact info on the email/in the portal? Online I’m only finding resources for Litowitz and nothing for a second MFA program

Another one bites the dust (Cornell rejection for me). Yes, the soft rejections are hard, I still have no idea if I should even be holding out hope for a USC waitlist bc there’s only acceptances logged so far on the draft sheet

Oh no, I’m so sorry! Which program is it if you don’t mind me asking?

No worries! Yeah, the MFA is generally considered the terminal degree in creative writing so if you get a PhD it would usually be in English with a specialization in creative writing

Does it say MA or MFA? @Scribe I saw that too and idk but I’m really hoping to hear from them soon. Getting three responses in one day last week is really wreaking havoc on my expectations, haha

Right, and also timing in the sense that different types of writing are more or less in vogue at different times, just like with your hypothetical about the classic novel! Omg congrats! Hoping some of this energy rubs off on me, haha My reactions replenished right as I went to put a heart on this, maybe that’s a good omen XD

Right, I think it’s a feature of having the writing sample weighted so strongly over every other aspect of the application, that being the most subjective component. Even people who review writing for a living often can’t agree on the relative quality of different authors’ works (or even multiple works from the same author)! Whereas with science programs, many of the things that matter most to the app reviewers are already quantified for them. I agree it would be nice to have an idea of where you stand, and I do think there’s at least some degree of predictability if you were to go in and do a quantitative analysis of the spreadsheet each year, but not enough to really give any individual applicant an idea of their chances at any particular school. But at least it allows those of us with multiple rejections to hold onto hope!

There are definitely some schools that don’t allow you to pursue an MFA with an MA, while some let you progress through the MFA program more quickly if you have one. You’d have to look at or contact the particular MFA programs you’re interested in to see what their policies are. also, hello fellow snow-themed username!

I don’t know, I actually think that’s a good thing. Otherwise you’d get the same people accepted into every program in the same exact order and just go down the list, and talent and skill are so subjective that you can’t really quantify them or decide who’s incontrovertibly “the best.”

I looked at a lot of advice articles while applying, and from those posts it seems that sometimes having writers who are too similar isn’t desirable. Having diversity in styles can make peer review better because someone who writes more similarly to you might have a harder time critiquing your work. Basically they said it’s a crapshoot because you never know what other people are bringing to the table. A lot of it is down to the particular tastes of the readers and the particular pool of applicants, which are of course impossible to predict. Hopefully the As will start rolling in soon!

Thank you!