Tuxedocat

I got into Columbia for poetry this morning! 40k scholarship per year! 3a/3r/0w/11p

Congrats!!! 🎊🎉🎈

Congratulations!!!! This is amazing!! 🤩

I mean, it’s risky to give up an acceptance when the next round might yield nothing. But they should go to a school they’re passionate about. However, they should pick a school based on fit, not just prestige. I would suggest they go visit the school they were accepted at and see what they think. They can always try to reapply and transfer out of the program in a year if it’s not working for them. Prestige doesn’t guarantee jobs or publishing.

Hey everyone! Out of reactions for today so thank you for all the congrats! But I just wanted to respond to the general things I’ve been seeing lately and recent posts. This was my second time applying. Last year I applied to 9 programs and was waitlisted at the NWP at the University of Texas at Austin. I was rejected from the 8 other programs. I never made it off the waitlist at NWP. But I turned my frustration into motivation. This was not the first time in my life when people doubted me, and I knew it was because they could not see the potential I saw in myself. So I decided to show them. I read through my application again. I wrote about a project I would do if I go into an MFA program. So I just did the project on my own. I went through archives, read books on my topics, spent months researching and writing. I started writing the poems I vowed to write in my application. At the same time, I went to a summer writing workshop at one of the programs I hoped to attend. I took in every ounce of feedback. I sought out other writers to give me feedback on my SOP essay and my writing sample. I listened and changed and became a better writer. Today, as I mentioned, I got into Michigan!! I was rejected by them last year. I have 2 acceptances until my belt this season, 3 rejections, and I think 12 pending. This season is going great for me, but it’s my second try at it. It’s not the end of the world to try again. Please have hope. Please keep writing. Whatever happens, let it motivate you to try harder, be better. There’s always room to improve. And nobody can take writing away from you. ❤️

GUYS I GOT INTO MICHIGAN FOR POETRY OMFG

You only needed to submit unofficial transcripts. Only accepted students need to submit official transcripts after they have been accepted. I just checked their website again to be sure. So your transcripts had nothing to do with getting rejected (from what I can see). I didn’t apply to Vanderbilt this year because I mostly focused on 2 year programs. But I understand your sadness at a rejection; however, saying this as kindly as I can, knowing who got in won’t help you. This is meant to be an anonymous space so you would only know that some other anonymous person got in. And if you’re feeling so down or at risk of harm, please talk to someone. There are helplines and text lines depending on where you are located. This is not something to take lightly. Something else to think about: you want to go to a place that knows your worth. If a school doesn’t see that in your application, that is their loss. Prove it by writing anyway, and reapplying next year with even stronger work if you choose.

Did you apply to Rutgers-C for multi-genre instead of poetry? I wanted to apply but they said the only poet faculty member is on sabbatical so they wouldn’t accept applicants of only poetry.

It’s okay. Check your emails from December or whenever you submitted your app to NW. You should have received an email that your application was complete and to disregard the “Material Needed” status. If you have that email, you’re good. In related news, I’m really shocked that Northwestern hasn’t sent out rejections yet. If that poetry acceptance is accurate, which I assume it is, I would have thought they would come out yesterday or today. Here’s to another day of waiting 😭

Only data I have to offer is that in 2018 a poet got accepted Feb 1st via phone. No idea what is on there, but I imagine if poetry doesn’t conduct interviews, you might be hearing soon if you are accepted. But maybe they conduct interviews and no poets for years have recorded that on draft. You should know either way by end of Feb based on previous years, so fingers crossed you get accepted/interviewed! 🤞

I GOT MY FIRST ACCEPTANCE! In for Poetry at Bowling Green State University! Guys I’m so happy 😭 it’s my first notification of the season!!! 1a/0w/0r/16p

What’s throwing me off about Cornell is that their deadline was 2 weeks earlier this year than last year. Last year it was due Dec 15. So I keep getting paranoid that they’ll drop the results 1-2 weeks earlier than last year…which means any day now? But you’re probably right about it being next week or later. Their website says it’ll be out by mid-Feb.

Echoing @prufrock_ here. Last year, Minnesota only showed 2 acceptances on draft. In 2023, only 1 acceptance showed up. Lots of people either aren’t on draft or are on draft and don’t report all of their results. I’m only seeing 3 acceptances reported on draft. However, as mentioned above, 3 is a decent number. Also, from past years, Minnesota usually emails their acceptances. From what I can see, all the acceptances this year were by email. Last year, someone did get a phone call but they also got an email. Doesn’t make sense for Minnesota to stagger emails by days. However, I’m only seeing acceptances for Fiction and Non-Fiction, so it’s possible poetry isn’t released yet. I think it’s likely that they’re done with fiction and non-fiction acceptances. But anything is possible, so I’m wishing everyone who applied to Minnesota good luck! 🍀

Draft has a few fiction acceptances from FSU! Haven’t seen any poetry though. And congrats to all the waitlists and acceptances so far!

Grad Cafe has more info on UMKC than Draft. According to Draft, in 2018, someone was accepted on Feb 14. That’s the only info I could find there. Grad Cafe has the following data: 2023-March 3 acceptance (Poetry) 2022-March 4 acceptance (Poetry) 2021-Feb 19 acceptances (both Poetry); March 4 acceptance (Fiction) So you will probably hear back the week of March 3rd. Hope that helps!

Hey guys—sorry to pop in so randomly but I couldn’t not say something. Whoever posted in GradCafe said they got in at Wisconsin for fiction…but it’s a poetry year at UW-M. Either they made up their acceptance or they made a mistake when entering that info. It seems 2 years ago when it was another poetry year they released all decisions on the same day. So while it’s possible this year they decided to notify accepted students early, it’s not possible anyone was accepted for fiction. Hope that clears things up before any other poetry applicants to Wisconsin panic like I did 😅

Wait I’m so confused 😳 I thought people were getting an automated email via some portal update saying their apps were still under consideration. If the email came from Elizabeth Willis herself, why wouldn’t it be personalized and/or explicitly say one was waitlisted?

You’re the real MVP for always keeping us updated 😭 thank you so much! Wishing you luck with your decision—what a tough but awesome position to be in 🥳

It's also my first year applying! However, I have some stats from last year since that might be helpful. This year, more people have been reporting their stats in Draft. It's almost at 1.5k vs the 2023 one, which had just under 500 responses. That being said, 2023 lists 3 poetry acceptances and 1 waitlist for Iowa. In 2024, we have only 2 poetry acceptances in the sheet, but I think 2 additional accepted people in Draft did not post their results in the spreadsheet. So that is 4 acceptances and 0 waitlists for a spreadsheet recording about 3x as many results as last year. That is suspiciously low, but fiction is surely done with acceptances and they only have 5 acceptances in the spreadsheet.

Honestly, I have no idea. I mentioned on Friday I think that it seems like it’s over as someone in draft said they called and Iowa said they mailed all the decisions out. But it just doesn’t add up. They admitted someone that morning for poetry and hours later mailed out all the hundreds of application decisions? Or maybe they started mailing earlier in the week. But nobody received anything yet. All I know is that fiction this year has been ahead of poetry by around 2 weeks from what I remember, yet nobody has gotten their fiction rejection letters or seen a portal update declining then. Only a select few fiction applicants reported getting an email about a portal status update saying their application was still in review by the department. People are speculating those who got the email are waitlisted. No such reports of an email for poetry applicants. While seeing records of 5 or so Iowa acceptances for poetry online is a small percentage of the class, it is totally possible that the other accepted people are not online or have not shared it publicly. To me, what’s more telling is the lack of any waitlists. I know Iowa does waitlists a bit differently, so if they’re waiting to hear if their offers of admission are accepted, then technically they might not be done with acceptances yet. All that to say that getting an offer from Iowa at this point seems exceptionally rare, but until we start seeing those waitlist emails and rejection letters pour in, not impossible I suppose.

Do we think Iowa is done with poetry?? Someone in draft said they called and Iowa said they mailed out all the letters (including poetry) this week. It’s just super weird because this morning they did another poetry acceptance via phone. But maybe they mailed out the last of the letters immediately after. But I’ve seen no waitlists or anything from them; however, I heard they do waitlists differently or something so maybe that is normal.

It’s ok I’ve been there 🥲 I find it’s easier to assume a soft rejection and then when you finally get the answer you have already come to terms, but if by some miracle it’s actually not then hopefully it’ll be a pleasant surprise

I would say if you see an acceptance and a waitlist in your genre and 1-2 weeks+ have passed, it is probably a soft rejection. But make sure the acceptance and waitlist are your genre!! Otherwise, you can’t really be that sure.

Same 😭😭Iowa is my last hope of an acceptance other than my waitlist and it’s been my dream school for years. Every single day I just keep waiting for a call that seems less likely by the minute.

Omg congrats!!! Another rejection for me but so happy for you! 🥳 is this your first year applying?