Mxxyr

Declined my offers from NYU, Brown, and UMichigan. Congrats to the new admits!!!!! Much love ❤️

Many programs in the NYC offer deferral’s for a maximum of one year. I would inquire directly with the department. You may have to “apply” for a deferral but many times that means just explaining your circumstances in an email. A good friend of mine was able to defer an acceptance at an NYC school for a full residency MFA. Not sure how low-res works in that regard. Good luck!

Current students! ❤️

The email from Willis (Iowa) stating "your application is still under consideration" is, in fact, a kind of waitlist. It's not ranked; it's a group of their top. It means in the event someone does decline an offer from Iowa, they don't have a student ready to fill their place. Instead, they go back to the entire group of their top applicants, re"consider" and re-deliberate the entire waitlist. I hope this clears up some confusion!

For those of you who are on waitlists and are losing hope -- I 1000% respect and understand that a waitlist in certain ways can be even more nerve-racking than an outright rejection. I want to offer maybe a small glimmer of hope? Without causing anyone any more stress; I really hope I don't add to that. I've spoken to multiple people in each accepted student cohort from multiple schools (in each genre) that are actively debating other offers. Some people who aren't on grad cafe or draft. I've been scrambling to talk to as many people as possible both incoming and in the programs themselves as I really dig deep and try and make the 'right' decision for myself. I'd hate to hate my MFA experience, so I really am no closer to deciding what in the actual hell I'm going to do. I just say all this to say: I think there will be substantial waitlist movement this year. I don't want to give information that's not mine to give, so I'll speak for myself. I'm debating offers from NYU, Brown, Iowa, and Michigan for poetry. I have to turn 3 of those down. Others are debating attending other programs from all over. If you're on the waitlist, don't count yourself out just yet!!!! Much love to all ❤️

EXACTLY EXACTLY YUP YUP!!!! Congrats on Brown!!!!!!! ❤️

Thank you! That is very sweet. I couldn't even imagine being in this position. Just 2 weeks ago I was reeling from my JHU and BU rejections and a soft rejection from UMASS-Amherst (my original first, second, and third choices!!). Needless to say I am absolutely overwhelmed, and after the last year of my life it feels surreal to have this kind of 'happy dilemma." I would rank NYU lower than the other three in terms of whether or not I can attend. I want to sit in on a class with Claudia Rankine to see what it is like, and I have notified them of my other two offers to see if they can offer me more than half tuition remission. But, I can barely survive in NYC (I live in Brooklyn) on a full salary job. At this point, NYU is looking a little ludicrous as an option. So, right now, it's between UMich, Brown, and Iowa. Because I just heard from Brown today, my brain is lagging behind in processing the position I'm in right now, so I'm gonna go to happy hour me thinks! But if I'm going to be completely honest. . . each of these packages are incredible, and each of these programs has its incredible pros and its not so incredible cons. My fingers are trembling as I even try to update my personal spreadsheet, but I have only seen the funding package in full for UMich and Iowa. Brown will come in a couple of days and I'll have all the info I need to really see what's feasible for me. I don't have a lot of savings and I have 2 cats, so any decision I make I feel is a huge one. I've lived in the Northeast my whole life, and my family is still here. So, I can't just yet declare there is one offer among the 3 that I'd absolutely accept yet. And also, everyone in my life has a different opinion of where I should go, so that never helps aha. Currently, as of right now, I am just completely filled with awe and gratitude to be in this position at all.

Thank you so so much you all. ❤️

I didn't inquire directly but he did say he had more calls to make in the coming days!

Thank you so much I really can't even fathom this. Much much love to you all ❤️

I can’t speak on fiction because I didn’t inquire directly about that, but I do know they are fairly early in the process of notifying poetry prospectives.

I don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up or down, but speaking with Elizabeth Willis I learned: Iowa only accepted 20 poets this year. Still accepted 25 fiction writers. They *just* started making calls. We may not even get our funding packages for a few weeks or so. And she said that the poetry department especially likes to take their time. The convo I had with her was fairly long. So I assume they are finding times in the day to set aside to make the acceptance calls and have enough time to talk extensively with the prospective student. good luck everyone regardless!!

Re: rando twitter Iowa user. Hi all, I just wanted to pop in and say you all are incredibly impressive and the world needs your art. Never stop writing. You’re not behind. You’re exactly where you’re supposed to be. I have never been published in anything. I’m 25. The most I have is a substack. I don’t have teaching credentials I really don’t have anything but a BA. I’m a bit of a no name. I live in Brooklyn. I’ve done readings where I’m the only unpublished poet reading. Where all the other poets have published or have forthcoming pieces in big name magazines. It’s always made me feel insecure. And it was hard for me psychologically to put myself out there, so I’d begin to submit somewhere and would just never click the send button. My father passed in February of last year. He was my biggest cheerleader in everything I did. Putting myself out there became even harder. But I decided to apply to MFA programs anyway. Pushing past the feeling that I had absolutely no publishing or accomplishments or anything that would grab their attention. I’m now weighing offers from NYU, UMich Helen Zell, and the Iowa Writers Workshop for poetry. Keep going. Keep trying. You don’t need to world to tell you you’re amazing to do what you want to do. You’re amazing because you’re showing up for yourself and doing the work. Ive quietly read this thread for months and I believe so many of you have the empathy and awareness of true writers. The world needs your words. Someone is always listening/reading. Much love to you all