OctopusCactus

I did an MFA program where there were very significant funding imbalances. I don't feel it created a weird dynamic within the cohort. No one knew how much funding everyone else was getting, it wasn't something people talked about openly and in detail.

Yes, blunt and direct asks are more likely to yield something than a vague one but you still have time! People are negotiating their funding packages now and have been for weeks though, so if you want to go back with a more specific ask don't wait. I will add, because someone down-thread said they suspected that Columbia's big-name faculty would not be that available to students, that that's not what I've heard from people who went there.

First off, have you tried negotiating for more funding with Columbia? Can you say more about what kind of fiction you write? SLC is known for being friendlier to speculative fiction than many other programs, like Columbia. I picked my program in large part because of the faculty and that has worked out well for me. Columbia's faculty roster is much starrier than SLC's but I wouldn't go by that alone. Which faculty has more people you'd be really psyched to work with? Whose faculty is doing work that feels in the vein of what you aspire to do yourself? Columbia is a pretty professionally oriented program. There are classes on editing and publishing and classes taught by agents and editors. It's a good networking school, so if you see yourself potentially wanting to pivot into being an agent or working in publishing those resources could be useful. I haven't heard about similar resources at SLC but I don't know as many people who did their MFAs there. The other thing to understand is that in the Columbia MFA you'll take more classes each semester than at SLC. This is either a plus or a minus, depending on how much bandwidth you have in your life for seminars and how much you want to do craft study in addition to having workshop.

I know people who successfully negotiated for more funding with Columbia. They were really direct and said something along the lines of, I really want to attend but you've offered X and I need Y to attend. Can you close that gap? There is literally no downside to trying. Ask for what you actually need! That being said, do NOT go into meaningful debt to get an MFA, these degrees have very little if any financial ROI for the vast majority of recipients. They are not a guaranteed route to teaching, publishing, or any other kind of employment.

If you got into New School this year it will probably be an option for you next year. I got in with their max tuition award, turned it down for another program, and was surprised that they emailed me like a year later to see if anything had changed and to find out if I was now interested in attending. I know people who went to New School who liked the program but they were all pretty well-off and the tuition they paid wasn't a meaningful amount of money for them. I would really discourage anyone from taking on debt to get an MFA. I've loved my program but there is very little, if any, financial ROI for most people with these degrees. They are NOT a guaranteed path to teaching. The key hiring criteria for most programs is having a well-regarded book, NOT having an MFA.

The "Don't pay for an MFA advice" is because very few people see real financial ROI from their MFA. Most people who want an MFA cannot self-fund so there's some bitterness in how programs that don't offer full funding get talked about, especially on Draft, which doesn't actually reflect the quality of the programs themselves. If you have the means to pay, there are a number of great NYC area programs that don't have great funding that become options for you. My program has a mix of full and partially funded students along with unfunded ones and I don't feel like it creates weird dynamics within the cohorts. People generally do not have details on who has what level of funding, or where their funding comes from if they do have it (some people have funding from their home country's government, external scholarships, and so on). Good luck with your apps if you do go forward.

This is totally program dependent, some schools have grad housing and others don't. How do people live on such small stipends? A lot of MFA students aren't actually living on their stipends, they have parents and/or partners who subsidize them. I would say that is the case for at least half of my cohort. People do it on their own, of course, but many don't and it's not like they've figured out some magic budget formula.

Be ready to talk about what you're currently working on, what you're thinking about working on in their program (this is not binding), why their program, and what you're currently reading. Good to have a question or two prepared to ask the interviewers as well, one which should ideally show you've researched the program. Don't ask something that's easy to google.

JFC. Do not worry. I was admitted to multiple programs you're applying to and I never took a single creative writing workshop during undergrad. My work history was in an entirely different, non-artistic field. The "submitted a body of work that shows growth based on teacher and peer comments" is totally BS. How on earth would an admissions committee evaluate if your work "showed growth"? It's not like we submit first drafts and then post-workshop drafts to compare them to or something like that.

Current MFA student here. There are a significant number of people in my program on student visas, including POC, writing about imperialism and colonialism (and queerness, for that matter). I have trouble imagining a US-based MFA program that is not supportive of students doing that kind of work. The day-to-day experience you have as a queer POC in the US will depend hugely on where you live (coastal city vs southern college town for example). This is probably common sense, but be aware that the people reviewing your visa application may look at your social media posts.

I don't think it's at all common but at least in my program it's not impossible, either. My classmate did have to explain the circumstances that led to her requesting a deferment. She had been hit with something very hard that was beyond her control. As you say, can't hurt to ask when you've already got the offer.

If you would still want to do this program in a year, why not talk to them about the possibility of deferred enrollment? A classmate of mine deferred for a year due to some challenging personal circumstances, prior to starting our program.

Could you see yourself pursuing any of the non-academic career pathways available to social science PhDs and MAs? There is some demand for social science PhDs in fields like U/X design, market research, and consulting, and those jobs can be lucrative (though they're also quite competitive). Many PhD programs are not the best at helping students navigate the non-academic job market but there's increasing pressure on them to do better on this. PhD programs have more structured resources to help students go on the job market than MFAs, but the social sciences academic job market is, like the creative writing academic job market, way oversupplied and competitive. Good luck with whatever route you choose, what great options to have!

Faculty are amazing. Has outstanding pre-professional resources and is great for networking. Students have to complete more credits than in most MFA programs so you have to be willing and able to balance seminars on craft study with workshop. It is a large program especially in fiction. If you come in ready to take advantage of all the resources it can be a great experience and launchpad from what I hear. But they also seem to admit a good number of enthusiastic but underprepared people some of whom kind of end up flailing. The quality of student work is not as high across the board as in smaller programs but there are some strong students.

I got in last round but ended up choosing a different program. I know a couple of people who have done MFAs there. One (recent grad) liked the fiction program a lot. Found the community supportive and encouraging and liked that the program had a lot of diversity in terms of what people worked on, everything from kids books to literary fiction to YA to speculative fiction. Another was there about ten years ago for nonfiction and didn't have such a positive experience. She struggled to find a faculty mentor who connected with the work she wanted to do and she didn't have a high opinion of the caliber of her classmates' work overall.