bibsy

oh my god, you guys. ut austin mistakenly sent me a rejection email tonight. i responded asking for clarification on whether this meant i'd been removed from their waitlist, and their coordinator sent me two apology emails stressing that this had been an error and that he was sorry for causing me unneeded stress. well, now i feel like ut austin and i are even after i messed up my interview time last month. 🫠

that's incredible! congrats!!

didn't hear anything from yale or iowa re: interviews, so it's all riding on this ut austin waitlist, i think! (unless i happen to nab a fiction acceptance, which i don't suspect will happen. my app was not as strong for those programs, frankly.) kirk is scheduling calls with all the waitlisted candidates, so he and i are speaking next week. would be magnificent to get in this cycle, but if it doesn't happen, i'm very grateful to be building a relationship with the program and will reapply next cycle for sure. 💜

to be fair, based on past results, it looks like iowa sometimes extends offers at the end of an interview call. i don't think that fast turnaround time is out of scope for them. i'm also surprised to see results from them this early on, but it's not unheard of for the outreach timelines of these programs to suddenly experience a drastic shift. i mean, yale used to notify in early february, and that's certainly not the case anymore! don't get me wrong - i'd love for iowa to extend more interview requests, and boy would i be thrilled to learn that more of those are on their way. just want to temper my own expectations, lol.

WashU is also pausing admissions rn. “recent federal guidance that requires careful interpretation” is certainly in regards to recent executive orders declaring no funding will be offered to entities engaged in DEI practices. those orders have been shot down by a federal judge, but the matter will def be escalated to the supreme court, meaning the consequences are just... in limbo. there's been a stringent crackdown on scientific funding, too, which is why WashU is held up - i believe their arts and sciences departments fall under one umbrella? not to mention the existential threat to the DoE. fun times abound.

i've been completely reabsorbed into the the world of the fiction podcast dreamboy, which is probably my favorite piece of art ever made. it's surreal and tender and erotic and breathtaking. i had the chance to hang out with the creator, dane terry, in new york a few weeks ago after admiring his work for the past five years or so, and we had a wonderful time. i'm a real "depth over breadth" kinda gal when it comes to content consumption.

fwiw, if it's an acceptance call, i think you can use it as a chance to celebrate, especially if phone calls aren't your forte. with job offers, for instance, i always express my gratitude and then offer the disclaimer, "i'll have to review the details of the offer over email, as i process information better through writing. when i formulate questions, i'll reach out that way."

i love reading y'all's good news!! congrats to everyone with acceptances!! over on my end, following my interview, i'm holding down a waitlist from UT Austin for playwriting. the head of their program was very kind and offered to schedule a call with me to discuss their process and encourage me to reapply if this year doesn't pan out. otherwise, it looks like iowa playwriting interviewed WAY early this year, so i'm counting that a soft reject. yale is still on the table, and boy oh boy are my fingers desperately crossed. no luck so far on fiction, but if nothing comes of those apps, it's okay! i did not go into this process prepared - it was a last-minute decision following a sudden layoff - and if this isn't my year, i'll take the time to actually workshop samples and shore up a stronger application. rejects/soft rejects so far from uc davis, csu, and ucsd. still waiting on uc irvine (i'm one of those fiction applicants who's still in limbo!), uc riverside, and university of houston. good luck and god speed, friends!!

@Mday and @mranderson97, between the three of us, somebody's gotta elbow their way into a spot! rooting for us. 💜 and congrats on the success with the festival circuit, @atreus85!

according to some others, fiction deliberations are ongoing at irvine, but poetry decisions have been made. since some fiction rejections have already gone out, if you're a fiction applicant for uci and haven't heard anything yet, i'd say it's reasonable to be hopeful! i don't have insight into the other schools, unfortunately.

there's an unofficial "results" page here on gradcafe where people self-report their progress. scroll up to the toolbar at the top, and you can find it right under the "gradcafe" logo.

thank you, guys!! and congrats to you as well, @Mday!! i think iowa is probably real as well, especially since the notice on the results page referenced lisa by name. would be a super weird thing to lie about in a pretty niche community.

thank you! i'm very hard on myself, and this was the school where i had my best shot, so i'm a little bummed - but i know that i'd be celebrating a waitlist for a school that selective if anyone else were telling me the same thing. 💜 i sure wish i had more insight into other schools, lolll! i'm considering iowa a soft reject right now, assuming the reported interview request on the results page is honest. if that was a fluke and more invites roll out around their usual time, then that's a happy surprise. otherwise, my only other remaining school for playwriting is yale, which i am confident enough to hold out hope for but not delusional enough to hang my hat on. all crickets on the yale front so far.

waitlisted at UT Austin. very aware that this is still an accomplishment! but it does sting when the semifinalist pool was quite small, and the implicit understanding post-interview is that applicants at that stage will be sorted into an "accepted" or "waitlisted" bucket. :(( ahhh i am certainly no stranger to this situation, though. i was waitlisted for CMU twice for undergrad and came off the waitlist my second year. and kirk was kind enough to offer a call to discuss their process and to encourage me to reapply next year, which i'm sure i'll take him up on.

thank you so much! and HUGE congrats on your acceptance!! (i love your signature sunflower emoji, btw. so cute.) i'll forge ahead with my tepid optimism, in that case!