AyvaM

Hello all! I've been lurking on previous threads the past few weeks in an effort to get my application questions answered by those of you who have been here before, but I figured it was time to finally make an account and say hi. This is my first time applying to MFAs and I'm applying to 9 programs (!!) for Fall. This feels like a big number to me - and has been a terrible amount of essay writing, but the math on how many acceptances versus applications (~1-5%???) made it seem like I should aim wide just in case. I'm a poet and have a few publications but nothing particularly big or marketable to MFAs, if those are things they care about. In case anyone would like this info, my hopefuls are: Vanderbilt, Michener (UT Austin), Wash U in St. Louis, Randolph College, UC Irvine, Iowa WW, John Hopkins, UMich (Helen Zell), and Pittsburgh. Anyway, I keep vacillating between these two extreme spirals, one being that I get into NONE of the programs I applied to (or maybe worse in a way, get into solely the single non-funded one I applied to and then can't go because of money), and the other extreme of thinking that my writing sample is so stellar that surely EVERY school will want me, even Iowa despite the fact that I earnestly doubt I'm "marketable" enough for them. Just swinging between constant self-doubt and extreme unearned self-confidence lol. 🥲 I am possibly losing my mind. Is this relatable? Whatever. All my applications are in so now it's in the devil's hands.