snottlebie

Ah gotcha, maybe I read too fast and missed the earlier context of the convo. Someone had mentioned prestige (more so in IU vs ND I think, but also with UIUC in play) and since ‘prestige’ is so nebulous, I wanted to share what I knew. I do think stipends are quite important, but yes, a few thousand either way doesn’t matter *too much* (the point at which it starts to matter being very personal). A 2nd vs 3rd year is a big consideration. The time you get to spend on your work can’t be discounted, but if a shorter program has better vibes and people you connect with more, wouldn’t you rather spend your time in that program? So I get your point! Teaching load definitely matters to me, but in the context of Magnolia, who said those components were all equal, then yes, it comes down to faculty. I would caution that sometimes you don’t see much in their work, but they may be excellent readers of your own work. This can be hard to know ahead of time. Always worth asking current students about mentorship availability.

Hey, curious how you came to those conclusions about the programs? (Or is that focused on the poetry side of things?) I do think in terms of prestige UIUC is pretty underrated - its stipend is higher than notre dame, Indiana, Syracuse (I think), and Iowa, for example, with a low cost of living (slightly lower or equal to all those listed above, though not a big difference). It has more teaching than ND and Iowa but also has that 3rd year. I’ve heard that frequently there’s a lot of crossover with Illinois and Indiana in terms of who they accept. Both are very welcoming to speculative work or literary/spec.

Don’t have any insider knowledge but judging from the Draft spreadsheet and posts here I’d guesstimate 15-20 if not more. It’s ‘short’ maybe in comparison to the cohort size, but still sizable, unfortunately. (Ex. Virginia Tech admits 4/genre but the fiction waitlist is 22 people. Syracuse admits 6/genre but waitlists 14. So a 25 person cohort probably waitlists at least 25, but it depends on their retention rate. More selective schools most likely have smaller waitlists.)

Congrats all! I’m also on the waitlist! Curious if you all crossposted to Draft Spreadsheet or not (trying to gauge how big this waitlist is)

No one rejects you by scheduling a call. Rule of thumb - if they want to speak with you, it’s an acceptance.

It’d help to know what specific info you’re looking for, as there are a lot of facts one could give. If you join the Facebook mfa draft group, and use the search function, you’ll find posts from current students that give helpful info, or you could always message them directly with specific Qs. Good luck on the journey!

Idk if you’ve looked at the previous replies, but WashU has allegedly paused admission for grad students coming into School of Arts and Sciences (which houses English dept and thus mfa). So, they’re probably waiting on an institutional level to see if they have to make cuts to admissions.

There is a google doc floating around on gradadmissions Reddit that lists schools that have frozen or reduced grad school admissions or certain programs. WashU is listed (in the unverified section of the document) as pausing admissions from the School of Arts and Sciences, which would explain the delay.

You should have until April 15 to decide - it’s the “April 15 resolution is an agreement among the signatory graduate schools to provide applicants until April 15 to consider offers of admission that also include financial support.” Making you decide earlier is not something they can do, as Iowa abides by the April 15 resolution. Of course, maybe they didn’t word it like “you must decide.” But just an fyi

Might be too soon. Probably best to wait for a time where they could give you more info - mid to late March earliest. Nothing will have changed from when you first contacted them because people are waiting for all their offers.

Yes, go to their profile and then there’s a message option

Mr Butt we are rooting for you! Anyway, just came here to hop on and agree with you - so far I have 1 acceptance and 2 waitlists and several rejections and the overwhelming majority of responses have used the legal name despite asking for preferred name. I know it’s a system thing, but it seems easily fixable. Even my acceptance letter has the wrong name (though the emails/calls from faculty used the correct name). It seems so silly/deeply messed up to ask for preferred name and then refuse to integrate it into the actual system.

Excuse my ignorance, what’s a letter of continued interest? Is that akin to replying to a waitlist email saying, I’m still interested?

I believe there were already 2 poetry acceptances from around 2/11 in the draft spreadsheet, as well as some waitlists. Sorry 😔

Michener fiction acceptance posted in draft - they wrote that there were over 900 applications for 4 spots. So, still quite a bit of applications for one of the worst (in terms of human rights) states.