snottlebie

yeah, same. I did hear that their grad coordinator person is extremely busy and ghosts the students themselves 👻. I wouldn't take it personally - some programs just do not respond to emails. Does anyone know if Iowa will actually send an email when all slots are full?

So sorry that this happened to you and the other waitlists at UMN.

That’s great advice! Definitely whittle your way down to a #1 (which also gives schools more time to reach out to their waitlists), while you wait to hear back. Be as prepared as you can be!

Take this with a grain of salt, as I’ve never lived in any of these places. However, I have done a lot of walkability research/visited some of these places. UIUC - smallish city so if you live close to campus it’s very easy to be in the center of things. The students all rave about the bus line - it’s free with a student ID (I believe… or you pay a mandatory fee you’d have to pay anyway) or $1 per ride without. Lots of buses, with lots of options - many students use the bus line and say it’s great. Good for biking. Have personally walked from campus to the bus station and from there you can Amtrak to Chicago. If you want to go elsewhere, outside of the city, you’d need a car. St Louis - certain neighborhoods are highly walkable and if you live near a Metrolink station your life will be easier. There’s also a bus system. This is probably the best purely walkable city on the list, but it’s also an actual city vs a city that’s grown around a university. Good bike community, though people apparently drive quite fast and the roads aren’t made with bikers in mind. Not as walkable as transit friendly places (as someone mentioned, Chicago, Nyc). It was at one point rated the 3rd most walkable city in the US and its own residents were in disbelief, so take that as you will. Bloomington - definitely hard to get here without a car. You can take a bus from the airport but the frequency is not always good. It’s small, so in that sense, it’s walkable and also bike friendly, but if you want to venture off campus, a car would be quite helpful. If you live downtown or near campus, it’s definitely easier to walk around than in other locations. There is a bus system but I don’t know how good it is. A car would be a good convenience here but people have managed without, though things like groceries can be difficult. [also not an expert on this one!] South bend - I don’t have the data on this one If you’re considering walkable places next year, Northwestern is pretty solid, as is JHU, depending where you live. Any NYC or Boston school, obviously (maybe this is all self evident). Hope this second hand account helps somewhat!

According to my partner who lived in upstate NY for many years - upstate NY is not super doable without a car. University shuttle buses would be your best bet, but anything off that track would be hard. Syracuse is easier to get to and to leave from without a car (Amtrak, Greyhound, airport) than say Ithaca, but it's hard to travel within Syracuse itself without a car (same goes for Ithaca, though Ithaca is smaller so it might technically be easier to travel within, but for all intents and purposes upstate NY is not wildly public transit friendly).

Can't quite remember all details but if I'm remembering correctly, someone who got into Syracuse for fiction also got into JHU and Cornell (and more, as well as waitlisted for Michener; apologies if I'm combining people but I do know there was someone with multiple acceptances who got into Syracuse). So there would likely be movement. I think someone in here might have known this person (?), but if anyone has any intel on where people with multiple acceptances are landing, feel free to share if comfortable. Or if anyone has intel on if any of the above schools/others have filled their cohorts. Might be too early, but it is basically April at this point.

Hey, so Indiana’s current base stipend is $24K (not counting fees). UIUC’s is higher, I don’t have it right in front of me, but it’s a little more than $25k (taking into account fees), and goes up in Y2. And currently they have an option for you to teach more for more money, but it’s up to the student (if you do a 2:2 you can get ~30-31k I think). Teaching wise, it’s hard to know what’s better! Obviously Indiana’s first year creative writing assistantship is better than comp (also you’re assisting sections, not the main lecturer). And they’re both 1:1. Y2-3 is where it gets tricky. At Indiana, you much teach comp all those semesters (at 1:2) with 1 course in your last semester being CW. At UIUC, it’s 1:2 in Y2, and 1:1 for Y3 (unless you opt in to 2:2). Similar thing with 1 semester getting at least 1 course of CW. Both offer at least 1 route for course release - working as the lit mag editor. At Indiana, this is a year long position and you get to not teach 1 course. At UIUC, this is a half year position and it’s good for 1 course release. So there is more to go around at UIUC (more opportunities for more students to be editor) and technically it’s a bit more bang for your buck in terms of course release. Current students have also said there are other options to avoid comp. You must teach it in the first semester but after that… there are options to teach outside of comp/rhet. They’re not guaranteed, but they’re there. At Indiana, the student I spoke with made it seem like there are no other alternatives outside the Indiana Review course release. So, it’s up to you to decide what is better! They’re pretty comparable but there are those small differences. Hope this helps.

They usually email applicants once they know.

Not saying to not take it - do what makes you feel most secure - but also that rushing to secure a spot in fear and giving up on waitlists is also not the best thing. (Nothing is the best thing - it's shitty all around.) Imagine if you were in that Northwestern cohort and basically half the group got their offers rescinded (IDK the numbers, but they only take 2/genre). Yes, it's good you're there, but do you want to be in a miniscule cohort? If community's an important thing, do you want to be at a place that had to cut a ton of people? We don't want this application season to be a wash and it may save you peace of mind to secure your spot, sure, but think hard about your decision. If I was the one person to say yes at northwestern and then they deferred the other person in my genre, I'd be devastated too. Either way, it sucks.

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.

JHU has always notified acceptances first, then waitlists, then rejections. Acceptances are not always posted.