MegHe

Today's pretty rough, ngl. Got my Oxford, UVA, and Iowa rejection all within four hours of each other.

UVA waitlist on the draft ☠️

Currently melting into the ground with a weird mix of anxiety/dread/hope/more dread/too many cups of coffee

Ok I'm out of reactions for the day but congrats on the waitlist and good luck!!!

Thanks for the info! Who knows - depending on how things turn out, I may reach out to see if you know any closets available for rent 😅 Good luck with funding!!!

Haha my anxiety really needed to hear this, thank you. ....I'll just CC the program manager in my next follow up Can I ask, is NYU your top choice? I'm still waiting on some schools still and wasn't sure if it was a big faux pas to say "you're my top choice, please let me in" to more than one school if I later get waitlisted or even admitted somewhere else.

Ok this is a great question and I second it - I replied back directly to the email, because initially I thought the program manager was just for the low-residency MFA in Paris, but on NYU's website he's just listed as the graduate program manager for the creative writing program. So...I have no idea but I def want to make sure I confirm interest to the right party!

Good luck!! Let us all know how The Ultimatum™ goes!

Right? Right?! Haha I'm so ahead of myself - I could well be on the bottom of the waitlist. I can only reiterate my interest in the program and limit myself to checking in with them like...once every 4-6 weeks. (Unless that's bad -- someone tell me if that's a bad idea!)

Congratulations!!!! Thank you!!! Can I afford NYU with just the half-stipend? No way. Am I still jumping up and down in a random coffee shop? 100%.

Waitlisted at NYU!

What a bold thing to put in a substack 👀

My heart rate just spiked

Nothing from UVA yet...in recent years they've called admits on a Friday/Saturday, then emailed waitlists, then sent out rejections the next Sunday or Monday. So it's fairly likely we'll hear back one way or another in the next five days or so. ....Not that I've obsessively researched it or anything.

Sorry just replacing my candles, don't mind me... * Turns on medieval chanting playlist * Puts on black hooded cloak * Looks at goat, says "okay, the goat was a bit much," sets goat free, goes back to chanting Just a totally normal Tuesday night.

🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ UVA Acceptance 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️

Is it common for MFA programs to not accept from their college undergrad pool? I applied to UVA's MFA as a UVA alum, but I wasn't in the English department and I graduated nine years ago. I love everything I've heard/researched about the program - and would second any recommendation for the school!!

Video game wise: a weird one I absolutely loved recently was My Life as a Teenage Exocolonist. It's a growing up/dating sim in space, with monsters and mysteries and it gets pretty meta at one point (you're supposed to play it more than once, kind of Kate Atkinson Life After Life-y).

*Spends the rest of my day staring at my phone*

Thank you! It's about a woman who gets lost on a mountain when she's a kid in New Zealand, and how that event kind of follows her for the rest of her life.

Ok minor (unrelated) writing success today! I've submitted stories to the New Yorker before, and never heard back on any of them. (From their website: We regret that, owing to the volume of submissions we receive, we are unable to call or e-mail unless a story is accepted for publication.) In January, I submitted one of the pieces I used for my grad application and THEY REPLIED! They still said it wasn't a fit for their magazine, but they said THERE WAS MUCH TO ADMIRE ABOUT IT! This may be the most excited I've ever been about a rejection 😆 I feel like being a writer is so much about finding ways forward through rejection. Especially waiting on grad school admissions, it's nice to get something that encourages me to keep writing, and to try again.

Hey! It looks like folks started getting accepted January 28th from the University of Minnesota per the draft, and the waitlists went out February 7. Sorry to relay that info -- rooting for some good news for you! I think folks generally don't share the draft spreadsheet outside of FB because it's a moderated private group and folks haven't consented to sharing their personal info outside of that group. I hope that makes sense!

OMG CONGRATS!!!!

Yesterday, I didn't focus on a single thing, almost cried when someone asked a totally innocent question about the grad school process, and just kept turning the dryer back on so my clothes wouldn't judge me for not folding them. Today I dragged myself out of bed for an early morning yoga class and I feel much better.

(Technically Iowa but counting it as a soft rejection atm), UVA, NYU, University of Oxford (interviewed last week), and University of Edinburgh. Everything is fine 🔥 I'm fine ☠️