Magnolia Electric Co

That makes sense, that's a lot of good reasons! I also felt kind of cosmically drawn to Minnesota (though I didn't get in).

@Eloise2897 I'm curious - what makes Minnesota your dream school? I really like them too!

Those descriptions are so helpful, thank you! I think I'll have to do some soul-searching about my poetic goals - I would say my poetry is both traditional and interdisciplinary, with a focus on translation. So I will have to figure out what direction I'm most looking to push it in. Thank you so much for the insights! @Tuxedocat I will be curious to hear how your conversations with Wash U poets go! I got my information from a current student on draft, so I am really a third-hand source here, but yes you are welcome to DM me (or I'm sure you would be welcome to DM a current student as well for a more direct report - a few responded to someone's post asking to connect with students at Wash U a little while ago after waitlists went out).

Thank you so much for the helpful insights! Yes - I feel beyond lucky to even be in this position at all! I am "near the top of a short list" at UIUC, Indiana, and Notre Dame, so I think those would be more likely than Wash U. I also heard that there might be some poetry-specific issues at Wash U, which give me pause. It's really helpful to hear those differences between Indiana and Notre Dame. I'm relatively happy with the stipend/cost of living, teaching load, and location for all of the schools, so I am digging around to try to figure out what differentiates them all!

Thank you for sharing your thoughts! I am also excited about Ninth Letter and have similar reservations about cohort size - though my other programs are pretty much only 4 people, and I imagine 3-year programs will have a bit of a larger community overall. Notre Dame seems wonderful to me as well (though from the poetry side!).

@prufrock_ I am also waitlisted at UIUC! It looks like you're likely to head to Rutgers, but I'd be curious if you have any thoughts about UIUC as I'm trying to figure out whether it should be one of my top choices if I get in. Also @Chex if you don't mind sharing I'd love to hear what you have heard about UIUC! My other waitlists are Indiana, Notre Dame, and Wash U. I am really struggling to figure out which should be my top choice (if accepted, of course) so I would love anyone's thoughts on this! My sense is that Indiana and Wash U might have more prestigious reputations? But I don't really know. Which would you all choose?

Wow - thank you to everyone for those incredibly thoughtful and helpful responses (too many to tag)!! That's a great point that funding can both lead to prestige, and be a proxy for prestige, since great funding can draw great applicant pools. I have definitely noticed a correlation between having a prestigious reputation and a large stipend + light teaching load (though I don't know which came first, the reputation or the benefits!). And of course, I don't want to pretend that reputation/prestige is irrelevant - just like for undergrad, I'm sure there are a lot of inherent benefits to going to a prestigious MFA, whether it's faculty or agent connections or something more nebulous. I think I am just trying to wrap my head around what I should be prioritizing in a school. Especially because, when people refer to rankings, as far as I know the most recent ranking was in 2012! So I imagine a lot of programs have changed since that ranking was published. This cycle, I did not think I would have a shot anywhere, but I have been shocked to find myself accepted or shortlisted at several schools in locations I would live in, with a livable stipend, a manageable teaching load, and faculty who seem great. From what I can tell, they are not top ten schools, but are considered fairly "reputable" by the mysterious MFA lore. So I am both thrilled and trying to understand if I should be jumping at these opportunities, or hoping to reapply and get into an even more prestigious program. It seems like the former - I just wondered if there was something important I was missing!

I applied for poetry and have not heard anything yet, even though rejection letters were supposedly postmarked 3/7.

This might be an odd time to ask this question, but maybe it will serve as a distraction from Brown (where I live, by the way, so maybe I can exercise some cosmic power over results). But I've been wondering: how did people choose which schools to apply to? From what I can tell, it seems like many people apply to the same 10 or so schools (Iowa, Michigan, Wisconsin, Brown, Michener, Vanderbilt, Hopkins, Cornell, UVA, Syracuse), and potentially others as well. What makes these schools so universally appealing? What factors do folks consider when deciding? I'm curious because I came into this not knowing much about reputation, so I mainly looked at funding/teaching package and faculty (which do often align with reputation). But I was surprised to find such a consensus about where to apply, especially when it doesn't align with funding - for example, I would have thought Illinois would be even more popular given its funding and faculty, and until recently Syracuse's funding/teaching package was not very good. So I'm wondering what compels people to make their school lists, in case I end up doing this again next year. Sometimes I feel like I'm missing all this unspoken MFA knowledge!

From the draft spreadsheet, it looks like some acceptances went out last week for poetry and fiction, and at least one rejection too. I did not apply there myself but was wondering recently if I should have! Could I ask what you liked about their program that made you decide to apply?

@Mystic_Sunshine @glowingbrightly Thank you so much for the helpful responses! It makes sense that being a TA vs. "instructor of record" would make a huge difference. And that teaching creative writing would be less work, and more enjoyable work, than teaching comp. From what I can tell, many of the most competitive programs do have a 0/0 teaching load the first year. But I think (correct me if I'm wrong!) Indiana and Illinois have a 1/1 teaching load in year 1 and 1/2 in year 2. It looks like U Mass Amherst has a 1/2 load all three years, and Syracuse has a 1/2 load in years 2 and 3. So it does seem like a fair number of popular programs ask for more than 1/1. I know a lot of people are interested in these programs, so I wonder if they are happy with the teaching load, or if they don't consider it when applying. I didn't think about teaching load at all when I was applying, but now it feels very important. I'm curious if anyone else is in the same boat!

I know none of us have actually been through an MFA before (in creative writing at least), but I was wondering if people have thoughts on how much teaching is too much teaching. Some of the programs I'm looking at have a 1/2 load, or even 2/2. I know many programs are just 1/1. Do folks think 1/2 would be too overwhelming to balance? And does it make a difference in workload if it's composition/rhetoric teaching vs. creative writing teaching?

I believe someone from this forum was accepted for poetry a little while ago, and today I got waitlisted for poetry (as did some other folks on draft). Based on their email, it seemed like they are likely done sending offers/waitlists - but I don't know anything for sure

I ended up just responding with a thank you email, hoping they will let me know if they've made a mistake. It seems most likely that they just forgot to BCC the person whose email it was addressed to.

Thank you for the additional thoughts about 2 vs. 3-year programs @Mystic_Sunshine @OctopusCactus! Location and a potential third year are both great things to keep in mind. I hope to at least somewhat enjoy where I live, and I won't have anywhere to rush back to after the program, so hopefully I wouldn't mind having a third year. I feel like I will be trying to write a book either way, and I could either be doing that with funding and mentorship or while starting a new job. Also, something kind of strange happened with an email from Wash U today. They emailed to let me know I was on the waitlist, but addressed the email to another applicant (I assume I was BCC'ed). I am not sure if they meant to BCC everyone and slipped up with that one person, or if they didn't mean to email me in the first place. I wonder if this has happened to anyone else before!

Thank you for all the thoughtful responses! It seems like in a vacuum, three years would be preferable, but there are other factors than might be more important than length. That makes sense. I have been thinking a lot about program length because I am on a shortlist at a few different programs right now that (at least to me) all seem equally great, but one is two years and the others are three years. The 2-year program seems incredible, but when I picture picking a thesis advisor in year 1 and applying for my next job/move in year 2, it stresses me out a little! So I am just trying to find ways to distinguish between them in case I do end up getting an offer. I find it so hard to assess fit!

Do people have strong feelings about 2-year vs. 3-year programs? I can see advantages to each: 2-year programs allow you to gain the degree more efficiently, but 3-year programs leave an extra year for things like thesis writing. Three years seems ideal from a writing standpoint, but so many amazing programs seem to only be two years. I feel like it sounds hard to relocate, then take courses, teach, and write a thesis all simultaneously in 2 years. Wondering if this is a major factor for anyone?

I was an undergrad there and I can confirm it is definitely a more experimental department!

Thank you to everyone who shared their thoughts on the "prestige" question! I have found it so difficult to figure out what a "good" MFA program looks like - let alone a good program for me specifically - so I have defaulted to applying to highly-ranked schools, without a strong sense of why. It's really helpful to hear all those different perspectives. I'm always curious about what draws people to specific programs (beyond concrete factors like stipend, teaching, location, etc.). It seems like connecting with faculty's work is maybe the biggest subjective factor that might cause a program to be a great fit for one person and a bad fit for another. I wonder what else makes people's taste in programs vary so much. (This was probably a better thread for pre-applications than post-applications 😬 but I've become extra curious as results roll in and people are discussing their top schools)

I suspect this has already come up before, but one thing I am still trying to understand about MFA programs is the concept of rankings/prestige. For instance, I know Cornell, Michigan, Johns Hopkins, etc. are considered very prestigious schools, and more people apply to them than other fully-funded schools with similar stipends. Does anyone have a sense of what goes into "prestige"? Is it really just reputation, or does it have to do with publishing records of alumni, or famous faculty, or name recognition, or a high quality MFA program, or....? Sorry for asking such a vague question - it just seems like something that everyone implicitly knows, so I've been curious about it for a long time!

Thank you for your reply! That's a good point. I guess maybe the larger question is, what kinds of things set those programs (or really any two MFA programs) apart? I know concrete facts like 2 vs. 3 years, faculty, teaching load, and that sort of thing, but I imagine there are also a lot of qualitative differences that are hard to find just through looking through school websites. I was wondering if there were things known to be especially positive, or not so positive, about those three programs. Unfortunately, I am not part of Draft - otherwise I would definitely do that!

Hi everyone! I am a first-time poetry applicant, and I have been so grateful for this forum while I've been wading my way through my applications. The amount of collective wisdom and support here is truly amazing. As someone with little knowledge of MFA programs, I was hoping the hive mind might be able to help me get a better sense of a few programs: Illinois (UIUC), Indiana Bloomington, and Notre Dame. Really any thoughts would be helpful - facts, opinions, hearsay, comparisons, speculation... The only information I have is what I can find on the schools' websites, what I've learned so far from this forum, and a sketchy Poets & Writers ranking from 2012. Although I am a poet, I am hoping to learn more about the programs in general, so any thoughts at all would be much appreciated. Thank you so much, and I hope you are all making it through these months okay!