seah0rse

he’s the academic department director, according to website.

having obsessively checked the data over the month, I’m pretty sure they were often notified on different days

the magic 8 ball also told me months ago that I’d get into Brown but I’m afraid that a tarot reading might reveal too much about the MFA journey as a whole 😅

I asked a magic 8 ball if Brown would release decisions tomorrow and the answer was some variation of yes. I also asked about Wednesday and it said yes in a different way. I did not ask about Thursday or Friday because it seemed to be as unreliable as checking my portal ten times an hour.

Hey popcorn! I don’t know much about Columbia but I do know that everyone I’ve met who has been thru UMass in recent years was very happy with their experience. The 3rd year was especially helpful to folks for focusing on their thesis, and that’s when the mentorship from faculty is the strongest. There’s a lot of support for the teaching component & opportunities to teach CW classes. The Valley has a vibrant literary scene & UMass students have opportunities to meet visiting writers / earn summer funds by working Juniper programs / the MFA students seem to regularly run reading series or work for lit mags. I’ve heard no complaints about workshop culture (I think size of cohort is actually a benefit, not detriment, in the workshop), the craft classes are interesting, and you can take electives to support your book project. I don’t really understand how we’re collectively measuring prestige but it has been a respected program & produced many successful / talented writers. They frequently invite alum back to teach workshops at Juniper or give readings, talks, etc. I’m happy to say more if you have specific questions.

Most of my stories are under 1k 😅 I do get very tired, as a short story writer, of having to come up with a new idea every time I want to write. Sometimes I just want to spend 30 pages with one character by the sea or whatever. But I’ve really developed that brevity muscle (I hope), just as novelists develop endurance. Also, for my sanity during midterms, I’ve decided Brown is going to be silent until the 15th 😅 thanks for the update!

a handful of people on the forum & the draft doesn’t mean it was everyone! still something to feel good about i think!

Idk if this helps but I was panic-imagining a scenario (with very limited understanding of money & universities) where STEM research funding does get cut & then the university looks at the novelists/poets & says “why are we paying them again?” & reallocates my stipend to something arguably more important. I asked a program director if the MFA was at risk in all of this & the response was basically that the university takes a very long time to make any changes/decisions, so if something were to happen, it’s very unlikely that any changes would go into effect during my time at the school. being amidst the whiplash of admissions / this current administration has done some damage to my nervous system 🫠 but asking the school outright what they’re dealing with did alleviate some anxiety.

ok ok I know the data is flawed but it does look like in past years they called a few people in advance & accepted others via email on the same day they released other decisions. it does feel healthier for me to brace for rejection - but we only know of one phone call to fiction.

at this point I wanna know how you're going to decide 😅 is there a particular program standing above the rest for you?

one of my programs sent me an email basically saying I got the Job with the Writing Program before I'd even received an acceptance from the MFA department / before my portal changed - it was hours until the MFA followed up with an acceptance & my portal still said "under department review" - it's like they don't even talk to each other?

congrats!

Providence is a great town as far as small New England cities go! check out riffraff books while you’re there!

hot take since brown’s been my dream program for a long time too, but perhaps there are programs out there that would allow you more cross-genre play & have faculty that would be wonderful mentors for your work! I don’t believe there are really safety schools in the MFA world because it’s all such a gamble (tho obvs a cohort of 4 is more selective than a cohort of 10) & we can’t really tell based on lists & websites what the actual program vibe will be, yknow? been really helpful for me to talk to current students elsewhere & learn about the kinds of support they’re getting from faculty for their more experimental-leaning work!

I have no special intel but I did spend all of my seminar yesterday looking at previous years data for Brown 🫠 - seems like poetry followed day of/day after playwriting, but it is a Friday so news might not come til next week? & there were some acceptances that came thru about a week after initial round, closer to the 15th.