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.

brown playwriting acceptance dropped - seems like poetry follows according to previous years' data - fiction after that. here we goooo 🫠

just wanna say that I had similar doubts in the fall while preparing my manuscript & then I listened to the audiobook version of "body work" by melissa febos on my commute & literally started crying on the bus because it was like febos was giving me a personal pep talk against all of this nonsense about not having anything to say & the doubt didn't totally poof disappear ofc but i heartily recommend it to all writers

hi! I'm actually currently in undergrad (non-traditional student) & only one of my recommenders came from a prof. my other two were from writers I worked with more than once in workshop settings. I would prioritize workshops over retreats because the latter is more about generating work on your own than workshopping. & because they can be costly, I would look into week-long programs that you could reasonably travel to or apply for scholarships (if available). I attended the Juniper Summer Writing Institute at UMass Amherst because I live nearby & I didn't need to pay for lodging/plane tickets & there was a writer I really wanted to work with. Juniper is a week-long intensive & I made solid writing friends from my cohort & also scheduled a manuscript consultation before applying to MFAs. (others to consider are Iowa's Summer Program / Tin House / Breadloaf, Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown but funding varies?) I did one program that was nearly a month in another country & while I made some solid friendships with fellow writers, I didn't super connect to my workshop leader. it doesn't always work out quite the way you want it to. I've also attended a handful of online/virtual workshops - some that were just a single day & others that met once a week over a month or more. I wouldn't ask someone I only worked with for a day to write me a letter, but I formed relationships with writers who I'd worked with virtually over a longer period & felt that they got to know my writing well enough to speak to it in the LoR. often I looked up writers whose work I loved & found that they were teaching a class online (especially true during pandemic) or found where they had taught in the past & looked at that program's upcoming offerings. other benefits - you befriend your fellow writers & find more resources by talking to them, which leads you to more programming / classes / opportunities. and of course you get to workshop your stories which eventually gives you a sense of what your strongest work is. I've been rejected by lit mags many many many many times but somehow my sample kept getting me into competitive workshops, which helped me stay afloat through rejections of all kinds.

first lemme say hooray for the latest batch of good news! been rooting for all of you & so glad to see wins roll in. when I started thinking about the mfa, I had a definitive list of 8 or so schools I wanted to apply to & felt that I’d move anywhere & risk anything for the opportunity. but when it came time to apply, I kinda changed my tune. I’m less enthusiastic about uprooting my life again after moving so often in my 20s / I didn’t want to be an expensive plane ride away from my family / I have a relationship & solid housing & strong community where I am. so I applied to just 2 schools. not necessarily because my partner did or did not want to relocate, but because I felt that relocating next year might be too destabilizing & thus impact my ability to do well in the program. a mentor advised me to only apply to programs I truly wanted to attend so my list dwindled from 8 to 4 to just 2 😅. I figured I wouldn’t get in anywhere this year & I’d take a year to recalibrate/prepare for big changes & reapply to the programs further away. But, to my surprise, I did get into one of the two. Now I kinda regretting limiting myself - because I want to know if I’d have made the cut at the other programs & might feel differently about moving if I had options. feeling the uncertainty & anxiety extra hard rn as I wait to hear back from the other program. so much to consider for a process that is a complete gamble to begin with 🫠

@spewilicious & @Tuxedocat re: UNH / congrats! - I'm super familiar with the area because lots of friends/family attended, Durham *is* a cute New England college town but there are also lots of nearby towns (Portsmouth, Dover, Kittery) with artsy communities & the ppl I know who went for MFA were very happy with the program. lmk if you have any questions!

also hi - new to posting but have been lurking / cheering / miserable /anxious alongside all of you. joining the conversation now in anticipation of Brown decisions (next week?) - which has been my top/dream school since I decided to pursue the MFA a few years ago. at this point in the process I've exhausted my immediate support network 🫠 or they don't really understand the stakes/what it means to me. one of my mentors is on sabbatical this year & I'm trying not to overload them with emails. but I expect whatever news comes in March to hit pretty hard. I really appreciate that this forum exists & that we're not alone in what sometimes feels like a deeply unhealthy process 😅