itsgivingliterary

omg yay!!!! congratulations!

thank you! im crossing my fingers for you. i don't think it'd be weird to reach out, especially considering how nontraditional their app season has been.

welp. im in at mo state! and i have no idea what to do about it lol. that one thread on the facebook page is scary, but i...didn't have anything close to that experience. Mike seems like the real deal. ahhhhhhhh

yep! but i emailed the director when i first applied and my impression was that, as someone who applied in mid/late march, they expected much more apps after me and would be doing a rolling admissions type situation, so if you applied after me they may not have gotten to you yet and ftr im apprehensive bc small cohort and springfield MO seems like hell on earth in terms of politics/being a religious minority. mike seems nice!

im crying why do you have a waluigi trolling on gradcafe

I'd super appreciate any more info you got on them/the faculty! I applied last minute and am interviewing with them tomorrow, but am super apprehensive about actually going.

both the gradcafe + spreadsheet notifications were from today. more people were prob notified who haven't posted.

yeah im thinking its more this, or maybe she started with east coast knowing she wouldn't get thru all of the acceptances today anyway, or maybe one of a hundred other things. if this were a less popular school with a smaller cohort id be more willing to believe we just haven't seen any acceptances. tldr its not over till its over! and i bet the east coast group is pretty big anyway so there's hope for us yet

i saw that, but i'd be surprised if it was the case. in years past they usually spread calls out over a few days. and logistically, it's just her making all 25 calls. if she were really calling everyone today I'd also expect more results on the spreadsheet. but maybe that's just me coping bc im on the east coast lmao

I'd guess iowa is gonna start calling people around friday. last year the first notification came I think on the 21st, and I got my waitlist a week later.

yay congrats!

I'm in a similar boat as you! I'm a BA in CW, got waitlisted last year when I was still in college, and now I'm on round 2. I think my age was a factor, but I also think it wildly varies by school. One prof I spoke to at the school that waitlisted me told me they don't care about age at all, only the writing sample, and that makes sense, because I know a bunch of people who went to that school at this age/in their early twenties (and that's also general advice for MFA applicants: your writing sample is the most important thing, always). So my take on this is that age won't be the reason they throw your application out, generally. BUT, age can of course affect other parts of your application, like the depth and breadth of your writing sample, your background/experience in your SOP, etc, and that may affect their decision. Like, last year my SOP was pretty bad! Because I was young and stupid and exhausted from school! This year, I'm still young, but I did everything I could to polish the application I already know was somewhat successful. I didn't try to make myself seem older this year, because it's only been a year and that feels silly, but I emphasized what makes me and my writing ready for an MFA. And as for gap years...if I don't get in this year I'll prob throw myself into applying for a full time job, write another book, and keep on keeping on. But I'm really hoping that waitlist last year means something, lmao.

im writing weird shit! and applied with weird shit! My impression talking to mfa students/profs/alums is that literary spec fic is alive and well (and my impression of trade publishing is that spec fic is also having a moment, but that's a longer story). Hell, Carmen Maria Machado taught a horror workshop at Iowa last year. I don't think we have anything to worry about

Pretty sure Syracuse notifies Fiction people in mid-late Feb. Poetry tends to be earlier, though even these rejections are early for them, if I remember right.

omg congratulations! I find it so funny that they texted you guys--I'd assume I was getting pranked lol

anyone else see the ohio state fiction notification on draft? someone says they were accepted via text on saturday, which seems a little weird, but maybe I'm just trying to stay hopeful lmao

hell yeah!!!! congrats!!! In this spirit i will also start planning a trip--I hear Scotland is nice over the summer...

happy new year everyone! I hope it brings good news to you all What schools do you guys expect to hear results from first? I'm pretty sure Ohio State releases the earliest acceptances of where I applied, so my mid january will be scary and hectic!!!

yeah this is mega fucked. everyone I speak to about MFAs says that transcripts don't really matter--especially if you're getting As in your workshops? Like what? It feels like they're trying to police you applying to stuff, which is especially weird considering they admittedly don't know how this works, and they're doing it so late in the game! I'm furious on your behalf. I hope things work out with the new person you're asking! A random stranger is crossing her fingers for you!!

hey everyone! im hopping on for my second cycle applying. I got waitlisted by my top choice last year so i'm hoping to turn that waitlist into an acceptance! And if not...we stay silly. I turned in what will probably be my last application today, so I'm trying to celebrate that before I get consumed with anxiety waiting lol Also: any spec fic writers in the thread applying to Clarion? I just filled out my app, so now I'm waiting on that too.

manifesting for you!!!!!!! and if anyone knows if the iowa fiction cohort is complete, let me know. otherwise, ill take some manifesting too lol

as far as I know (which isn't a lot), not necessarily. I think it depends on whether or not the waitlist is ranked. If so, they might be able to make a decision faster, but I think many programs choose who gets off the waitlist based on the cohort, and who they think would gel. It might take them time to make that decision. But I'm also a hopeful waitlistee lol so what do I know.

thanks for the info! yeah I'm on for fiction. I wasn't super pressed about them not responding because I assumed they were busy, but y'know. It's still stressful, haha. Nothing we can do but wait, I guess!

any other Iowa waitlistees being ghosted by them lol? I sent two emails about being interested but didn't get a reply either time--not a huge deal, I assume they have a lot going on rn, but obviously doesn't feel great either

If it makes anyone feel better re fiction at Iowa, I have a friend of a friend who's a student and apparently it was a big year for them--close to 900-1000 applicants? so the competition was even worse than usual. Also I just got my JHU and UofArizona rejections back to back lol