molemola

I have no idea, I'm sorry!

nope! a different school. I also didn't get the extra funding, ha.

My understanding is they have 3 funded fiction, 3 unfunded fiction acceptances offered at the moment. Idk if this is helpful, but fwiw, I only just formally accepted an offer and released my other acceptances today. I was waiting on a decision about extra funding from the university (not the department), and it took forever for that to get processed. I would imagine a lot of decisions like that are taking longer this year, and that might be impacting how long people are holding off on making a decision, pushing waitlist notifications out.

tbh I think JHU makes their dept admin hit send on every rejection single-handed or something, they always take so long to send Rs

I'll PM you!

I declined a space at GMU before interviews happened, so hopefully that helps someone get funding. This week, I'm also hoping to get information on an additional fellowship from one of my schools. Once I have a yea or nay on that I can make my decision, I think.

tbh lots of decisions have gone out on weekends this year! so I'm not terribly surprised.

It's hard to say - definitely the first impressions and consistency with which people are responding and engaging with me matters. There are other factors (length of program, funding, teaching load) that matter too, though. People I've talked to about this who have gone through the process (mostly alumni from my spouse's program) told me to just go off vibes, though. In other news, a result from my last school has hit the spreadsheet. Different genre, though.

Poets & Writers has a great list to start. I think, generally, it makes sense to apply to residencies that are free or offer scholarships, or are more targeted demographics wise (e.g, Cave Canem), easy to get to/regional. Make a list that way, budget for fees, and then if you have any fee money left over, go for the big ones like Yaddo and MacDowell. oh, and edit: about a third of the students in my partner's MFA were trans, and a few more non-binary, so I truly hope the landscape hasn't changed that much. hold out hope!!

I'm going to need miffy to drop the memoir asap. Also big green coat and their poetry collection.

I think you missed my point.

I do think lit and genre fiction have very different norms. My partner writes more literary/surrealism, and their impression is that for literary fiction, MFAs do matter.

I just wanna say I am very impressed with the acceptances here. Threadmates are killing it.

Yes, for fiction!

Yesterday I got a lot of news - acceptances from George Mason (I checked the portal) and NC State. And also the rejection from Helen Zell that everyone else in the back half of the alphabet got, heh. I'm still processing. I don't have all funding info, but GM is closer to our in-laws than the others, so that's really compelling, for childcare reasons. I'll just have to see what shakes out.

UMich decisions have started to pop up on the draft. I'm surprisingly anxious about it - I guess I felt more strongly about UM than I thought!

I am feeling antsy, too. There are some programs local to us that should be notifying soon... or should have notified by now. Staying local would make childcare so much easier (we're near the in-laws). Intellectually, I knew that was a gamble when I applied to the programs I did, but ultimately I knew my fiction might be kind of a hard sell, so I cast a wide net. Anyway, I'm coping by imagining my favorite professors at each program giving impassioned speeches about why I should be accepted/on the waitlist. That's why it's taking so long. Yup.

Was this just yesterday?? Congratulations!!

For a lot of schools, the graduate departments may make their decisions about who they'd like to accept, then send their lists to "the graduate school" (which just means the bigger dept in charge of all graduate, not undergrad, education) for final approval. They may want to reach out to accepted people or waitlisted people ahead of the graduate school's processing time, because they're hoping to schedule accepted students days, or because they're enthusiastic. Or maybe they need approval from the graduate school before they make different tiers of calls or offers. Another potential reason is they're trying to make sure they fill their cohorts each year, so they may accept people, wait a bit and see if anyone responds, then send out waitlists, then wait a a bit until some people make decisions, and then send rejections. Or the software they use to send out decisions is fiddly and they need to do things in a certain order or it won't work in their system. Personally, during my first round of graduate school, I worked in the dept office during admissions season, and there was a mistake because of someone on the adcom being inattentive. Since then I've had a different perspective on this kind of thing. edit: I think certain schools do notify all at once - Michigan, I think, does.

It was a very young program in general. Most people in the program were at least 1-2 years younger than I was at the time. Reflecting on the whole of applications, my experience with my spouse's MFA program, and publishing in general, I'm glad I'm not trying to go to school 10ish years ago when I was in my early 20s. I think I'm one of the writers who is better when seasoned.

Most people in my spouse's MFA (which they completed a few years ago) were younger than us in our late 20s/early 30s.

I suppose I write odd stuff. Although, my "artistic lineage" is a lot more pulpy and typical SFF than you may identify with. My sample included one very out-there story, think Kelly Link but country, and one more straightforward story, still with spec elements, but formally boring.

Looks like Amherst interviews (fiction and poetry) are up on the draft spreadsheet

I'm so glad the rejection trip is resonating with people! This is how I have processed all my major life disappointments. Road trips are especially good for this, though I think it might not be wise to just... drive through America at the moment.

I am feeling very LFG about this all! I think the key is to plan a fabulous vacation you get to go on if you don't get in anywhere. If I get in, woohoo, if not, ATHENS. edit: will not be going to Athens because I just got an acceptance to UIUC!! Over the moon and shocked?? And also very much debated posting because it feels LESS ANONYMOUS NOW somehow but whatever, I would want to know if the shoe was on the other foot, so here I am.