Boxedwine

Anxiety is really high. But trying to work and write today on a play that's getting produced in the fall. Trying to stay busy and remind myself that a program isn't what will keep me writing.

Oh neat. It's entirely possible my obsessive spreadsheet had a mistake.

@jamesprongs101 ditto to the sentiments about Yale. Ditto the extreme. Last year interview calls for Yale went out on the 24th. In 2014 on the 25th. And in 2013 on the 22nd. What? I didn't make an obsessive spreadsheet with information from this forum going back to 2010. Not me. A friend. A friend made it.

@newengland1 Congrats on being a semifinalist for O'Neill! What other schools with late deadlines are you considering?

@lrb0192 congrats on the interview! That's fantastic. I didn't hear anything so I assume that's a no to me this year. Please tell us how it goes! Still waiting on Yale, Brown, and Iowa. Fingers crossed I get in somewhere.

Austin has notified it's top candidates and let the others (who got interviews, presumably) know that they are no longer under consideration. And I'm one of the ones no longer in the running. As usual, still waiting to hear from Iowa, Yale, and Brown. And to hear back from UCSD if they want me to come to an in-person. We'll see. Good luck out there.

Good luck to you, Barista! I didn't apply to those schools but I haven't seen any chatter about them on MFA Draft, either. And I keep reminding myself it's only the second week of February. So there's still time. Google/Skype interviews are definitely the worst. I've officially decided.

Hi all, It's been a whirlwind week/end for me so I've been remiss in updates. UCSD: Deborah Stein and I talked on the phone for about 30 or 40 minutes. The majority of the phone call was about my work, how and why I write. And then a little bit about why UCSD and why grad school. It was a lovely freewheeling conversation that I think went pretty well. She told me that the next steps would either be another phone interview with Naomi Iizuka or an in-person visit (assuming they still want me). She's unsure if there will be second phone interviews, so she didn't confirm that. I did ask if UCSD was taking two candidates this year or one and she said that it's unclear at this time. This is the program I drool over, so I'm really hoping I make it to the next round. UT Austin: I was on a google hangouts chat session with Liz Engelman, Kirk Lynn, Steven Dietz, KJ Sanchez. This was a quick and dirty interview that they were trying to keep to a tight 15 minutes. (pro-tip: make sure your mic works. mine apparently didn't but it all worked out.) This conversation was not focused on my work (they didn't even reference it) but focused almost entirely on why grad school and why Austin. It was a down to business question and answer at 7:30 in the morning. So I have no idea how it went. They said I was one of twelve finalists. They said that I would hear back this week but they didn't specify if there would be to set up an in-person visit or just a, "You're in" or "You're out." Still no word from Yale, Iowa, or Brown. Anyone else? How are folks holding up? I got my official rejection from O'Neill but it had a little P.S. at the bottom saying that their readers were highly complimentary of my script. Does anyone know if that's common practice for them? Do they put that on all their rejections?

Email today from Deborah Stein at UCSD to set up interviews. I'm so excited! Anyone heard anything from Yale, Iowa, or Brown?

@briglee Congrats about the O'Neill! That's huge! And I just remembered Sewanee Writers Workshop applications opened up. Naomi Iizuka and Dan O'Brien are teaching this year. http://sewaneewriters.org/

@jnp809 Thanks! For what it's worth, I think they are doing them in batches. I was only asked to interview on Tuesday in a two hour period but they said they could potentially do Monday with another group of applicants, but would prefer not to. So maybe they'll send out the Wednesday batch today? @Barista I applied to both. They didn't specify if the interview was only for one program. It will be one of the many questions I plan on asking withing the 15 minute slot they've given me. It seems like in the past people have been invited down for an in-person interview, so I don't know if that's happening this year. Or, if this just a pre-interview... Who knows. I applied to O'Neill, Lark, PlayPenn, BAPF, and Seven Devils. Haven't heard anything back about those either. Those are the big opportunities I know of for the summer.

Got an email from Kirk Lynn UT Austin asking me for a 15 minute interview over google hangout next week! Anyone else?

Good luck, folks. Excited to hear back in the next couple of weeks. Let us know if you hear from any place. Better to know than not to know.

Hi all, I've been a long time lurker on the site, but this is the first year I'm applying. As of today, all of my applications are done in terms of what I needed to provide. My recommenders have a deadline of 11/25. I tried to get everything done at the same time as not to make myself crazy for months since most of it is a waiting game anyway. I've applied to Yale, Brown, Iowa, UCSD, and UT Austin Michener and UT Austin T&D. I'm not expecting there to be much discussion on here until the waiting game begins (if previous years are an indicator). Just wanted to say, hello and good luck to everyone who is in the thick of it right now. That being said, it looks like Yale underwent a full transformation in terms of curriculum this year. Paula Vogel is no longer teaching Boot Camp and their is a much fuller roster of required courses. Is anyone on here currently there that could speak about the change? How they're fairing, if they like it, etc.?