heliogabalus

You may also want to hold off on the snobbery.

Yes. And if your fellow classmates repeatedly told you incorrect information in the hopes that you would miss deadlines, miss out on fellowships, and fail assignments, would you think that was a supportive environment since it is ultimately your responsibility to know that information or would you think they were being jerks? If you don't think it's cut-throat to do that type of stuff, you probably don't need to worry about the atmosphere of different programs.

It's a shame your Ivy would charge you for language training. I'm guessing this is Columbia's MA program?

Just in case: I was joking in my response. So many of these 'What are my chances' threads seem to just be seeking out affirmation: "Dear Gradcafe, longtime lurker here. I want to apply for a phd in French literature--I majored in comp lit at a prestigious American university, I'm getting an MA in French at the Sorbonne, and my wife is the head of the French Dept. at Yale. Do you think I have a shot? Or should I become a chimney-sweep?" Do you really think your qualifications are going to hurt you?

Ehhh, probably no chance of getting in.

Sorry you had such a rough experience, and I hope your rest back home brings you some solace. Make sure that you really want to be a teacher, though. There are lots of jobs involving books, literature, writing, etc. I think that often students who love literature think they have to be a professor or an English teacher to indulge in literature, and that's not true. Also, I teach high school and love it, but it is not a relaxing environment by any stretch of the imagination. While psychological difficulties shouldn't prevent people from following their dreams, I don't think it's unreasonable to warn someone with acrophobia that becoming a tightrope walker might exacerbate some of their problems.

To whom? Wait until you see what work you are doing before you put it on your CV, and I would just use the official terminology: "full tuition scholarship." Maybe I'm off on this, but to me funded implies a fellowship/stipend of some sort, not a scholarship.

I know they're trying to promote 'literary fiction,' and I can understand that they aren't looking for writers that want to write The DaVinci Code, but it seems like they could just weed out bad writing during the admissions process. I think this is why MFAs get a bad names sometimes, they look like they intentionally churn out stories bemoaning suburban ennui.

In Canada isn't it called an MAA?

That's weird--I understand screenplays if they don't have a screenwriting track, but writing off genres of fiction seems closed-minded--especially since they brag about an alum who writes genre-fiction: westerns. They also seem happy to use a webpage from 1993, so...

PDH, I think it depends on what your goal is afterwards. If you're mainly interested in translation, I think Iowa would be the way to go. Plus, you could probably do a PhD there in English since a lot of lit. trans. students are doing both. If you're young (I'm not) and starting out, the extra time at Iowa might be a good thing instead of a drawback.

Canadian? Ok, ignore everything I said--I was going by American rules.

I'd check out Pitt's summer program. Pitt is the big place for Slovak studies. http://sli.slavic.pitt.edu/content/east-european-languages

I hope it works out. I think a lot of it may depend on where you are and what the tuition is. If it's a phenomenal stipend and it's a less expensive school, like CUNY, then it may make sense. But if it's Claremont or Chicago and the funding will not cover the tuition and fees (and then some), then it's a different story. I'm crossing my fingers the other schools work out so you can leverage them against each other and pick the best option.

Will the funding be enough for you to cover tuition, fees, and living costs? If not, I wouldn't take it.

(There aren't any Ivy League schools on the West Coast.)

The P&W rankings are ridiculous. They are not even based on the total number of applicants to a program--a number which wouldn't be tough to calculate--they are based on the considerably smaller number of applicants who applied to those programs and then told Seth Abramson.

(I also took a number of fiction and poetry classes while I was there, and I think they were as beneficial to translation-work as the straight translation courses.)

Sarah, I went to Queens College (CUNY) for the translation track. There was no funding from the college, but my work helped with the tuition--and since I could continue working while I studied it was probably the most affordable option.

Wow--that's mind boggling. I can't imagine a professor, or anyone outside the most narrow-minded student, thinking something like that, much less suggesting it.

I sometimes wonder if Junot Diaz's complaints about Cornell are a bit disingenuous. In his "that shit was too white" article, he mentions 2 other classmates who were people of color. That sounds like way too few, I agree--until you remember that Cornell only has about 8 MFA students at one time. Was the MFA program larger when he was a student there? (I have an MFA from a newish, not-on-anyone's-radar program, where one of the major strengths of the program was its diversity.)

Their, while Iowa doesn't sound as supportive as some other programs, they probably do the best job of getting their students published and teaching jobs. That may probably makes the experience well worth the pressure. Also, some programs might be a bit too supportive and reluctant to actually critique work. From my limited experience, you want a balance. I would only choose a program other than Iowa's if they are offering a much better funding package--and even then, I wouldn't be certain it's worth it.

Cut-throat. I have a friend who said that when she was there, classmates would give each other incorrect deadlines for funding applications, etc. Maybe it's different now, but she was only there 5 years ago.

Missouri seems to place its creative writing phds fairly well.

October, those are two great programs. I'd be very wary of skipping out on either of them to try for Cornell or Iowa next year. With MFAs, admission is so hard to gain, not only might you not get into Iowa or Cornell--you might not get into WUSTL or OSU again.