2021 Applicants Forum

[Starbuck420]

1 minute ago, WhackAMole said:

I have seen ~4 for fiction between Draft and the Results page here.   I would expect a few more if they were done making calls, but that's just a guess.  

yeah, 4 would be shockingly few given the cohort size. It's possible that the other ~40 folks are just offline or not posting (or that they've radically reduced their cohort size this year), but I too would guess that more are on the way

Just speculation, and I didn't even apply, but there you go. I just feel like I've seen many more online in previous years. They also sent out the 'things are taking a while, sit tight' distress call a few weeks ago, I remember

[FairleyAlfy]

Hey Friends! I dropped off gradcafe for awhile...still continue to check draft pretty regularly because I could not completely be rid of my addiction to checking results, but I'm back here to hangout until I freak out again. haha 

Condolences to everyone that has gotten a rejection so far...hang in there! It is not the end of your writing, only the beginning. 

Congratulations to those who have received acceptances! So very happy for you!!

I feel like next week is going to be a big week! Someone said on draft that the university of florida will be notifying folks next week...ahhh It is definitely at the top of my list because of faculty I want to work with. I haven't gotten a rejection from Hollins yet which has put me in a state of sheer anxiety...lol I guess that is just a welcome to the club around here. 

[Ydrl]

13 minutes ago, FairleyAlfy said:

Someone said on draft that the university of florida will be notifying folks next week...ahhh It is definitely at the top of my list because of faculty I want to work with.

Florida didn’t even get back to me about a timeframe. At least all my transcripts got processed after a month.

[tubthumping]

Hey everybody! Long-time lurker, first-time poster here. I'm a 25-year-old applicant in fiction for this year. Applied to six schools, out of those was rejected from UMich and Syracuse so far, expecting rejection from UT Austin, still waiting on Brown and UC Irvine. The reason why I'm here is that actually just got accepted to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) with partial funding, and I was hoping for some advice.

So here's the situation: First off, I am very excited I got this acceptance! I love the city of Chicago, the Art Institute itself, and I know people who've gone through the program and enjoyed its less-conventional art-school approach to the MFA in fiction. But I definitely don't have the money to pay for SAIC out of pocket even with the assistance they've offered so far, and I'm suddenly paralyzed by the reality of having been accepted to an MFA program that's out of reach without loans. I'm fortunate in that my parents have offered to pitch in on tuition, but the usual wisdom here is that you really shouldn't pay for an MFA if you can help it.

Anybody have any advice on this? Should I decline this year if I don't get a fully-funded offer elsewhere, and apply again when I'm more financially stable or when I would be ready to just dive in with loans? (I'd love to know if I could defer & save for a year until the cost is more manageable for me, but I know that's not usually an option with MFA programs.) I'm still holding out hope for the fully-funded Brown & UC Irvine programs, but I also know it's more likely than not that I'm not accepted there. Or anybody have any experience with SAIC's program and can offer a bit of insight there?

Also, congrats to everybody on their acceptances so far, fingers crossed for all who've been waitlisted for programs they really want to go to, and I am also here raising a glass in commiseration to those of us with rejections from schools we really liked. What an emotional rollercoaster these past months have been, for all sorts of reasons.

 

[rcsteel]

1 hour ago, Ydrl said:

Florida didn’t even get back to me about a timeframe. At least all my transcripts got processed after a month.

They still haven’t processed mine ? I emailed to ask about it and they said it was fine. The Draft post was from a current student who was asked to share by a professor since they had so many people asking about timeframe.

Edited March 1, 2021 by rcsteel

[feralgrad]

20 minutes ago, tubthumping said:

Anybody have any advice on this? Should I decline this year if I don't get a fully-funded offer elsewhere, and apply again when I'm more financially stable or when I would be ready to just dive in with loans?

I was in your position my first round of apps. I decided to reapply after I calculated how much I'd have to take out in loans/the cost of repayment. I'd highly recommend checking out a loan repayment calculator. It's sobering.

The following year, I ended up getting TAship at a program where about half the students are funded. I love my program, and I consider myself so lucky to be here! I can also tell you from experience that having a job outside the MFA will seriously hamper your ability to engage in extracurriculars (lit mags, reading series, etc.) and form deeper bonds with your classmates. With the job market as it is, the MFA alone won't get you much; it's the professional skills and connections you build outside of class and/or via a TAship.

The good news is: If you're good enough to get a partially funded offer now, chances are you can get a fully funded offer next year -- especially if you start revising and workshopping your portfolio now.

Sorry that's probably not what you want to hear. I know it's a very tough position. But tl:dr, I'd say this: know your worth, and avoid debt at all costs. Applying a second time worked for me, and it's pretty common

Edited March 1, 2021 by feralgrad

[mrvisser]

28 minutes ago, tubthumping said:

Anybody have any advice on this?

 

I personally wouldn't do an MFA if it wasn't fully funded. Like @feralgrad said, your chances are really good next year of getting a fully-funded offer since you got this one this year. I'm waiting on two schools, one of which doesn't fully fund everyone, and if they offer me admission without full funding I'm going to turn it down. I know it's hard to wait another year, though!

[tubthumping]

55 minutes ago, feralgrad said:

Applying a second time worked for me, and it's pretty common

Thank you @feralgrad and @mrvisser for your thoughtful replies!! I appreciate it a lot, and honestly right now that's kind of how I'm leaning (depending on what happens with Brown and UC Irvine, anyway). I'm just kind of worried that this one acceptance might be my only chance. But I've got a bit of time to make decisions.

Feralgrad, I'm just wondering, when you applied the second time around did you ask the same recommenders to write letters of rec for you? Do they have to write their letters all over again? It's a far-ish off problem, but I've never done grad applications before this year and have no idea if I'm allowed to "recycle" recommenders.

[feralgrad]

42 minutes ago, tubthumping said:

Feralgrad, I'm just wondering, when you applied the second time around did you ask the same recommenders to write letters of rec for you? Do they have to write their letters all over again?

Yup! I used all the same people. I sent my LOR writers hand-written thank-you notes explaining my results and decision, which I strongly recommend over emails. I believe that they're allowed to reuse letters. That said, for my second round I sent them a new sample of my work, in case they wanted to update their letters. Since I improved a lot in the intervening year, I was actually happy to share a recent story with them. I know one of my writers was pretty impressed with my growth, and she rewrote a large section of her LOR to reflect that.

Edited March 1, 2021 by feralgrad

[NLake]

As we get further along here, I’m wondering if anyone knows how often folx get in off waitlists. Surely a lot of it’s dependent upon school and luck - how many other offers the people ahead of you got, how many people have your school as their top school, that kind of thing. But I’m wondering if it’s a common occurrence. 
 

Anyone have any real life firsthand or secondhand intel on this? 

[feralgrad]

6 hours ago, King Frock the Second said:

Almost all the funded programs make you work. So it is not a terribly worse deal to pay for a cheap state school that charges only $8K tuition. 

This is definitely an option. Though as I mentioned in an earlier post, this will give you less time/opportunity to engage with the program outside of class. For example, at my program, people with outside jobs aren't usually involved in the lit mags -- which are themselves great resume-builders.

I think it depends on your goals. If you're really just there for the workshops, this approach could definitely work. My program has a few older students with established careers, and most of them are getting what they want primarily from class.

 

[Ydrl]

Excuse me wtf? I got into U New Hampshire????? WHAT

Edited March 1, 2021 by Ydrl
Typo

[cecsav]

4 minutes ago, Ydrl said:

Excuses me wtf? I got into U New Hampshire????? WHAT

YAYYYYY! Rock on!

[rcsteel]

1 hour ago, NLake said:

As we get further along here, I’m wondering if anyone knows how often folx get in off waitlists. Surely a lot of it’s dependent upon school and luck - how many other offers the people ahead of you got, how many people have your school as their top school, that kind of thing. But I’m wondering if it’s a common occurrence. 
 

Anyone have any real life firsthand or secondhand intel on this? 

I think it’s fairly common but certainly depends on a lot of factors. I know that everything regarding waitlists moves super fast when April 15th hits.

[woweezowee]

25 minutes ago, Ydrl said:

Excuse me wtf? I got into U New Hampshire????? WHAT

Yessss! Congrats!

[goodcynara]

1 hour ago, Ydrl said:

Excuse me wtf? I got into U New Hampshire????? WHAT

WOOOO!!!

[Ydrl]

1 hour ago, Ydrl said:

Excuse me wtf? I got into U New Hampshire????? WHAT

Received a full tuition scholarship

[M-Lin]

Just now, Ydrl said:

Received a full tuition scholarship

Congrats!!! 

And hi everyone, friendly reminder, it's March! You've made through February

[fishfish24]

2 hours ago, NLake said:

As we get further along here, I’m wondering if anyone knows how often folx get in off waitlists. Surely a lot of it’s dependent upon school and luck - how many other offers the people ahead of you got, how many people have your school as their top school, that kind of thing. But I’m wondering if it’s a common occurrence. 
 

Anyone have any real life firsthand or secondhand intel on this? 

I think it largely depends on the program. For instance, more sought-after, fully funded programs are (I think) more likely to get who they want, and I think there's generally not much movement on their waitlists. But the big exception there is that if the programs are of roughly equal standing and are looking for similar qualities in applicants, they're often vying for one another's applicants (for example, I know Iowa and Michener often have overlap).

In terms of personal experience, I was waitlisted for half the programs I applied to last year (Minnesota, Madison-Wisconsin, and Michener). It's hard to know what it means when you're told you're on a waitlist because schools differ greatly in how long their waitlists are (some only have five students while others seem to have upward of 15), and they don't usually tell you exactly what number you are. For example, Madison-Wisconsin said I was "near the top" of their waitlist; in the end they took three people who they'd made original offers to and three from the waitlist, so I could have been #4 or even lower and it's just impossible to know. Minnesota told me upfront I was #7 on their waitlist, and I moved closer to the top as it drew nearer to the 14th. Ultimately, it was looking likely that I'd get in, but at the very last moment I got an email saying the program had been "asked to admit fewer students for next year" due to covid and therefore wouldn't be taking students from the waitlist. And I don't know where I was on Michener's waitlist. But from what I've seen on gradcafe, I *think* it's rare for them to have more than one person move on from their waitlist. Don't quote me on this, lol.

Anyway, all of this is to say, it's really really hard to know what your chances are of making it off a waitlist. However, you might be able to advocate for yourself and/or for more information by letting a program whose waitlist you're on know that you've been accepted at another competitive program. 

(Hope there was something helpful there! Good luck!)

[Ash...]

I got into Temple for fiction!

[goodcynara]

16 minutes ago, Ydrl said:

Received a full tuition scholarship

OMG YES YES YES!!!

[goodcynara]

9 minutes ago, fishfish24 said:

I think it largely depends on the program. For instance, more sought-after, fully funded programs are (I think) more likely to get who they want, and I think there's generally not much movement on their waitlists. But the big exception there is that if the programs are of roughly equal standing and are looking for similar qualities in applicants, they're often vying for one another's applicants (for example, I know Iowa and Michener often have overlap).

In terms of personal experience, I was waitlisted for half the programs I applied to last year (Minnesota, Madison-Wisconsin, and Michener). It's hard to know what it means when you're told you're on a waitlist because schools differ greatly in how long their waitlists are (some only have five students while others seem to have upward of 15), and they don't usually tell you exactly what number you are. For example, Madison-Wisconsin said I was "near the top" of their waitlist; in the end they took three people who they'd made original offers to and three from the waitlist, so I could have been #4 or even lower and it's just impossible to know. Minnesota told me upfront I was #7 on their waitlist, and I moved closer to the top as it drew nearer to the 14th. Ultimately, it was looking likely that I'd get in, but at the very last moment I got an email saying the program had been "asked to admit fewer students for next year" due to covid and therefore wouldn't be taking students from the waitlist. And I don't know where I was on Michener's waitlist. But from what I've seen on gradcafe, I *think* it's rare for them to have more than one person move on from their waitlist. Don't quote me on this, lol.

Anyway, all of this is to say, it's really really hard to know what your chances are of making it off a waitlist. However, you might be able to advocate for yourself and/or for more information by letting a program whose waitlist you're on know that you've been accepted at another competitive program. 

(Hope there was something helpful there! Good luck!)

Just here to say you are a badass - waitlisted at all of those excellent programs! 

[goodcynara]

6 minutes ago, Ash... said:

I got into Temple for fiction!

Ohhhhhh yesssssss!

[NLake]

12 minutes ago, fishfish24 said:

I think it largely depends on the program. For instance, more sought-after, fully funded programs are (I think) more likely to get who they want, and I think there's generally not much movement on their waitlists. But the big exception there is that if the programs are of roughly equal standing and are looking for similar qualities in applicants, they're often vying for one another's applicants (for example, I know Iowa and Michener often have overlap).

In terms of personal experience, I was waitlisted for half the programs I applied to last year (Minnesota, Madison-Wisconsin, and Michener). It's hard to know what it means when you're told you're on a waitlist because schools differ greatly in how long their waitlists are (some only have five students while others seem to have upward of 15), and they don't usually tell you exactly what number you are. For example, Madison-Wisconsin said I was "near the top" of their waitlist; in the end they took three people who they'd made original offers to and three from the waitlist, so I could have been #4 or even lower and it's just impossible to know. Minnesota told me upfront I was #7 on their waitlist, and I moved closer to the top as it drew nearer to the 14th. Ultimately, it was looking likely that I'd get in, but at the very last moment I got an email saying the program had been "asked to admit fewer students for next year" due to covid and therefore wouldn't be taking students from the waitlist. And I don't know where I was on Michener's waitlist. But from what I've seen on gradcafe, I *think* it's rare for them to have more than one person move on from their waitlist. Don't quote me on this, lol.

Anyway, all of this is to say, it's really really hard to know what your chances are of making it off a waitlist. However, you might be able to advocate for yourself and/or for more information by letting a program whose waitlist you're on know that you've been accepted at another competitive program. 

(Hope there was something helpful there! Good luck!)

Definitely helpful! Thanks for sharing. I’m sorry to hear about Minnesota - sounds like you were really close. 
 

I’m really excited about the waitlist I’m on, but I’ve had trouble gauging the popularity of the program, so I’m not sure how likely it is that folx will turn their offers down. I may let them know about my other offer if we get real close to the deadline. It’s going to feel awful accepting an offer with some possibility for my preferred school still lingering out there. I feel like I’ve just got some investigating to do! 
 

Good luck to you this cycle. Am I correct in remembering that you have an offer or two at this point? I’m real bad with these usernames. 

[goodcynara]

21 minutes ago, NLake said:

Definitely helpful! Thanks for sharing. I’m sorry to hear about Minnesota - sounds like you were really close. 
 

I’m really excited about the waitlist I’m on, but I’ve had trouble gauging the popularity of the program, so I’m not sure how likely it is that folx will turn their offers down. I may let them know about my other offer if we get real close to the deadline. It’s going to feel awful accepting an offer with some possibility for my preferred school still lingering out there. I feel like I’ve just got some investigating to do! 
 

Good luck to you this cycle. Am I correct in remembering that you have an offer or two at this point? I’m real bad with these usernames. 

Remember that per the Council of Graduate Schools resolution, you have until April 15 to accept an offer of funding. Re-posting this helpful info from the U-W website in case anyone needs it:

 

Wisconsin Protocol

Like most institutions with a graduate program in creative writing, the University of Wisconsin-Madison is a member of the Council of Graduate Schools and as such is bound to the following resolution: "Students are under no obligation to respond to offers of financial support prior to April 15; earlier deadlines for acceptance of such offers violate the intent of this Resolution." You can see the full resolution as well as a list of council members by clicking here.

We at Wisconsin advise any applicant who is feeling pressured to accept another MFA program's offer before the April 15th deadline to simply send the program a friendly email that states, "I see that your institution is a member of the Council of Graduate Schools. As such, I believe that I have the right to consider your offer up until the April 15th deadline as established by the council. Thanks so much!" Most universities are big places where one hand doesn’t know what the other hand is doing. Showing them you know your rights will help ensure that your rights are respected. At Wisconsin, our promise is simple:

• We will make our decisions by March 15th.
• Should you be placed on our waitlist, we will tell you up front. We won't put off giving you an answer about your status simply so we won't have to tell you you've been waitlisted.
• While we will tell you if you are on our waitlist, we will not discuss the nature of the waitlist, e.g. how many students are on it, where a particular student’s place is.
• We will respect the April 15th deadline as established by the Council of Graduate Schools.
• Out of respect to you, (not lack of interest!) we will not call you repeatedly just to "check in with you" to see if you've made a decision.
• All our students are fully funded, which means we won't at any time threaten to yank or alter funding to pressure you to say yes before April 15th.

Finally, we urge all MFA applicants to know their rights and to ask the schools they're applying to in advance if they are members of the Council of Graduate Schools. If they're not familiar with the CGS's resolution, send them a link to this page. We hope that by spreading the word regarding applicants' rights, all students can begin their graduate studies on the right path.

 

https://creativewriting.wisc.edu/gradapply.html