M-Lin Posted March 11, 2021 Posted March 11, 2021 1 minute ago, funfettuccine said: Catch me crying at this BU data! ? Let's exchange bowls of tears. ?
oubukibun Posted March 11, 2021 Posted March 11, 2021 Hahahaha! And here I thought, "Boston's my only real shot this year, it seems." Ah, the boulder beckons...
koechophe Posted March 11, 2021 Posted March 11, 2021 Finally got a No from FSU. Man, that took ages.
feralgrad Posted March 11, 2021 Posted March 11, 2021 15 hours ago, Boomer not Ok said: Yeah, I know. Seems the "scam likely" callers are upping their game. My phone is not screening them well these days and I get something in Mandarin or Cantonese. Like how did their AI or algo connect my phone number to some place in China? Totally weird. Totally off-topic, but I get those calls too, so I looked into it. Apparently they say that you need to contact the Chinese embassy for something citizenship-related (I think it's a phishing thing). You probably get those calls because you live in an area with a large Chinese population (I do as well). lunch and Boomer not Ok 1 1
M-Lin Posted March 11, 2021 Posted March 11, 2021 1 minute ago, feralgrad said: Totally off-topic, but I get those calls too, so I looked into it. Apparently they say that you need to contact the Chinese embassy for something citizenship-related (I think it's a phishing thing). You probably get those calls because you live in an area with a large Chinese population (I do as well). Yep. I'm a Mandarin speaker. They say "this is your last notice for a very important mail" blah blah blah... ? Boomer not Ok and feralgrad 2
Ydrl Posted March 11, 2021 Posted March 11, 2021 Every second U Maryland, V Tech, and U Florida drag out my decisions, the faster I die inside. Only reason I'm holding onto Maryland hope is that last year, waitlists went out after rejections. That, and I've been under program review since a week after applying and still haven't gotten rejected. I want to believe, but I did that with VCU and UNLV last year and it made me suffer more. FairleyAlfy 1
CrankyGinger Posted March 11, 2021 Posted March 11, 2021 1 minute ago, M-Lin said: Yep. I'm a Mandarin speaker. They say "this is your last notice for a very important mail" blah blah blah... ? I had to ask my brother to translate it, basically what he told me, too. Also, considering I'm originally from Seattle, makes sense they'd target my 206 number. Well I don't need your very important notices, I'm too busy eating gummy bears and sending all my money to that Nigerian Prince who has a super exclusive business opportunity for me. M-Lin 1
Ydrl Posted March 11, 2021 Posted March 11, 2021 Emailed Maryland again about time frames because I'm a nervous chihuahua piloting a human skin. CayceCamus and woweezowee 2
CrankyGinger Posted March 11, 2021 Posted March 11, 2021 11 minutes ago, Ydrl said: I'm a nervous chihuahua piloting a human skin. I am laughing so hard at this haha Ydrl and CayceCamus 2
forthetruththeyburnyou Posted March 11, 2021 Posted March 11, 2021 58 minutes ago, funfettuccine said: LOL. I applied because Ottessa Moshfegh went there and I love her. Basically the only reason. Solid reason! (frame of reference: replier hopes one day Ottessa Moshfegh will love them back) largeheartedboy and Graceful Entropy 2
Graceful Entropy Posted March 11, 2021 Posted March 11, 2021 1 hour ago, forthetruththeyburnyou said: Brown has a first year fellowship with no teaching and a $26k stipend, ~$3k summer stipend between the first and second years, for starters. Fair enough! Them fancy schools do pay well. Also, there's probably a nice way to express incredulity and then the way I did, so ya know, that's on me
koechophe Posted March 11, 2021 Posted March 11, 2021 47 minutes ago, Ydrl said: Every second U Maryland, V Tech, and U Florida drag out my decisions, the faster I die inside. I definitely feel this. Still have 5 schools I haven't heard from, but since I don't actually have a "yes" yet, it's pretty awful. I'm choosing to not give up hope yet; I find it easier to deal with rejection if I am honest with myself and say that I still want and hope for an acceptance. Graceful Entropy and shakyboots 2
Starbuck420 Posted March 11, 2021 Posted March 11, 2021 1 hour ago, forthetruththeyburnyou said: Brown has a first year fellowship with no teaching and a $26k stipend, ~$3k summer stipend between the first and second years, for starters. Yes, definitely. Also, it's just true that people -- editors, agents, other writers, etc -- give greater deference to Brown MFAs than they do to folks with MFAs from other, less selective/prestigious programs. For better or worse, it does improve your chances of success. Might as well just be honest about that Also, personally, I live in Providence lmao (I didn't actually apply to Brown this year, but I will apply next round, assuming that I don't get full funding at the one place where I applied) Graceful Entropy, goodcynara and shakyboots 3
oubukibun Posted March 11, 2021 Posted March 11, 2021 Hey all, Boston U. sends results out by the end of March or beginning of April? I don't have Facebook so I can't even join Draft (not entirely true: I created an account just to use there and it was deleted by Facebook within five minutes of its creation, haha, not sure if that's a sign...) and checking the results page seems to indicate maybe one person gets called in late February, and then people are notified they are rejected by the second week of April or so? This is my only school left (Iowa doesn't count since clearly that's a rejection, so waiting on the letter to arrive), and although I may have believed my chances there to be statistically better than they really are, I'd love to know if anyone has a rough estimate of when they start contacting potential candidates. Thank you in advance! goodcynara 1
M-Lin Posted March 11, 2021 Posted March 11, 2021 2 minutes ago, oubukibun said: Hey all, Boston U. sends results out by the end of March or beginning of April? I don't have Facebook so I can't even join Draft (not entirely true: I created an account just to use there and it was deleted by Facebook within five minutes of its creation, haha, not sure if that's a sign...) and checking the results page seems to indicate maybe one person gets called in late February, and then people are notified they are rejected by the second week of April or so? This is my only school left (Iowa doesn't count since clearly that's a rejection, so waiting on the letter to arrive), and although I may have believed my chances there to be statistically better than they really are, I'd love to know if anyone has a rough estimate of when they start contacting potential candidates. Thank you in advance! I believe usually acceptances are out around the last week of March. Hope they are on schedule this year! They'd have to notify one way or another by April 15. oubukibun and goodcynara 2
JPReinhold Posted March 11, 2021 Posted March 11, 2021 1 hour ago, Ydrl said: I'm a nervous chihuahua piloting a human skin. And here's a start of a poem... Ydrl and CrankyGinger 2
Ydrl Posted March 11, 2021 Posted March 11, 2021 31 minutes ago, JPReinhold said: And here's a start of a poem... Honestly, my old professors catch me saying shit like this and ask if I've written it down. I never notice them haha.
jka0124 Posted March 11, 2021 Posted March 11, 2021 (edited) 2 hours ago, M-Lin said: Bored of waiting... and I was looking around online about programs I applied to. I remember that we were having a conversation about how "competitive" Columbia remains despite a physically large cohort and a financially large price tag. I applied to Columbia just because it's in New York. Though very unlikely to go, I would be happy to know if I got in. So I'm not trying to make any kind of a point here... Found this on Peterson's (This data is probably relatively old) - acceptance rate of BU (another school I applied to) : 3%, acceptance rate of Columbia: 41% So I guess it's fair to say that Columbia is less competitive, compared with a lot of other prestigious programs. Columbia, NYU, and some of the other NY schools aren’t super competitive to get into (ETA: I mean compared to Michener or Iowa). The real competition is how much money you get. If you get $$$$ then they love you and you’ll be one of the cohort darlings. If you don’t get offered anything, they still want you but you’re definitely in the less competitive pool. It won’t matter much in the day to day academics (same classes, same faculty) but it’ll matter when you’re busting your butt at a second job or taking $100k in loans and your classmate is getting a stipend. Edited March 11, 2021 by jka0124 shakyboots and M-Lin 2
jka0124 Posted March 11, 2021 Posted March 11, 2021 I hate double posting but I took a break and came back to see the troll still trolling. I don’t know where they get the energy but bless their heart. shakyboots 1
fireflystasis Posted March 11, 2021 Posted March 11, 2021 10 minutes ago, jka0124 said: Columbia, NYU, and some of the other NY schools aren’t super competitive to get into (ETA: I mean compared to Michener or Iowa). The real competition is how much money you get. If you get $$$$ then they love you and you’ll be one of the cohort darlings. If you don’t get offered anything, they still want you but you’re definitely in the less competitive pool. It won’t matter much in the day to day academics (same classes, same faculty) but it’ll matter when you’re busting your butt at a second job or taking $100k in loans and your classmate is getting a stipend. Good to know, thanks! Personally, Columbia is my dream program. It's the reason I got so enthusiastic about applying to MFAs in the first place, when a writing prof advised me to try last year. I didn't know anything about them, but then I saw two of the authors whose works I'd been inspired by and trying to emulate for years were actually professors at Columbia. Teaching nonfiction (although I applied for fiction)! The courses also look fantastic. Realistically though, on the infinitesimal chance I get accepted, I might have to decline on the basis of it being way too expensive. Especially given the number of funded programs elsewhere. I really don't want to go into debt for grad school. shakyboots 1
NLake Posted March 11, 2021 Posted March 11, 2021 As we inch ever closer to that April 15th deadline, I’m wondering how folx plan on handling accepting/denying when they are hoping to come off a waitlist. I’ve got one fully funded offer, one acceptance with waitlisted funding, and two waitlists for admission. While I want to be considerate to those on the waitlist for the school I’ve gotten a good offer from, I am really hoping in coming off of one of my own waitlists. What happens if I wait until 4/15, don’t hear anything from my waitlists, accept the one full offer I’ve got, and then get a call from my preferred school the next day? Are my hands tied? Am I bound to the program I committed to reluctantly not a full day prior? I realize this is a pretty sweet position to be in, and I will be honored and excited to go to any of the schools I applied to. But man, it’ll suck to commit to one and then hear back shortly after from my dream school. It feels like a vicious cycle, as the folx I’m waiting on to decline their offers (so I can have them) are likely waiting on the very same thing from some other lucky person at some other awesome program. Advice, thoughts, slaps of reality welcome. shakyboots and goodcynara 2
jka0124 Posted March 11, 2021 Posted March 11, 2021 (edited) 5 minutes ago, fireflystasis said: Good to know, thanks! Personally, Columbia is my dream program. It's the reason I got so enthusiastic about applying to MFAs in the first place, when a writing prof advised me to try last year. I didn't know anything about them, but then I saw two of the authors whose works I'd been inspired by and trying to emulate for years were actually professors at Columbia. Teaching nonfiction (although I applied for fiction)! The courses also look fantastic. Realistically though, on the infinitesimal chance I get accepted, I might have to decline on the basis of it being way too expensive. Especially given the number of funded programs elsewhere. I really don't want to go into debt for grad school. I’m not sure which professors you’re talking about, obviously, but don’t go into debt for Columbia. Also, many of the Columbia professors don’t teach every semester. You may not have the opportunity to take classes with them anyway. On a positive note, I bet those professors teach elsewhere on occasion (an NYC workshop, or Tin House, or Skidmore, or Breadloaf, or...you get the idea). Those might be an option! ETA: I pressed enter too soon! I was going to say that I totally understand the allure. Columbia has a lot of pros. It’s a shame they don’t have better funding. Edited March 11, 2021 by jka0124 fireflystasis 1
fireflystasis Posted March 11, 2021 Posted March 11, 2021 1 minute ago, jka0124 said: I’m not sure which professors you’re talking about, obviously, but don’t go into debt for Columbia. Also, many of the Columbia professors don’t teach every semester. You may not have the opportunity to take classes with them anyway. On a positive note, I bet those professors teach elsewhere on occasion (an NYC workshop, or Tin House, or Skidmore, or Breadloaf, or...you get the idea). Those might be an option! Good idea, I'll look into that! I did think getting into specific classes taught by them would be a long shot, but was hoping I could at least get to meet them. A tangent: It was pretty alarming when I mentioned one of those profs to my writing prof and he said "Oh cool, she dated my roommate at Iowa, you should hit her up on Facebook." For obvious reasons, I did not do that. Little did he know I had already found her Facebook years ago, written a heartfelt letter complimenting her oeuvre, then never sent it. Now it would probably look like awkward brownnosing. ?
Boomer not Ok Posted March 11, 2021 Posted March 11, 2021 3 minutes ago, jka0124 said: I’m not sure which professors you’re talking about, obviously, but don’t go into debt for Columbia. Also, many of the Columbia professors don’t teach every semester. You may not have the opportunity to take classes with them anyway. On a positive note, I bet those professors teach elsewhere on occasion (an NYC workshop, or Tin House, or Skidmore, or Breadloaf, or...you get the idea). Those might be an option! I'm also interested in Columbia but have concerns about the $$$ (especially compared with other partial funded or fully funded programs). Seems like Columbia charges 2x market rate. From looking at websites of other programs in NYC area, it seems some of the profs moonlight or teach at multiple locations. Makes sense, if they're not permanent hires.
Starbuck420 Posted March 11, 2021 Posted March 11, 2021 (edited) 9 minutes ago, Boomer not Ok said: From looking at websites of other programs in NYC area, it seems some of the profs moonlight or teach at multiple locations. Makes sense, if they're not permanent hires. Many of them are also quite famous and simply not interested in teaching (this according to grads) Like others, I strongly advise against going into debt for the Columbia MFA, and doubly advise against it if they're not giving you one of their (very small) funding packages, the simple reason there being that the faculty have their favorites, and those favorites are generally the people with funding. So, if you're totally unfunded, you may be paying for access that doesn't exist Edited March 11, 2021 by Starbuck420 edit: typos jka0124, shakyboots, fireflystasis and 1 other 4
Recommended Posts