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Uhhhhhhh, guys, I just got an email from VTech saying my application decision is ready to be viewed. I thought I was rejected based on the last status update. I re-read it and I think I might have been waitlisted at the time. But the new status update won't load, so I'm just here waiting on an email back wondering if I've made a horrible mistake.

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Hi all - New here! First season applying to MFA programs. Decided in late Nov that I wanted to apply to MFA programs, so chose from schools that had 1/15 deadlines, not on the "US Northeast" & low-cost of living.

Applied to 5 MFA schools for CNF - U of Wyoming (R), LSU (R), U of Tennessee (WL), West Virginia U (A), and U of New Mexico (P). I'm happy about WVU but haven't read much about them here/elsewhere. UTK seems like a strong program, but 2yrs makes me nervous. If anyone has thoughts about WVU or UTK, I'd welcome them.

I emailed UNM earlier this week & got a standard response back saying they're making offers by the end of this month & into the next, but the process often takes until the 4/15 date & to look out for an email from their Associate Chair. Since UNM is my dream school, I'm hoping this means I haven't been rejected yet.... 

Does anyone know when UNM's MFA program usually makes their decision? Have checked the Results forum but it doesn't seem like there's enough data.... Also not on social media, but if anyone sees anything on FB Draft, can someone kindly let me know? Thank you so much!

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29 minutes ago, 1234poiuy said:

Has anyone heard of or seen any more acceptances or rejections from BU?

I’m not on Draft, so I don’t know what’s happening there. On this thread, as far as I know, and reported on Results, there’s been 1 acceptance for poetry and fiction. I haven’t had a response from BU yet, so perhaps they’re still deciding. Looks like we’re in the same boat. 

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13 hours ago, Blackhole said:

Got my rejection from Iowa. Spoke to a writing professor. said I should have applied for CNF. Is there any merit in waiting for a year and reapplying and deferring Columbia? I applied to a few schools that I selected very randomly and started applications very late and of course, the sample sucked. I am still confused about taking Columbia's offer with that little scholarship. My brother has offered to pay for school but I don't know what are the opportunities after an MFA and whether one should be spending that kind of money. I know people have talked about that already. But anyone here reapplying and can they tell me how to prepare? This was my first attempt and I didn't know it would be so tough. 

 

Congrats to everyone who is going to grad school this fall. 

Sorry about Iowa. Hard to give advice about CU. But getting in there is a great accomplishment, so well done. It’s a lot of money for an MFA and I’m not sure how the CU MFA translates post-MFA into job opportunities, if that’s what you’re looking for, but I imagine it carries some cachet and is helpful. I don’t think I would have attended CU, if I’d gotten in, bc of the money and the cohort size. But that’s a personal thing. I am now considering applying again to other programs next year. I got waitlisted so far at a full funded program, so that tells me my portfolio had some merit, but I think I could submit a stronger one for next time, get better recs from people who know my writing (which I didn’t do this round), and craft a ‘smarter’ SOP. Also, pandemic deferrals may have made this round particularly hard. The fact that you got into CU means you must have a good portfolio already and maybe if other full-funded schools don’t work out this round for you, your chances of getting into one next year would seem to be strong. 

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Just now, Boomer not Ok said:

Sorry about Iowa. Hard to give advice about CU. But getting in there is a great accomplishment, so well done. It’s a lot of money for an MFA and I’m not sure how the CU MFA translates post-MFA into job opportunities, if that’s what you’re looking for, but I imagine it carries some cachet and is helpful. I don’t think I would have attended CU, if I’d gotten in, bc of the money and the cohort size. But that’s a personal thing. I am now considering applying again to other programs next year. I got waitlisted so far at a full funded program, so that tells me my portfolio had some merit, but I think I could submit a stronger one for next time, get better recs from people who know my writing (which I didn’t do this round), and craft a ‘smarter’ SOP. Also, pandemic deferrals may have made this round particularly hard. The fact that you got into CU means you must have a good portfolio already and maybe if other full-funded schools don’t work out this round for you, your chances of getting into one next year would seem to be strong. 

Thank you so much. such a difficult decision to make though. I am also thinking of applying again next year although I am tempted to go this year and figure out things. Deferrals were there and also, a record number of applications. I had a crap SOP, I chose the wrong program and also, my recommendation letters were by such random people because it was all so last minute that the adcoms must be wondering who is she or who are they :)

I hope, I hope. And I hope you get a good program neat year and write the book you should.

I am also an international student so it means I need to figure out opportunities, etc. This also means I say bye to my career and take a plunge and maybe I will land on the moon or straight into the black hole. who knows :)

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5 minutes ago, Blackhole said:

Thank you so much. such a difficult decision to make though. I am also thinking of applying again next year although I am tempted to go this year and figure out things. Deferrals were there and also, a record number of applications. I had a crap SOP, I chose the wrong program and also, my recommendation letters were by such random people because it was all so last minute that the adcoms must be wondering who is she or who are they :)

I hope, I hope. And I hope you get a good program neat year and write the book you should.

I am also an international student so it means I need to figure out opportunities, etc. This also means I say bye to my career and take a plunge and maybe I will land on the moon or straight into the black hole. who knows :)

I hear ya. I wince when I look at my SOP and my recommenders were fine and intelligent but really didn’t know my writing. I went with this, bc from most of what I’d read, SOP and recs don’t really matter to adcoms, only the writing sample. But I’m not sure. I would think in close cases recs and SOP do matter. I hate the idea of going through this again and I have some programs now I could attend, but I feel I’ve learned so much from this cycle that I could put together a stronger app next time and also expand my geographic range of the programs, which I kept quite limited this time. 

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I cringe when I look at everything of mine. my sample has a million typos and hanging sentences and no plot. and my recommenders were people I love and they are great but I don't know if they know my writing. I learned a lot and I guess I can put together a better app next time. :)))))

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Wanted to thank everyone for going through this together for the past months, it felt like forever! I'll be attending Brooklyn College in the fall. To those who are going to apply again next year, hats off to you -- you are some strong minds! To share another anecdote - I learned today that a writer was rejected by every school she applied but Iowa (not this year, a while ago). Just want to remind everyone again how subjective this application process can be. After all, what is good writing anyway? I will be on my way to figure that out, hope everyone here will, too, inside or outside the university system. Good luck to all of us!!! 

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1 minute ago, M-Lin said:

Wanted to thank everyone for going through this together for the past months, it felt like forever! I'll be attending Brooklyn College in the fall. To those who are going to apply again next year, hats off to you -- you are some strong minds! To share another anecdote - I learned today that a writer was rejected by every school she applied but Iowa (not this year, a while ago). Just want to remind everyone again how subjective this application process can be. After all, what is good writing anyway? I will be on my way to figure that out, hope everyone here will, too, inside or outside the university system. Good luck to all of us!!! 

yay. I am so happy for you. you said it. it is all subjective. we never know who reads our apps and what are their life experiences.

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20 minutes ago, Blackhole said:

. I learned a lot and I guess I can put together a better app next time. :)))))

I'll be here too. I'm not taking it as a failure that I didn't get in anywhere this year (that's the assumption, I'm happy to be proven wrong by my 2 remaining schools, but I feel that rejection is a safe bet), and I hope you don't either. I haven't "failed" as a writer. All my experience, my practice, my study, and my work is not, and will never be, a failure. I have come so far, and all that this shows me is that I need to go even farther to hit my goal next year. 

I could be crazy, but that prospect excites me!  That I need to go even further to get in is a testament to the fact that when I do, I will be surrounded by people who are amazing. I am so thrilled to see how much better I will be and what lengths I will have taken my writing to in one year's time. 

Edited by koechophe
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Just now, koechophe said:

I'll be here too. I'm not taking it as a failure that I didn't get in anywhere this year (that's the assumption, I'm happy to be proven wrong by my 2 remaining schools, but I feel that rejection is a safe bet), and I hope you don't either. I haven't "failed" as a writer. All my experience, my practice, my study, and my work is not, and will never be, a failure. I have come so far, and all that this shows me is that I need to go even farther to hit my goal next year. 

I could be crazy, but that prospect excites me! I am so thrilled to see how much better I will be and what lengths I will have taken my writing to in one year's time. 

in a range way, I get what you are saying. I am actually looking forward to applying again now that I know what it is about and how I messed up and how everyone here has been so helpful and so sweet. of course we have all heard that failures teach us a lot and I guess, it is a cliche. But I did learn from this "failed attempt" and in fact, the acceptance at one university didn't make me jump in joy. 

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Just now, Blackhole said:

in a strange way, I get what you are saying. I am actually looking forward to applying again now that I know what it is about and how I messed up and how everyone here has been so helpful and so sweet. of course we have all heard that failures teach us a lot and I guess, it is a cliche. But I did learn from this "failed attempt" and in fact, the acceptance at one university didn't make me jump in joy. 

strange*

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I definitely get it. I also feel a new resolution to keep practicing my craft and improving. I've been in a rut since I've been waiting for Grad schools to come through with answers, but coming out of this with the knowledge that I didn't get in, I feel fired up to keep writing and getting better. 

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2 minutes ago, koechophe said:

I definitely get it. I also feel a new resolution to keep practicing my craft and improving. I've been in a rut since I've been waiting for Grad schools to come through with answers, but coming out of this with the knowledge that I didn't get in, I feel fired up to keep writing and getting better. 

yay. and love and hugs to you :) keep writing. I just realised I haven't written much in the last three months.

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2 hours ago, 1234poiuy said:

Has anyone heard of or seen any more acceptances or rejections from BU?

I just accepted my offer at BU and was told that they are still waiting for an answer from one person, so I believe they've notified everyone (for fiction anyway, not sure about poetry)

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Just now, flyinsaucer said:

I just accepted my offer at BU and was told that they are still waiting for an answer from one person, so I believe they've notified everyone (for fiction anyway, not sure about poetry)

oh wow. congrats. means I am getting a rejection. it is only a matter of time. but so happy for you. 

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Just now, Blackhole said:

oh wow. congrats. means I am getting a rejection. it is only a matter of time. but so happy for you. 

Thank you and I'm sorry! It is kinda lame they haven't sent out rejections yet. From what I understand there were students who were able to defer last year because of the pandemic, so they took fewer people than usual. Don't give up <3 

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1 minute ago, flyinsaucer said:

Thank you and I'm sorry! It is kinda lame they haven't sent out rejections yet. From what I understand there were students who were able to defer last year because of the pandemic, so they took fewer people than usual. Don't give up <3 

Thanks for this. Good to know the situation. But I figured if I hadn’t been contacted by now, it was probably a ‘no.’ Weird how they seemed to stagger out the rejections this year but maybe COVID messed things up. Congrats and hope it’s a great experience. 

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To all the peeps out there applying again next year or considering it, this was my second go-round, and I'm glad I didn't get in last year. Everything about my life is more settled, my writing and reading range continue to get honed and grow, and I'm better able to push forward in the path I want. So maybe that will be the same for you. 

Also Covid. Things prolly still won't be quite close to normal this fall, there will still be anxiety and things not really falling into place well, so you may be dodging it all to have a much more full three years than the rest.

Hope everything works out. Cheers

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8 minutes ago, Graceful Entropy said:

To all the peeps out there applying again next year or considering it, this was my second go-round, and I'm glad I didn't get in last year. Everything about my life is more settled, my writing and reading range continue to get honed and grow, and I'm better able to push forward in the path I want. So maybe that will be the same for you. 

Also Covid. Things prolly still won't be quite close to normal this fall, there will still be anxiety and things not really falling into place well, so you may be dodging it all to have a much more full three years than the rest.

Hope everything works out. Cheers

I second this. It was my second season too, and things worked out way better this round then I could have imagined last year.

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I have a zoom meeting tomorrow with one of the programs I'm considering. I have some questions written out to ask but thought I'd hit you guys up so I don't not ask something I should. What are the most important things to ask that aren't funding-related? I'd appreciate some suggestions.

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