2021 Applicants Forum

[M-Lin]

1 hour ago, JPReinhold said:

I just got accepted at Miami of Ohio (poetry)!

My little ones and I just popped open the bottle of sparkling Welch's that has been sitting in the fridge door. I told them I got into an MFA and my daughter (3) ran to the fridge. I was really worried we weren't going to get to open it this year. 

SO GLAD to have an acceptance. I only applied to fully-funded programs that I'd be proud to attend, so this is big for me. I wanted to share the good news!

(And check your email if you applied!)

HUGE CONGRATS!!! Your kids must be so proud of you right now  

I hope we all have more good news to celebrate soon! Gotta get myself a bottle of those sparkling Welch's. Yum. 

[JPReinhold]

25 minutes ago, M-Lin said:

HUGE CONGRATS!!! Your kids must be so proud of you right now  

I hope we all have more good news to celebrate soon! Gotta get myself a bottle of those sparkling Welch's. Yum. 

Have it on deck. Best decision I've made in some time. 

Hopefully we all have more celebrations coming. I was seriously spiraling about the possibility of straight rejections. I hope anyone else with that fear gets out of that boat soon as well. It really does lift so much of the anxiety. Someone on Twitter said "welcome to this purgatory". Better purgatory than hell! 

[woweezowee]

2 hours ago, JPReinhold said:

I just got accepted at Miami of Ohio (poetry)!

My little ones and I just popped open the bottle of sparkling Welch's that has been sitting in the fridge door. I told them I got into an MFA and my daughter (3) ran to the fridge. I was really worried we weren't going to get to open it this year. 

SO GLAD to have an acceptance. I only applied to fully-funded programs that I'd be proud to attend, so this is big for me. I wanted to share the good news!

(And check your email if you applied!)

Congrats! That's so awesome that you got to share this news with your littles!

[panglosian]

Hi there! First time commenter, long time lurker on this thread. I was wondering, has anyone heard from UMass yet? I saw a few days ago that someone had posted they'd gotten an interview and based on past responses it seems late january-early february is when we should be hearing. I'm losing my mind over here.

[tippybug]

6 minutes ago, panglosian said:

Hi there! First time commenter, long time lurker on this thread. I was wondering, has anyone heard from UMass yet? I saw a few days ago that someone had posted they'd gotten an interview and based on past responses it seems late january-early february is when we should be hearing. I'm losing my mind over here.

No, but I wish I had... I'm not sure why I didn't. I went to their summer writing conference the summer before COVID and absolutely loved it. If (or when) I get straight rejections this time, I am definitely applying there next year. Do you know if it is fully funded?

I'm wishing you the best of luck, and I really hope you get in!!  Keep us updated!

[mrvisser]

11 minutes ago, panglosian said:

Hi there! First time commenter, long time lurker on this thread. I was wondering, has anyone heard from UMass yet? I saw a few days ago that someone had posted they'd gotten an interview and based on past responses it seems late january-early february is when we should be hearing. I'm losing my mind over here.

I've only seen the one person mention getting an interview, no one else, which seems curious. Echoing @tippybug, I wish I had applied there, and it's on my list for next year if I don't get in.

[panglosian]

2 minutes ago, tippybug said:

No, but I wish I had... I'm not sure why I didn't. I went to their summer writing conference the summer before COVID and absolutely loved it. If (or when) I get straight rejections this time, I am definitely applying there next year. Do you know if it is fully funded?

I'm wishing you the best of luck, and I really hope you get in!!  Keep us updated!

It is fully funded!! Although I did hear somewhere about a month ago that with all the COVID stuff happening the funding might be more limited than in other years, but here's hoping  thank you

Edited January 28, 2021 by panglosian

[eternalwhitenights]

4 hours ago, JPReinhold said:

I just got accepted at Miami of Ohio (poetry)!

My little ones and I just popped open the bottle of sparkling Welch's that has been sitting in the fridge door. I told them I got into an MFA and my daughter (3) ran to the fridge. I was really worried we weren't going to get to open it this year. 

SO GLAD to have an acceptance. I only applied to fully-funded programs that I'd be proud to attend, so this is big for me. I wanted to share the good news!

(And check your email if you applied!)

Oh my gosh!!! Congratulations!!!! I'm so happy for you and your kids!!! I'm so happy this is the first success of the season!!!!!  This is the best group ever!  

Congrats 8 billion times over, and here is how I feel for you right now: 

Edited January 28, 2021 by eternalwhitenights

[WolfMan]

4 hours ago, JPReinhold said:

I just got accepted at Miami of Ohio (poetry)!

My little ones and I just popped open the bottle of sparkling Welch's that has been sitting in the fridge door. I told them I got into an MFA and my daughter (3) ran to the fridge. I was really worried we weren't going to get to open it this year. 

SO GLAD to have an acceptance. I only applied to fully-funded programs that I'd be proud to attend, so this is big for me. I wanted to share the good news!

(And check your email if you applied!)

Damn your children are Welch's fiends...

[JPReinhold]

5 minutes ago, WolfMan said:

Damn your children are Welch's fiends...

They are! Daughter has a metabolic disease, so they’ve had juice one other time (New Year’s Eve) and have been jonesin ever since.

[FairleyAlfy]

On 1/27/2021 at 12:07 PM, orangeslice said:

P.S. Did any of you guys apply to Purdue? It looks like their acceptances usually come out the last week of January and I'm having a nail-biter of a time lol. 

I applied in poetry, and I'm also anxiously waiting...This year has already been so weird...It's hard to tell when we will hear back. 

[FairleyAlfy]

6 hours ago, JPReinhold said:

Have it on deck. Best decision I've made in some time. 

Hopefully we all have more celebrations coming. I was seriously spiraling about the possibility of straight rejections. I hope anyone else with that fear gets out of that boat soon as well. It really does lift so much of the anxiety. Someone on Twitter said "welcome to this purgatory". Better purgatory than hell! 

Congratulations!!! So happy for you!

[babypoet2k]

I just created a big boi list of places I want to apply to whenever I do next time. Almost double the number of places I applied to this time around. Just to remind myself that this is not the end. Planning is strangely therapeutic and because i am so terrified of planning for if/when i get in like looking at apartments or visa things, I planned my next app season. No risk, hopeful optimist behaviour. 12/10 recommend.

[tippybug]

I see a lot of people applied to UVA. Did anyone go to YWW when they were younger?

[mrvisser]

44 minutes ago, babypoet2k said:

I just created a big boi list of places I want to apply to whenever I do next time. Almost double the number of places I applied to this time around. Just to remind myself that this is not the end. Planning is strangely therapeutic and because i am so terrified of planning for if/when i get in like looking at apartments or visa things, I planned my next app season. No risk, hopeful optimist behaviour. 12/10 recommend.

I applied to seven schools this year; my list for next year has 21.

[babypoet2k]

11 minutes ago, mrvisser said:

I applied to seven schools this year; my list for next year has 21.

so glad to know i'm not the only one with 20+ schools on the list for next year haha. will shorten for sure, i cannot afford these many apps especially after currency rates etc but the world totally seems like it's yours to conquer when you have a list of all these places you could be and things you could do there!

[WolfMan]

What are the average acceptance rates for programs on par with Vanderbilt/Cornell? Like .5%-1%?

[tippybug]

25 minutes ago, WolfMan said:

What are the average acceptance rates for programs on par with Vanderbilt/Cornell? Like .5%-1%?

Vandy's gotta be like crazy low. I think they only accept like two or three students every year or something like that. Not sure about Cornell, though.

[spacedumpster]

On 1/26/2021 at 3:41 PM, Ydrl said:

So uh, I know a lot of you have backup plans that involve moving somewhere else / trying again. I hope I don’t need my backup plan, because it’s applying to U Delaware for a PhD in Linguistics (in February). Somehow this feels even more unrealistic than my current plan.

I only applied to five programs this cycle, but if I don't get in anywhere I think I'm going to pare that down to three apps next time. I really would love to do an MFA, but I just can't justify gambling so much money on application fees when I might be better served putting that towards workshops, residencies, or perhaps even self-publishing.

I've also had the urge to start a weirdo alternative magazine for a few years. I think I would find it a lot more rewarding to spend my own money building a space for writers and artists that I appreciate to share their work. 

In the meantime, my backup plan is to continue working at the job I actually enjoy and keep writing/submitting. Academia be damned!

[WolfMan]

6 minutes ago, jka0124 said:

Cornell takes four per genre, Vanderbilt takes three. Given that I assume Cornell gets *slightly* more applications on the Ivy League/name recognition basis, they likely even out to both be less than 1%. The competition is fierce. 

Damn if the acceptance rate is so ridiculously low it's hard for me to believe they take writers based solely on the quality of writing sample...because once you narrow down the application pool from 700 to 15, the difference in quality between those 15 is probably negligible. 

It would be cool if they gave you a ranking, so that if you missed the cut by a bit at least you'd know you were close to the top of the pile rather than the bottom.

Edited January 29, 2021 by WolfMan

[WolfMan]

Just now, jka0124 said:

That’s where subjectivity comes in. I highly recommend everyone read for literary magazines, if they can. Cutting 1000 pieces down to 3 seemed impossible until I, along with the rest of the staff, had to do it a few times a year. 

What sort of factors came into play when winnowing down the final ten down to three? Did it have to do with how well the writing suited the aesthetic of the journal? 

[teasel]

23 hours ago, panglosian said:

Hi there! First time commenter, long time lurker on this thread. I was wondering, has anyone heard from UMass yet? I saw a few days ago that someone had posted they'd gotten an interview and based on past responses it seems late january-early february is when we should be hearing. I'm losing my mind over here.

 

I think that two people mentioned having interviews related to TA funding earlier this month in Draft. In the past, it seems like they conducted these interviews *after* accepting folks. Apparently no one has been accepted yet, but I'm guessing that those with interviews are going to get an offer. Obviously this is conjecture at this point! They could be asking for interviews in waves for all I know. Clearly I have too much time to think about this hahah

[panglosian]

Just now, teasel said:

 

I think that two people mentioned having interviews related to TA funding earlier this month in Draft. In the past, it seems like they conducted these interviews *after* accepting folks. Apparently no one has been accepted yet, but I'm guessing that those with interviews are going to get an offer. Obviously this is conjecture at this point! They could be asking for interviews in waves for all I know. Clearly I have too much time to think about this hahah

Amen to that, I'm trying not to go stir-crazy waiting. I did a tarot spread (I'm a somewhat intermediate diviner, working towards becoming more advanced) addressing my first response and it didn't look favorable, but prompted me to keep my head up because positivity is coming afterwards! UMass would probably be that first response so... I can't say I'm surprised XD

[teasel]

Just now, panglosian said:

Amen to that, I'm trying not to go stir-crazy waiting. I did a tarot spread (I'm a somewhat intermediate diviner, working towards becoming more advanced) addressing my first response and it didn't look favorable, but prompted me to keep my head up because positivity is coming afterwards! UMass would probably be that first response so... I can't say I'm surprised XD

 

Yeah I totally hear ya... going absolutely nuts over here, too. I'm a professional reader and have been avoiding the cards for the time being for my own sanity. Once you start over-drawing, it ceases to have much meaning and just feeds anxiety : ) But it doesn't stop me from drawing a card here and there.

I think lots of folks are treating individual cards as "yes" or "no" response or even "bad" vs. "good," but this is a pretty shallow way of interpreting. Instead of asking them "will I get into xyz," it would probably be more helpful to ask a question like "what will my writing life look like in 2021" . It's all about the question you ask... they are powerful for self-development, but once we treat them like a magic eight ball they really just become an extension of our uncertainty.  If you feel like sharing the cards you received or want a mini reading (no charge, just for fun) let me know! Might be a fun way to kill some time 

[Ydrl]

Y’know, for some reason I thought that the typical rules of Monday and Friday results would apply. I know that the day isn’t over, but I’m not as convinced that today is a notification day.