2024 Creative Writing MFA Applicants Forum

[ssuunn]

Oregon State... where are your poetry waitlists... I was honestly expecting their waitlists/rejections out today, since fiction was tuesday and nonfic was yesterday.

[Renrenrenren]

32 minutes ago, ssuunn said:

Oregon State... where are your poetry waitlists... I was honestly expecting their waitlists/rejections out today, since fiction was tuesday and nonfic was yesterday.

wait did their acceptances go out? Did I just miss them on the draft??

[ssuunn]

Just now, Renrenrenren said:

wait did their acceptances go out? Did I just miss them on the draft??

I'm seeing 2/8 for a fiction and a poetry acceptance. They said it was specifically for their fellowship, but considering that the fiction and nonfic waitlists and rejections went out this week, I think it's safe to assume other admits were given out either that same day or shortly after.

[Scribe]

3 hours ago, SarahRuth said:

In regards to the UTK waitlist, someone on Draft posted an email last year in which a staff member at UTK told them the waitlist was 83 people long. But that was last year.

In any case, my UTK waitlist notification was pretty boilerplate, so I wouldn't be surprised if the waitlist is super long. I think in many cases when a program is super serious about waitlisted candidates they make an effort to connect with those folks on a more personal level. My partner is a DGS for another discipline, and he actually sets up virtual meetings with waitlisted candidates his program is serious about! And those meetings matter, because he gathers a lot more information about candidates from talking to them in real time. 

That's not to say it's not validating to be waitlisted. It is. It's worth something, even if we don't get in. Somebody thought our writing was good enough for their program. I will take it as a sign of encouragement!

Also, I don't think UTK is super high up in the rankings, so they need to have a long waitlist. Or at least that's my understanding. Maybe I don't have access to all the rankings, but I think UTK is pretty average as far as rankings go? That's what I would say in their defense. 

A couple of things. 
first, as some of us have said, once you’re a selective fully funded program, there’s top tier (Iowa, Michener, JHU, etc.) and then there’s really good programs. None of these are far and away above any of the others. So if our writing is good enough for their program, you’re damn right we should be encouraged. 
second, while I don’t have a lot of experience here (only waitlisted two other places), their email was super encouraging and detailed. Now I feel like my others blew if UTK is standard. Again, I’m not discouraged but I really thought the detail alone as well as the line about letting them know before I accepted another offer was heartening. I felt the program valued the art when I applied and now I feel like they value us. 
 

80ish people long is a little discouraging. I mean I know you’re right that rankings matter in a perception as reality sorta way so yeah maybe a lot of people drop out of the running. But it can’t make us feel scrubby. 83. Wow. 
whatever. I’ll take it. 
 

now I wonder how many applied last year for a waitlist like that. I mean if 104 applied this year it makes no sense. 
policies change though. But then, the waitlist number has creeped up on draft. Still not as high as Bloomington. 
 

stress ramble over

[messindistress]

Does anybody know when UW sends out notifications for acceptances/rejects?

[Rixor]

15 minutes ago, messindistress said:

Does anybody know when UW sends out notifications for acceptances/rejects?

UW as in Wisconsin, Washington, Wyoming?

[messindistress]

Just now, Rixor said:

UW as in Wisconsin, Washington, Wyoming?

Washington!

[Rixor]

6 minutes ago, messindistress said:

Washington!

Assuming you mean UW-S and not UW-B, last year they notified late Feb - ~March 8th. But the years before that, they notified mid-Feb. So it's a toss up! 

[jadedoptimist]

Today has been kind of quiet, eh?

[itsbeensnowing]

6 minutes ago, jadedoptimist said:

Today has been kind of quiet, eh?

Let's hope it's the calm before the storm

[Scribe]

3 minutes ago, itsbeensnowing said:

Let's hope it's the calm before the storm

I am the storm

[Scribe]

Aaaaand there's a fiction acceptance for New Mexico posted on draft. 

another r for me. 

[writercl]

45 minutes ago, jadedoptimist said:

Today has been kind of quiet, eh?

too quiet 😭😭

[nataliezimm]

Anyone else applied to City College of New York? Just saw they pushed back their deadline to March 1st from February 15th, so I’m wondering a) if this means decisions will also be pushed back and b) whether this means they don’t have a lot of apps this year? What are people’s thoughts? 
 

[Hjanep]

4 hours ago, Valle said:

Hey there. I am in the same boat. Older, kids, career. And I'm international, so it'd be a huge deal to go for an MFA. That said, i applied to two programmes. But the thing is that I can't go anyways, at least not this year, even if I do get in. I do think it's possible to write without an MFA. Of course, an MFA provides community, time, structure, etc. but these are things one can get without being in an expensive, life-uprooting programme. I have heard that it is very difficult to get an agent without an MFA, but I also hear that getting an agent should not be the main motivation to get an MFA. So yeah, kinda contradictory and probably no help. I enrolled in a Gotham Writers Workshop. I know a writing workshop is not the same as a 2-year programme, but I'm hoping it'll help deal with the disappointment, and it'll be fun too! 

I’ve taken classes at Gotham and really enjoyed them! I did a fully remote one and an in person one because I’m in NYC and can’t say enough good things about my workshopmates or the instructors. I hope you have a good experience!

[pananoprodigy]

Did anyone successfully request application fee waivers? I'm really regretting not applying to more programs, but frankly I just couldn't afford to and I really didn't even think about requesting waivers.  

[Saints_]

6 hours ago, darr1 said:

Any word on when Minnesota poetry decisions might happen?

If it's any consolation, I am waiting on Minnesota fiction; haven't heard anything. 

[Writerishlife]

18 minutes ago, pananoprodigy said:

Did anyone successfully request application fee waivers? I'm really regretting not applying to more programs, but frankly I just couldn't afford to and I really didn't even think about requesting waivers.  

@pananoprodigy I applied to 10 programs and 8 of them gave me a fee waiver. A lot of schools were really understanding and just sent a code to put in at the end of the application! 

[dogenthusiast]

hey y'all! been lurking for a while. it's been super helpful to not feel alone in the process & i've gotten lots of good info here 😄

i'm currently waiting to hear back from only 2 more schools (brown & u of arkansas). currently sitting on one waitlist from UTK (seems like many of us are on there LOL) and one acceptance from Oklahoma. Oklahoma sent me a TA offer today that includes both a stipend & a tuition waiver, so if i get nothing else, i might take them up on it! just curious to hear if anyone here is also seriously considering that school. would love to meet some potential future classmates!! 

wishing you all the best of luck! i've loved following along on your journeys

[pomelo]

26 minutes ago, pananoprodigy said:

Did anyone successfully request application fee waivers? I'm really regretting not applying to more programs, but frankly I just couldn't afford to and I really didn't even think about requesting waivers.  

I applied to 10 and got 5 waivers. UW-Madison and Sarah Lawrence were the most responsive and helpful when it came to offering waivers. I also got waivers from Iowa, Cornell, and Northwestern. 

[Scribe]

man, i should have tried but so many made it seem like it was over before i could try. Vandy waived me automatically though. 

[jbs]

Hey all!

I have been reading along but decided to make an account tonight. This is my first year applying and so far have a rejection from Michigan (poetry). Does anybody have any insight on VCU, U of O, Montana (Missoula), or University of Minnesota (all poetry). Thank you!! Best of luck--and peace!--to everyone.

[saramsarang]

Hello everyone, looks like a slow day indeed, so I just wanted to share some hope/positivity?

I haven't been doing so well mentally for the last one month. The rejections were a lot more hurtful than I thought it would be despite me expecting them and I haven't written a single word since I submitted applications in December. All in all I sort of gave up on writing altogether. I don't know how to explain it except that it died in me. I began to think I was meant to be a writer or write in this lifetime anyways. It might sound dramatic to a lot of you, but it didn't have much to do with the mfa itself. I've endured a lot in the past seven years just to keep writing in my life. Writing for me is as necessary as breathing, and it's hard to explain that to anyone without sounding crazy. It's been incredibly exhausting with no reward or relief and this was all the love I had for the art, so I was going to let it go after this cycle, because there was no light at the end of the tunnel that I could see. 

Yesterday I went to church for the first time in a very long time. I'm not religious, but I am agnostic. (This is not a God is great and you should go pray post, please bear with me). Honestly, I only went to ask a higher power whether they knew what they were doing and why they were doing this to me. I didn't go to ask for anything, not to ask for an acceptance or anything of that sort because I didn't think it worked like that. Also because I've just been very numb and distant from life, so I couldn't even bring myself to ask for it because I genuinely believed I was just destined to fail at writing. 

I ended up crying a lot, a full blown sob session haha. In the end I asked only for one thing, for God to show me a sign if they believed I should continue writing. Any sign, could have even just been a friend texting me to say they loved my writing etc. I would have taken anything just to feel like I hadn't wasted my whole life away. An hour later on the way home I received an acceptance from Binghamton for their English and Creative Writing program. 

Ultimately, I don't think I'll be going there because there's no funding and the director of the program understood my financial difficulties as an international student especially. But she wrote this: "In accepting your application, we wanted to communicate that the creative writing faculty who read your file and your work found it excellent." and encouraged me to keep writing and wished me success. I feel like that was the sign.

The point of this wasn't to ask you guys to believe in a God or a religion or anything, but to say that I didn't have any hope for after the cycle. I was struggling to even imagine a life, but I'm a lot more calmer now. This is the first morning in the last month that I have woken up without crying. I figured if I've survived seven years and that got me the chance to apply for the MFA, another year of fighting for writing won't hurt. Someone out there did like my writing even if it wasn't the mfa. That's pretty good to me. So I'm going to try harder now.

So if anyone else is feeling lost, angry, sad, like you wasted all that money for the applications, just hang in there a bit longer. Writing loves you as much as you love it, it's not unrequited. It's all about the timing, a matter of 'when' and not 'if'. If it's not this cycle and you feel like you won't be able to apply again, that's okay. It's the same for me, I don't think I have the money to apply again next cycle. But we'll never know what will actually happen in a year, in two years, in three. It may seem like there are no possibilities but we're living in a chaotic world where anything can happen. So many people have pointed out how much they've grown through the application cycle and even the short few months after it. Life is like that, you have to keep walking and then suddenly you'll look back and realise how far you've come. Everyone's pace is different, life isn't about speed but rather direction. So grieve, process, but don't give up on writing. It's just not your time yet, but it will come. If not for anyone, you owe it to yourself.

Until then, watch the sunset, meet new people, buy yourself something nice and breathe in the small things. If you've been waiting for a sign, take this as the one. You are enough and there is a life, it may not look okay now but you'll figure it out, you have before, so you will again. It's not the end of the world, it may in fact be the beginning of a new one. 

(That said, I will still cry when I get my rejections from Iowa, Brown and NYU but it's really not the end of the world. I don't regret applying to the mfa even though all I got were rejections. I needed to see through the seven year period until the end, so I'm going to take this as the closure to that really long and hard period. Most of all though, I got to meet all of you guys and I got to see a whole community of writers, it's been very heartwarming. You guys are amazing people and I really hope for nothing but the best for everyone. I hope you keep dreaming, and your life blooms.)

That was a really long message, sorry everyone!

Edited February 23 by saramsarang

[GoldenTree]

2 hours ago, pananoprodigy said:

Did anyone successfully request application fee waivers? I'm really regretting not applying to more programs, but frankly I just couldn't afford to and I really didn't even think about requesting waivers.  

So I applied to 16 schools, 14 of which had application fees. I got 9 need-based fee waivers out of the 14. I remember I tried to get a 10th fee waiver from the University of Kansas and they said they ran out of them and couldn't give me one due to lack of funding (try to apply earlier for them, I guess). For all of these fee waivers though, I had to demonstrate financial need. These schools required me to show my SAR from FASFA, a letter from my financial aid office from my university stating I was a Pell grant recipient, or something else similar. It wasn't common for someone to just believe my financial  need and give it to me without evidence (like what my advisor said would happen). That never happened if it was need based. The exception and easiest fee waiver to get was Ohio State, I think, cause it was in the FreeApp Big Ten thingy. I don't think I had to show anything for that school. It just works and waives the fee if you have over a 3.0 GPA, are a US resident, and are applying to a MFA or PhD. 

Edited February 23 by GoldenTree

[BlueJayBird]

Here are my results so far, for any who are curious. I applied for Creative Nonfiction. I'll keep this updated as decisions come out!

University of Utah: Rejected 2/16

Northern Arizona University: Accepted 2/21, Fully-funded TA position offer 2/22

Colorado State University: Waitlisted 2/22

University of Arizona: Pending

University of Iowa: Pending

University of Idaho: Pending

Iowa State University: Pending

University of Texas at El Paso: Pending

 

Super relieved to have an acceptance with full funding at a school I'd be super happy to attend. Bring on the rejections!!!