2024 Creative Writing MFA Applicants Forum

[Rixor]

6 minutes ago, BlueJayBird said:

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!!!

Congratulations!! 

If I could ask, how were you notified for NAU funding? 

[BlueJayBird]

 

6 minutes ago, Rixor said:

Congratulations!! 

If I could ask, how were you notified for NAU funding? 

Thank you! I was notified via email.

I had replied to my acceptance email the night before asking when I would hear about a TA decision, so maybe that prompted them a little bit.

Edited February 23 by BlueJayBird
removing linked email

[pananoprodigy]

47 minutes ago, GoldenTree said:

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. 

This is SO helpful and good to know, thank you!!! 

[TheGreatLoudini]

1 hour ago, saramsarang said:

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!

So this is the first time I have checked this message bored. And a post like this concerns me. if you need someone to talk to reach out to me I don't know if it's by private message or whatever. Stranger on the internet you have tremendous value. Don't ever forget that! 

Edited February 23 by TheGreatLoudini
Accidentally hit enter lol!

[GoldenTree]

4 hours ago, TheGreatLoudini said:

So this is the first time I have checked this message bored. And a post like this concerns me. if you need someone to talk to reach out to me I don't know if it's by private message or whatever. Stranger on the internet you have tremendous value. Don't ever forget that! 

Ditto. And @saramsarang you have all the right to be sad about this. That's something my boyfriend told me last night as I was so upset about all this MFA stuff, but it's true. It hurts for the hopes to die and for us to want and fight for something, not yet receiving it. There's always still hope though and I know as writers we so crave external validation sometimes. For someone to say, "yes, I want the work. I love it." We don't always receive that though and then there are these periods where we have to believe in ourselves or else I think we'd all give up. I'm glad you got the sign. Because I believe in you and I've had my own experiences with signs that have greatly helped me. If you ever want a friend I know @TheGreatLoudini offered, but I'd be open too. Whether you'd wanna talk about MFAs, writing, sadness, signs, or whatever, it'd be good with me. If not anything that's alright too. Regardless, I still hope you get in one of those remaining three even though I know you seem to have given up a lot of hope. Keep on believing and I hope you try again eventually or just starting publishing if this current cycle doesn't work out. Either way you wrote an inspiring post that uplifted others and have been a wonderful person to have on this forum. 

Edited February 23 by GoldenTree

[saramsarang]

@TheGreatLoudini and @GoldenTreeThank you both so much for your concern and support, it moved me that you guys checked up on me! I'm doing mostly okay now, definitely better than before anyhow, and I will definitely reach out to you guys if I feel like talking. But otherwise, I'm cheering both of you on for this cycle! 

[jadedoptimist]

@saramsarang I'm always down to talk as well. I understand the impact this process can have on someone's mental health. Regardless of whether both of us are applying next year or not I would love to keep in contact with you guys and workshop writing!

[saramsarang]

4 minutes ago, jadedoptimist said:

@saramsarang I'm always down to talk as well. I understand the impact this process can have on someone's mental health. Regardless of whether both of us are applying next year or not I would love to keep in contact with you guys and workshop writing!

Ahh seriously all of you guys are the sweetest! I'm really introverted and tend to not say much, but being here on gradcafe through the cycle and seeing everyone hit highs and lows and share both the sadness and the joy really was the best part of the whole process for me. Where I'm from, it's been difficult to find a writing community (one of the reasons I applied to the mfa as well) so being on here, gave me a little bit of how it could be and I'm really grateful to all of you guys for that. Looking at everyone here is why I'm not jealous or envious of those who got in, because I can tell how amazing all of you are.

I'd totally be down for workshop writing as well and seconded on keeping contact no matter how it all turns out. I remember in one year, maybe last year? (I've lurked too much on here that all the years are a blur now) but someone (MPD? Their username began with a M I think) did have a workshop with others on gradcafe and apparently their feedback was super useful to others. I remember checking out their profile but I think they haven't been active in a long time. Not all heroes wear capes I guess, but it sounded really fun! So I'm in ~

[viennacoffee]

This is my first time posting, so I don't know if I'm doing this right, but I wanted to ask - I've seen acceptances go out for NYU (congrats to everyone who got in!) If we haven't received a call, do y'all think it's safe to assume we haven't gotten in?

[Hjanep]

13 minutes ago, viennacoffee said:

This is my first time posting, so I don't know if I'm doing this right, but I wanted to ask - I've seen acceptances go out for NYU (congrats to everyone who got in!) If we haven't received a call, do y'all think it's safe to assume we haven't gotten in?

I don’t think so, I believe NYU acceptances trickle out over a pretty prolonged timeframe 

[ssuunn]

Gathering thoughts: I'm about to follow up on my waitlist and I've had some more publications from the time I submitted my application to now. Should I bring this up or do you think that doesn't matter at all?

On one hand, I'm not sure it will increase my odds if a spot does open up; on the other, it would show that I'm actively "being a writer" and making some connections, I guess?

[dasiena]

Hi everyone! I have a question. Does anyone know how acceptances/rejections go out if you are living abroad? For example does Iowa send a rejection via snail mail and/or do they call you to accept if you have a foreign phone number? Or will they contact only via email if you live abroad? Seems expensive otherwise! For context, the only two programs I applied to were Iowa and Brown (lol I know good luck right). 

[AngusWanderer]

8 minutes ago, dasiena said:

Hi everyone! I have a question. Does anyone know how acceptances/rejections go out if you are living abroad? For example does Iowa send a rejection via snail mail and/or do they call you to accept if you have a foreign phone number? Or will they contact only via email if you live abroad? Seems expensive otherwise! For context, the only two programs I applied to were Iowa and Brown (lol I know good luck right). 

 

Someone I know was offered a place last year. Iowa emailed them to arrange a Zoom call. 

 

Also, just received an interview invitation from Notre Dame🥲 

[dasiena]

12 minutes ago, AngusWanderer said:

Also, just received an interview invitation from Notre Dame🥲 

Congratulations!!!! That's so exciting! 🥳

[prufrock_]

This has been the toughest week yet. I'm glad yall are here to get through this together with!

[mr. specific]

40 minutes ago, AngusWanderer said:

 

Someone I know was offered a place last year. Iowa emailed them to arrange a Zoom call. 

 

Also, just received an interview invitation from Notre Dame🥲 

Nice! ND is a cool program. 

[airlinefood_enjoyer]

1 hour ago, AngusWanderer said:

 

Someone I know was offered a place last year. Iowa emailed them to arrange a Zoom call. 

 

Also, just received an interview invitation from Notre Dame🥲 

congrats! I interviewed at nd earlier this week for fiction 😄

[writernity]

FINALLY got my JHU rejection! 🎉 hopefully no one else is left waiting after today. The struggles of being at the bottom of the alphabet 🤣

0a/0w/3r/10p

[Karmazinov]

13 hours ago, saramsarang said:

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!

 

Hi all. Really appreciate this community. It is interesting to me how seriously people take the prospect of getting an MFA. I feel like we should understand it is not a cosmic rejection of you as a writer if you don't get an acceptance, although I understand the disappointment. I have been rejected from 2 and am waiting on 3 more. I know it stings.

But remember there are many worse things happening. There is a genocide occurring for instance. Financed, armed by the US government, and its grotesque barbaric details ignored by the media. Hind Rajab, anyone?

If I don't get in to an MFA it will not mean God has turned his back on me. Or that I'm a failed writer. I write because I must. I want to. I aspire to be as good as I can. I don't know if I what I have to say will be of interest to anyone. I don't think the world owes me a professional career as a writer. I know I can keep writing as long as I have writing materials and some spare time.

Of course, it is elemental to writing that there is a reader. We want to be read. So I understand the desire for commercial or institutional success. But there are other paths to a readership than an MFA. It will suck if, and probably when, I get my next 3 rejections. But it won't stop me writing, submitting, trying different things, different ways to become a read writer while still being driven by that authentic, naive, natural writing impulse I've had since I was a chld - which is simply to explore interesting sentences/paragraphs/pages/blocks of imaginative text that form their own coherent spellbinding world. The rest is fate and silence.

 

 

[jadedoptimist]

47 minutes ago, writernity said:

FINALLY got my JHU rejection! 🎉 hopefully no one else is left waiting after today. The struggles of being at the bottom of the alphabet 🤣

0a/0w/3r/10p

this is such a mood. I'm at the bottom of the alphabet too and I'm pretty sure michener rejections are going out in alphabetical order

[triciadawn]

56 minutes ago, Karmazinov said:

It is interesting to me how seriously people take the prospect of getting an MFA.

Someone should honestly make a documentary about us lol. 

[sunnysequoia]

4 minutes ago, triciadawn said:

Someone should honestly make a documentary about us lol. 

LOL in all seriousness, this would be an awesome documentary. I feel like in the world of pop culture and media, the literary arts are significantly overlooked. There are documentaries about how musicians and actors rise to their level of fame and success, but how many are there for writers?? All art that involves storytelling begins with writing, and I think it'd be incredible to document the journeys of ordinary people like us who just have a proclivity toward pen and paper and the stakes and costs involved to achieve our dreams. Does anyone know a filmmaker?? 😂

[alligator mississippiensis]

3 hours ago, viennacoffee said:

This is my first time posting, so I don't know if I'm doing this right, but I wanted to ask - I've seen acceptances go out for NYU (congrats to everyone who got in!) If we haven't received a call, do y'all think it's safe to assume we haven't gotten in?

Hello! I was waitlisted for fiction at NYU last year, and they notified me very late, around March 20th. I think they have a very drawn-out acceptance process. 

[Karmazinov]

2 minutes ago, sunnysequoia said:

LOL in all seriousness, this would be an awesome documentary. I feel like in the world of pop culture and media, the literary arts are significantly overlooked. There are documentaries about how musicians and actors rise to their level of fame and success, but how many are there for writers?? All art that involves storytelling begins with writing, and I think it'd be incredible to document the journeys of ordinary people like us who just have a proclivity toward pen and paper and the stakes and costs involved to achieve our dreams. Does anyone know a filmmaker?? 😂

 

That could be amazing!

[girlgenius]

do we think NWP notifications went out on the same day as Michener? apparently last year they did, but haven't seen any NWP movement on here or Draft.....both of my UT portals still say In Review gah