2024 Creative Writing MFA Applicants Forum

[sylviaplathtears]

26 minutes ago, sciencebasedlifter said:

hiii longtime lurker here. finally making an account to see if anyone would help shed some light on a couple programs I'm looking at. 

i applied mostly to nyc schools and received acceptances in fiction from Hunter, Brooklyn, and Columbia and I'm waitlisted at nyu and rutgers-newark. Columbia gave me a scholarship that covers full tuition, which I'm stoked about (still not sure though if it will be the same amount the second year...). Hunter gave me 2 weeks to decide (way before the April 15 general deadline which is stressful). I'm really excited about hunter's faculty, but I'm not sure if i want a small or big program. I sort of wrote Columbia off as impossible because i assumed they didn't give anyone money (it seems like a lot of people on here have reported some kind of scholarship from them, congrats all!) So now Hunter and Brooklyn would technically be more expensive than Columbia for me (as a non NY resident my first year). 

They both have opportunities for teaching which is important to me. For context, I work a full time job and plan to reduce it to part time while I'm in any of these programs (I realize this may be tough with Columbia's 60 credit curriculum). 

I guess I'm just wondering if anyone has any intel on any of these programs or sense of what I should do. And I hope this doesn't come across as flaunting my acceptances, I really just don't know what to do and you all are so knowledgeable and kind.

 

 

 

 

I would take Columbia's offer. They have amazing alums and professors. I live in NYC and it feels extremely expensive to live here even with a full time job and rent on the cheaper end. Also it makes you feel better I know several Columbia grad students with full time and part time jobs.

Edited March 11, 2024 by sylviaplathtears

[sciencebasedlifter]

15 minutes ago, sylviaplathtears said:

I would take Columbia's offer. They have amazing alums and professors. I live in NYC and it feels extremely expensive to live here even with a full time job and rent on the cheaper end. Also it makes you feel better I know several Columbia grad students with full time and part time jobs.

that is great to know about columbia grad students having jobs while in their programs. I definitely won't be able to survive in nyc without one even with full tuition remission 

[writernity]

35 minutes ago, sciencebasedlifter said:

im sorry! i should have been more sensitive with the brown results coming out today

Nothing to apologize or be sensitive about haha, you're all good! It's not your responsibility to know what programs everyone else is applying to or when those programs are releasing stuff or mind all of our feelings. Celebrate your success, we're happy for you!!! 🎉🎉

I'm just a bit emotional because that seems to be the end of my run aside from some maybe waitlist possibilities, and while I do have 3 acceptances, they're all to less competitive non-fully-funded schools I'm not sure will be the best fit and I'm now entering crisis mode of "Do I try again next year or just go with what I got"

[dingledodie]

5 hours ago, ssuunn said:

Is anyone else in limbo with Oregon State? I probably wouldn't attend, but it looks like everyone else was waitlisted/rejected for poetry by 2/27...

I got my OSU rejection on 3/4 for fiction, if that helps at all. Hopefully no news is good news for you 🤞🤞🤞

[Scribe]

UVA has also given me the shaft. 

nevermind. they'd already given me the shaft. 

all this shafting is getting hard to keep track of. 

 

Edited March 11, 2024 by Scribe

[Scribe]

Abort. 

Edited March 11, 2024 by Scribe

[jadedoptimist]

pretty sure I just got waitlisted at Iowa 🤩

[infiniteplane]

1 hour ago, writernity said:

Nothing to apologize or be sensitive about haha, you're all good! It's not your responsibility to know what programs everyone else is applying to or when those programs are releasing stuff or mind all of our feelings. Celebrate your success, we're happy for you!!! 🎉🎉

I'm just a bit emotional because that seems to be the end of my run aside from some maybe waitlist possibilities, and while I do have 3 acceptances, they're all to less competitive non-fully-funded schools I'm not sure will be the best fit and I'm now entering crisis mode of "Do I try again next year or just go with what I got"

hi just wanted to say that i'm in a similar boat and ik exactly how you feel. i don't want to seem ungrateful or that i'm undermining my accomplishments but i am feeling a bit disappointed because the programs are unfunded and not that competitive. ppl have been so excited for me when i tell them i got into columbia but in my head i'm like..its not as hard as you probably think 😭

[minivercheevy_]

9 minutes ago, jadedoptimist said:

pretty sure I just got waitlisted at Iowa 🤩

Congrats! Why do you say "pretty sure?" Was it a vaguely-worded email? 

[jadedoptimist]

Just now, minivercheevy_ said:

Congrats! Why do you say "pretty sure?" Was it a vaguely-worded email? 

Yes, it was "your application remains under consideration." That was it

[AngusWanderer]

Just now, jadedoptimist said:

Yes, it was "your application remains under consideration." That was it

I was just about to post about this and ask what this means. 

That's it. I'm done with Iowa. It just feels wrong to get waitlisted twice in a roll. 

[rachy1997]

2 hours ago, messindistress said:

Just got the VTech rejection.

We are sorry to inform you that we cannot offer you admission to Virginia Tech at this time. The main reason for this decision is: NonCompetitive.

Jesus.

I got the same this afternoon. OOF

[minivercheevy_]

Welp. Looks like that just about ends my cycle. Is anyone thinking about attending UMass? For poetry specifically? I think that'll be where I decide on going regardless of my waitlists. Gizzi is a god. 

[itsbeensnowing]

People on draft, has there been anything from Hollins or Southern Illinois University? I think SIU is the only one I've applied to that hasn't sent any acceptances out yet. Hollins has an apparent acceptance on the results page here, but they didn't state the genre.

[writernity]

1 hour ago, infiniteplane said:

hi just wanted to say that i'm in a similar boat and ik exactly how you feel. i don't want to seem ungrateful or that i'm undermining my accomplishments but i am feeling a bit disappointed because the programs are unfunded and not that competitive. ppl have been so excited for me when i tell them i got into columbia but in my head i'm like..its not as hard as you probably think 😭

Columbia IS competitive, especially if you've got any funding offers! Like NYU, they accept a larger cohort, but they also get a very large amount of applicants and the amount they accept is around 20% at most, much less with funding. Sure, less competitive than some schools that only accept 6 students (and way too expensive without a massive funding offer) but still an achievement. It doesn't seem like I'm getting a Columbia acceptance at all (though I guess we don't know for sure if they're done yet).

[Scribe]

1 hour ago, infiniteplane said:

hi just wanted to say that i'm in a similar boat and ik exactly how you feel. i don't want to seem ungrateful or that i'm undermining my accomplishments but i am feeling a bit disappointed because the programs are unfunded and not that competitive. ppl have been so excited for me when i tell them i got into columbia but in my head i'm like..its not as hard as you probably think 😭

 

25 minutes ago, writernity said:

Columbia IS competitive, especially if you've got any funding offers! Like NYU, they accept a larger cohort, but they also get a very large amount of applicants and the amount they accept is around 20% at most, much less with funding. Sure, less competitive than some schools that only accept 6 students (and way too expensive without a massive funding offer) but still an achievement. It doesn't seem like I'm getting a Columbia acceptance at all (though I guess we don't know for sure if they're done yet).

Columbia does accept a large cohort but they also have one of the largest applicant pools. they accept less than 3%.

[OctopusCactus]

On the topic of feeling ambivalent about "not that competitive" program acceptances:

I feel this. These prospective grad student forums have been a really mixed bag for me in that regard. I've certainly learned a lot I didn't know about how this process works and I value that, but as a first-gen student (for college and now for grad school) it kind of blows my mind to read some of the bashing of programs as "not that competitive" if they take more than a teeny handful of students a year.  I know it's all relative, but just the amount of credentials and recommendations and work required to even APPLY to pretty much any MFA program weeds out tons of people.  

This was my first time applying to any grad program and I went into it feeling like "if I get in anywhere it will be an achievement".  I'm coming out of it with multiple acceptances, all with at least partial funding, with all this self-doubt because I've learned here that the programs I've gotten into aren't the MOST competitive ones. 

Trying to re-ground myself in what my offline world tells me: that I put a ton of work into my writing, that I have potential, and that it's been recognized.

[prufrock_]

53 minutes ago, itsbeensnowing said:

Hollins

There has been 1 acceptance for poetry and 1 for nonfiction, both submitted on friday. It's possible acceptances are still rolling. Good luck! I thought for a while about applying there, it looks great.

 

Nothing for SIU.

[minivercheevy_]

14 minutes ago, OctopusCactus said:

On the topic of feeling ambivalent about "not that competitive" program acceptances:

I feel this. These prospective grad student forums have been a really mixed bag for me in that regard. I've certainly learned a lot I didn't know about how this process works and I value that, but as a first-gen student (for college and now for grad school) it kind of blows my mind to read some of the bashing of programs as "not that competitive" if they take more than a teeny handful of students a year.  I know it's all relative, but just the amount of credentials and recommendations and work required to even APPLY to pretty much any MFA program weeds out tons of people.  

This was my first time applying to any grad program and I went into it feeling like "if I get in anywhere it will be an achievement".  I'm coming out of it with multiple acceptances, all with at least partial funding, with all this self-doubt because I've learned here that the programs I've gotten into aren't the MOST competitive ones. 

Trying to re-ground myself in what my offline world tells me: that I put a ton of work into my writing, that I have potential, and that it's been recognized.

I understand how you're feeling. This was my first year applying, and the whole time I couldn't help but feel like I was behind in this game from the get-go. Comparison is poison in these sorts of processes.

I felt my heart sink when I realized just how many people who post acceptances went to extremely prestigious colleges for their undergrad---almost every single known acceptance for Iowa, at least for poetry, went to someone from an Ivy. But it really only takes one school to believe in your work in order for you to be successful. There's no such thing as a "bad" program. If you like what a program has to offer you then it's right for you. 

Plus, tons of writers never even went to get an MFA. Getting into a program just gives that precious time to write. Be yourself and write for yourself. Rooting for you. 

[mr. specific]

Iowa poetry is definitely not done yet. Acceptances still to come.

[AngusWanderer]

9 minutes ago, mr. specific said:

Iowa poetry is definitely not done yet. Acceptances still to come.

Earlier this morning, I received an email titled "IWW Update" from Willis, breaking it up from last year's "From IWW". It says, "Your application is still under consideration," which is also different from last year's "You are on the waitlist." I wonder what could it possibly mean. 

 

[goldentulip]

2 hours ago, OctopusCactus said:

On the topic of feeling ambivalent about "not that competitive" program acceptances:

I feel this. These prospective grad student forums have been a really mixed bag for me in that regard. I've certainly learned a lot I didn't know about how this process works and I value that, but as a first-gen student (for college and now for grad school) it kind of blows my mind to read some of the bashing of programs as "not that competitive" if they take more than a teeny handful of students a year.  I know it's all relative, but just the amount of credentials and recommendations and work required to even APPLY to pretty much any MFA program weeds out tons of people.  

This was my first time applying to any grad program and I went into it feeling like "if I get in anywhere it will be an achievement".  I'm coming out of it with multiple acceptances, all with at least partial funding, with all this self-doubt because I've learned here that the programs I've gotten into aren't the MOST competitive ones. 

Trying to re-ground myself in what my offline world tells me: that I put a ton of work into my writing, that I have potential, and that it's been recognized.

can empathize so much with this as a fellow first-gen student!! i’ve had the privilege of being guided by and studying under poets who have had wonderful things happen to them in their careers (guggenheim and macarthur fellowships, an inaugural poet) and i was given a lot of really great guidance and reality checks with my expectations. but one of the biggest things they emphasized was that whether i got in or not, i was still a poet, a writer, and someone still worthy of these labels even if no school within the application cycle saw it. they shared countless stories of friends, students, and fellow writers who it didn’t work out for at the beginning, but despite initial rejections, made it out the other end better than they could’ve imagined. i like to doom-spiral in my head a lot, and my past year’s applying just validated those thoughts. but, i’ve come to a place where even if my single waitlist doesn’t pan out (i’ll definitely be a little devastated) but i’ll know that if anything, i had the privilege to even apply and dream about one day be writing for a living. 

[rachy1997]

14 hours ago, itsbeensnowing said:

People on draft, has there been anything from Hollins or Southern Illinois University? I think SIU is the only one I've applied to that hasn't sent any acceptances out yet. Hollins has an apparent acceptance on the results page here, but they didn't state the genre.

I have intel that 10 acceptances have been sent from Hollins but that there are applications that remain under consideration. There's hope for us yet!

[LB349]

18 hours ago, sciencebasedlifter said:

hiii longtime lurker here. finally making an account to see if anyone would help shed some light on a couple programs I'm looking at. 

i applied mostly to nyc schools and received acceptances in fiction from Hunter, Brooklyn, and Columbia and I'm waitlisted at nyu and rutgers-newark. Columbia gave me a scholarship that covers full tuition, which I'm stoked about (still not sure though if it will be the same amount the second year...). Hunter gave me 2 weeks to decide (way before the April 15 general deadline which is stressful). I'm really excited about hunter's faculty, but I'm not sure if i want a small or big program. I sort of wrote Columbia off as impossible because i assumed they didn't give anyone money (it seems like a lot of people on here have reported some kind of scholarship from them, congrats all!) So now Hunter and Brooklyn would technically be more expensive than Columbia for me (as a non NY resident my first year). 

They both have opportunities for teaching which is important to me. For context, I work a full time job and plan to reduce it to part time while I'm in any of these programs (I realize this may be tough with Columbia's 60 credit curriculum). 

I guess I'm just wondering if anyone has any intel on any of these programs or sense of what I should do. And I hope this doesn't come across as flaunting my acceptances, I really just don't know what to do and you all are so knowledgeable and kind.

 

 

 

 

The Columbia faculty is fantastic -- I also applied even though it looks like I didn't get in this year. It would be hard to turn down a tuition free offer from them. I do think NYU is maybe better in terms of faculty and prestige, but since waitlist admits seem to get less funding, might be hard to accept in lieu of the others. 

Congratulations!

[rlion]

9 minutes ago, rachy1997 said:

I have intel that 10 acceptances have been sent from Hollins but that there are applications that remain under consideration. There's hope for us yet!

Thank you for the update! Fingers crossed