2024 Creative Writing MFA Applicants Forum

[RobbieWrites]

Anyone else hear back from Columbia and NYU today. I have and I'm wondering if a few went out?

[ALittleConfused]

Hi everyone. It feels opportunistic to jump in right now with doubts but I wanted to try and ask for help regardless. First off Congratulations to all of us for making it this far. I think it’s ridiculous this entire process and I think it’s made us closer to being writers or whatever- considering this feels alot like self inflicted torture too. 

I wanted to understand the implication of doing a TA job on a 1:1 load which requires 15 hours a week of work. I’m an international student with no teaching experience and at present not much inclination (public speaking). The idea of putting the time toward this while also doing 2 more courses in a week scares me—does this leave enough time to write? Am I panicking and is this actually an ok amount of time? 

Also If anyone knows anything about Notre dame in terms of personally knowing the program/faculty/opportunities please do also comment.

This is what I can offer in return: I have a black tongue that sometimes makes wishes come true. 
 

Right. Have a great day everyone. And let's keep writing! 

[Scribe]

8 minutes ago, ALittleConfused said:

Hi everyone. It feels opportunistic to jump in right now with doubts but I wanted to try and ask for help regardless. First off Congratulations to all of us for making it this far. I think it’s ridiculous this entire process and I think it’s made us closer to being writers or whatever- considering this feels alot like self inflicted torture too. 

I wanted to understand the implication of doing a TA job on a 1:1 load which requires 15 hours a week of work. I’m an international student with no teaching experience and at present not much inclination (public speaking). The idea of putting the time toward this while also doing 2 more courses in a week scares me—does this leave enough time to write? Am I panicking and is this actually an ok amount of time? 

Also If anyone knows anything about Notre dame in terms of personally knowing the program/faculty/opportunities please do also comment.

This is what I can offer in return: I have a black tongue that sometimes makes wishes come true. 
 

Right. Have a great day everyone. And let's keep writing! 

I can tell you very little but I’ll do what I can. 
I recently found out I’ll be expected to put 20 hours a week into teaching a single class. I was also told to absolutely set that as an upper limit. So if you’re doing 15 I would say that’s pretty good but also set that as your upper. Limit. 
in my program it seems other students do find ways to make money on the side without compromising their writing time. 
BUT we also only take one class, not two. The remaining credits are comprised of the workshop element which is demanding but seems to have at least some of the writing time built in to the credit load. I’ve heard this about other programs as well. 
finally, my director has told me that it’s “bad” to spend too much time writing. I think what’s going to happen is my writing time will be more scheduled, directed, and disciplined. As such it will be more efficient. 
I hope this for both of us. 

[ALittleConfused]

Thank you so much @Scribe this is helpful. Also a bit unnerving because one of the programs that has made me a offer has stipend tied to fellowship duties for year 1 giving me more time to write. The other is the teaching one. It's been weird navigating all of this from afar I wish I had the resources to come visit but that's not an option. I don't think either are wrong or right but making a decision that upends my life as it is I feel like I need to go in with maximum clarity. 

[Scribe]

4 minutes ago, ALittleConfused said:

Thank you so much @Scribe this is helpful. Also a bit unnerving because one of the programs that has made me an offer has stipend tied to fellowship duties for year 1 giving me more time to write. The other is the teaching one. It's been weird navigating all of this from afar I wish I had the resources to come visit but that's not an option. I don't think either are wrong or right but making a decision that upends my life as it is I feel like I need to go in with maximum clarity. 

Either program should be willing to put you in touch with current students. They can tell you real specifics and they will. 
you’re totally right about maximum clarity. Fellowship duties could be more hours than teaching and they certainly may not allow for as much flexibility. But then u may be assisting someone who asks for very little. 

[ALittleConfused]

Thanks again @scribe. I'm going to look into this!

[trenchywrench]

8 hours ago, RobbieWrites said:

Anyone else hear back from Columbia and NYU today. I have and I'm wondering if a few went out?

What kind of notification did you get, and for what genre? Fiancée got her NYU Paris low-residency rejection yesterday, but i don’t know about the full-residency or Columbia sending out any notifications.

[waitingfordotdotdot]

Anyone accepted to Brooklyn College fiction thinking of declining? Just curious, no pressure obviously waitlisted here

[sciencebasedlifter]

35 minutes ago, waitingfordotdotdot said:

Anyone accepted to Brooklyn College fiction thinking of declining? Just curious, no pressure obviously waitlisted here

I am going to decline my offer very soon-- I hope that's good news for you!

[trenchywrench]

11 hours ago, jka0124 said:

*waves* @Scribe already mentioned me (thank you!) but I can tell you what I’ve got coming up. If anyone feels weird about me talking about what I’ve got going on, sorry! I can delete.

1) I’m holding a masterclass via Cleaver Magazine on applying to MFAs.

2) I’m also holding a six-week summer class specifically for people reapplying in fiction. Several of my students last year got into Iowa, Michigan, Vanderbilt, etc.

3) I also do consultations on a sliding scale. Cleaver set the price of the masterclass, but I generally take a “pay what you can” approach for everything else, down to doing it for free. I’m just trying to get everyone into grad school 😂

do you have a website/place i can look into this summer class, and is it online? even if i go where i think i may be going this year, i’ll still want to apply for transfer in the 2025 cycle and i would love to look into your seminar.

[nataliezimm]

37 minutes ago, trenchywrench said:

do you have a website/place i can look into this summer class, and is it online? even if i go where i think i may be going this year, i’ll still want to apply for transfer in the 2025 cycle and i would love to look into your seminar.

Also wondering this, I’d definitely love to apply for the summer class! 

[waitingfordotdotdot]

1 hour ago, sciencebasedlifter said:

I am going to decline my offer very soon-- I hope that's good news for you!

Oh wow! Thanks for the info! I definitely hope so--and I hope your other option goes really well!

[lemmmein]

23 hours ago, pananoprodigy said:

I feel silly goofy even asking this but has anyone worked with an MFA consultant or something similar during the app process? I'm pretty skeptical about that kind of thing but now that I'm thinking about next year I can kinda see the value in having someone help with the SOP in particular (I feel like that may have been the weakest part of my application; it's at least the part I put the least effort into😬). Idk, just fishing for thoughts. 

I took a fiction workshop with a grad of the program I'm going to, and then I took another "MFA prep" workshop with her too! Her advice/reading of all my materials/the rec letter she was able to write having worked with me twice was absolutely invaluable.

[pananoprodigy]

17 hours ago, jka0124 said:

*waves* @Scribe already mentioned me (thank you!) but I can tell you what I’ve got coming up. If anyone feels weird about me talking about what I’ve got going on, sorry! I can delete.

1) I’m holding a masterclass via Cleaver Magazine on applying to MFAs.

2) I’m also holding a six-week summer class specifically for people reapplying in fiction. Several of my students last year got into Iowa, Michigan, Vanderbilt, etc.

3) I also do consultations on a sliding scale. Cleaver set the price of the masterclass, but I generally take a “pay what you can” approach for everything else, down to doing it for free. I’m just trying to get everyone into grad school 😂

Tysm, this is so helpful! I’m reapplying for fiction, so the summer class sounds like it would be perfect!

[decayingballads21]

Yall I feel like I’m going crazy. Has this week been super quiet or is it just me??? Anyone know why it’s been so quiet??? 😩😩😩

[sunnysequoia]

15 minutes ago, decayingballads21 said:

Yall I feel like I’m going crazy. Has this week been super quiet or is it just me??? Anyone know why it’s been so quiet??? 😩😩😩

I think most decisions have come out at this point and now it's just the waiting game for all the waitlists 🫠🫠🫠

[Scribe]

1 hour ago, sunnysequoia said:

I think most decisions have come out at this point and now it's just the waiting game for all the waitlists 🫠🫠🫠

I know at least six final decisions aren’t out. It’s super frustrating. They are likely all rejections as their acceptances went out quite some time ago. #justhitsend. 

[pananoprodigy]

Yeah soooo quiet this week. I’m STILL waiting for my Iowa and U of Oregon rejections. Humanely euthanize me already jeez 

[RobbieWrites]

I got waitlisted at Columbia for fiction yesterday and didn't get into NYU. Anyone else hear from the CU waitlist? Who has accepted their offers yet for any of their schools? Or are most waiting until April 15 deadline?

[OctopusCactus]

8 hours ago, RobbieWrites said:

I got waitlisted at Columbia for fiction yesterday and didn't get into NYU. Anyone else hear from the CU waitlist? Who has accepted their offers yet for any of their schools? Or are most waiting until April 15 deadline?

Someone in their MFA program told me that Columbia has a good amount of waitlist movement every year, in part because a decent number of people who get in sadly cannot swing the program with the funding they get offered. So if that's your #1 don't lose hope! Columbia's admitted students event is next week, and they're still in the process of scheduling admitted students' class visits and calls with current students. There will probably be some movement after those events take place.

[loveintrastevere]

 I'm incredibly grateful for an offer I received from Wichita St., they have a 3 year program, offered me full funding with a stipend. The program is very interesting due to the fact the GTA's actually lead the classes they teach, as in they are not the assistant, they are the lone teacher. Kind of spooky, but extremely interesting. Also, I love the faculty, and the way the curriculum is structured.

I was offered the spot about a month back and have since been holding out my acceptance since I'm waiting to hear back from other schools. At this point, the only remaining I'd consider are Houston, Rutgers, Oregon, and Boise st., but that is only if I get full funding.

Wichita reached out to me the other day asking if I was still interested in attending, I assured them I am. Would you recommend I accept the offer from Wichita now? Or should I wait it out just to allow the process to run its course?      (I'm most likely attending Wichita due to my interest in the program and the fit regardless, but a part of me feels like I should wait until I know the answer from every school)

Thoughts?  

Thanks.

[Jane Wyman]

Anybody have intel on LSU or UNCG? They're the last two schools I'm waiting to hear from ...

[ssuunn]

18 minutes ago, loveintrastevere said:

Wichita reached out to me the other day asking if I was still interested in attending, I assured them I am. Would you recommend I accept the offer from Wichita now? Or should I wait it out just to allow the process to run its course?      (I'm most likely attending Wichita due to my interest in the program and the fit regardless, but a part of me feels like I should wait until I know the answer from every school)

That is totally up to you. The deadline is April 15 (unless stated otherwise) so you are fully within your rights to wait until then to make your final decision. I wouldn't worry about it looking bad or anything!

[trenchywrench]

1 hour ago, Jane Wyman said:

Anybody have intel on LSU or UNCG? They're the last two schools I'm waiting to hear from ...

i’m still waiting on LSU as well.

got my official Rutgers (Camden) rejection today. they said they “read my application with great interest,” but that seems like part of the generic letter. i honestly didn’t expect them to get back to me this soon. LSU should notify before the end of March, according to their site.

[prufrock_]

4 hours ago, Jane Wyman said:

Anybody have intel on LSU or UNCG? They're the last two schools I'm waiting to hear from ...

from what i can tell, acceptances and waitlists are out for LSU, starting early march. I applied and am counting it as a soft decline at the moment.