2024 Creative Writing MFA Applicants Forum

[cnaomi]

1 hour ago, catsaregood.pdf said:

Just received an email rejection letter from BU 😕 (a bit early but glad it came early I guess) congrats to those who got in! 

Sorry to hear about your rejection - but wow, that *is* super early! Poetry or fiction, out of curiosity? I'm a fiction applicant and according to the 2023 decision chart on draft, the earliest I can expect to hear would be the 2nd week of february. So really hoping at least one of my decisions comes much earlier than that because the wait is killing me

[triciadawn]

1 hour ago, catsaregood.pdf said:

Just received an email rejection letter from BU 😕 (a bit early but glad it came early I guess) congrats to those who got in! 

Aww, bummer! That's strange though because I thought acceptances go out first. I applied there for fiction. Super nervous now! My portal just says Complete. 

[catsaregood.pdf]

unless I'm being pranked or something lol! (but its looking.. real LOL)

If anyone can walk me through how to post screenshots of the email I received onto here-- I will!

the email was sent from a bu email directly from the creative writing program!!! 

but the tldr is the email was like we can't offer you a spot, how 650 applicants applied and how there are only 8 openings for poetry and 10 for fiction, how they can't provide individual feedback because of the number of applicants received, uh and basically for this to not discourage me! and how I will be receiving a formal notice from the grad school in the following days.

 

lmao maybe they just extra did not like my application and were like.. Uh immediate rejection lol

[Rixor]

21 minutes ago, catsaregood.pdf said:

unless I'm being pranked or something lol! (but its looking.. real LOL)

If anyone can walk me through how to post screenshots of the email I received onto here-- I will!

the email was sent from a bu email directly from the creative writing program!!! 

but the tldr is the email was like we can't offer you a spot, how 650 applicants applied and how there are only 8 openings for poetry and 10 for fiction, how they can't provide individual feedback because of the number of applicants received, uh and basically for this to not discourage me! and how I will be receiving a formal notice from the grad school in the following days.

 

lmao maybe they just extra did not like my application and were like.. Uh immediate rejection lol

If you uploaded the screenshot to Imgur or another service, you could post the link to it here.

That sounds like a form rejection to me. That's standard for big schools like BU. You genuinely shouldn't let it discourage you, though! Plenty of people received rejections today. I'm sure your application materials were lovely.

[ajcam]

2 hours ago, catsaregood.pdf said:

unless I'm being pranked or something lol! (but its looking.. real LOL)

If anyone can walk me through how to post screenshots of the email I received onto here-- I will!

the email was sent from a bu email directly from the creative writing program!!! 

but the tldr is the email was like we can't offer you a spot, how 650 applicants applied and how there are only 8 openings for poetry and 10 for fiction, how they can't provide individual feedback because of the number of applicants received, uh and basically for this to not discourage me! and how I will be receiving a formal notice from the grad school in the following days.

 

lmao maybe they just extra did not like my application and were like.. Uh immediate rejection lol

ok, well, their loss...because that last line was funny as H*LL 😂

[catsaregood.pdf]

2 hours ago, Rixor said:

If you uploaded the screenshot to Imgur or another service, you could post the link to it here.

That sounds like a form rejection to me. That's standard for big schools like BU. You genuinely shouldn't let it discourage you, though! Plenty of people received rejections today. I'm sure your application materials were lovely.

screenshots! super disappointed to hear bad news so early mostly bc I wasn't prepared to hear it this early? and was also v confused on the timeline.

Edited January 23 by catsaregood.pdf
folks requested screenshots to the email I received!

[catsaregood.pdf]

just so everyone knows-- I did try to link the screenshot of the email via Imgur but gradcafe is giving me a tough time about it, rn the post says "Hidden" "this content must be approved.." but here is the link below with spaces inbetween the characters, so just take out the spaces and it should work!

h t t p s: / / i m g u r . c o m / a / d ND S qg M

also sorry everyone! I didn't mean to scare people, I was surprised that I got an email this early as well and also disappointed because I hadn't prepared myself to hear bad news this early, I was expecting bad news to come more so like late feb / early march???? so very confused!!! also, still unsure if I got pranked or not but the email seems real and the email address it was sent from seems real so? rip me I guess lol

[catsaregood.pdf]

crying and sobbing and fighting for my life but in a chill unbothered way (narrator: they were not chill and unbothered)

i'm not surprised by the rejection itself just more so surprised by the time frame I got it at!!! like BU really said.. hm we're going to make you sad EARLIER than you prepared yourself for lol like I was trying to prep myself for bad news for.. next month.. and the month after not like.. today/this week 

[sunnysequoia]

2 minutes ago, catsaregood.pdf said:

crying and sobbing and fighting for my life but in a chill unbothered way (narrator: they were not chill and unbothered)

i'm not surprised by the rejection itself just more so surprised by the time frame I got it at!!! like BU really said.. hm we're going to make you sad EARLIER than you prepared yourself for lol like I was trying to prep myself for bad news for.. next month.. and the month after not like.. today/this week 

*hugs* I’m so sorry you’re feeling so sad. Honestly, I do think it’s a bit callous to send out a rejection email merely one week after the deadline passed, after you presumably spent many months researching the school and preparing your application materials only for them to make their decision so quickly. They could have delayed the notice and didn’t need to send it out right away.

You’re allowed to be sad now. For what it’s worth, this quick rejection also lets you move on from this school and consider other possibilities for yourself sooner than later, and I hope you will get to that place after you’ve processed things.

[Rixor]

1 hour ago, catsaregood.pdf said:

crying and sobbing and fighting for my life but in a chill unbothered way (narrator: they were not chill and unbothered)

i'm not surprised by the rejection itself just more so surprised by the time frame I got it at!!! like BU really said.. hm we're going to make you sad EARLIER than you prepared yourself for lol like I was trying to prep myself for bad news for.. next month.. and the month after not like.. today/this week 

I'm so sorry. I would be heartbroken. It's cruel of them to send out such a cold email so soon. They could've at least used your name.

Remember that the admissions process is imperfect and impersonal and relies quite a bit on luck. It's probably a room of people spending many hours at a time reading through dozens of dozens of writing samples. The criteria they act on could be totally arbitrary and based on their personal interests; the same writing sample can get rejections at some schools and massive stipends at others. I've also heard stories of people re-submitting the same exact materials to a school twice and getting an acceptance only the second time. A rejection isn't in any way indicative of your worth as a writer. Someone on Draft pointed out that they might also be trying to rush their process given that their program is only one year long. 

You've still got Amherst, Brown, NYU, and those fellowship. It's not over! I'm rooting for you and I hope you get good news soon!! 

[GoldenTree]

11 hours ago, Chex said:

Take heart. You're not alone in the not-having-enough-information-beforehand situation. We learn in the process of doing. First time applications are usually like this. Knowing what I know now, there are definitely some things I would change about how I applied, but I did my best at the time and hope it all pays off.

Yeah. I think that's all any of us can do in all honesty—our best. And whatever happens, we'll have known we tried our best with whatever resources we had at the time. There's peace in that I think. 

[Chex]

12 hours ago, catsaregood.pdf said:

just so everyone knows-- I did try to link the screenshot of the email via Imgur but gradcafe is giving me a tough time about it, rn the post says "Hidden" "this content must be approved.." but here is the link below with spaces inbetween the characters, so just take out the spaces and it should work!

h t t p s: / / i m g u r . c o m / a / d ND S qg M

also sorry everyone! I didn't mean to scare people, I was surprised that I got an email this early as well and also disappointed because I hadn't prepared myself to hear bad news this early, I was expecting bad news to come more so like late feb / early march???? so very confused!!! also, still unsure if I got pranked or not but the email seems real and the email address it was sent from seems real so? rip me I guess lol

Seems real enough to me. I'm sorry this one did not work out. Hoping things go better with the rest of your applications. 

By the way, you may have posted your result twice on the result page, no? I don't think anyone else has posted anything there re Boston. The two posts there are from yesterday, re 'Creative Writing Poetry', and the poster is an American with a GPA of 3.90. I think the same person must have posted the result twice, though it can be mistaken for two different people. 

In any case, I expect that more people will hear from Boston this week, since they've begun sending decisions. 

[DanielNiver]

17 hours ago, Rixor said:

Noticing a ton of early decisions... And Texas State University extended their deadline.

Does that mean this this year had a smaller-than-average applicant pool (and therefore, that we all have better chances)? Or am I reading way too into it? 😅

I won't say which school, but I know of one fully funded program that got considerably less than 300 applications this year, which was low they said. Taking into account that possibly 15%-20% get rejected for technical/admin/genre reasons, seems like good odds for those who prepared and researched well. Can't say if that lower number of apps is something going on more broadly or not, but could be

[prufrock_]

2 minutes ago, DanielNiver said:

I won't say which school, but I know of one fully funded program that got considerably less than 300 applications this year, which was low they said. Taking into account that possibly 15%-20% get rejected for technical/admin/genre reasons, seems like good odds for those who prepared and researched well. Can't say if that lower number of apps is something going on more broadly or not, but could be

i thought my hopes couldn't get any higher but here we are, flying towards the sun.

[Chex]

5 minutes ago, DanielNiver said:

I won't say which school, but I know of one fully funded program that got considerably less than 300 applications this year, which was low they said. Taking into account that possibly 15%-20% get rejected for technical/admin/genre reasons, seems like good odds for those who prepared and researched well. Can't say if that lower number of apps is something going on more broadly or not, but could be

Wow, now I am curious 👀 

[Rixor]

4 minutes ago, DanielNiver said:

I won't say which school, but I know of one fully funded program that got considerably less than 300 applications this year, which was low they said. Taking into account that possibly 15%-20% get rejected for technical/admin/genre reasons, seems like good odds for those who prepared and researched well. Can't say if that lower number of apps is something going on more broadly or not, but could be

Oh my hopes are through the roof now 😭 I keep having dreams that wake me up at night about getting a phone call from my top choice.

Thank you for the info!!

 

[cnaomi]

3 minutes ago, DanielNiver said:

I won't say which school, but I know of one fully funded program that got considerably less than 300 applications this year, which was low they said. Taking into account that possibly 15%-20% get rejected for technical/admin/genre reasons, seems like good odds for those who prepared and researched well. Can't say if that lower number of apps is something going on more broadly or not, but could be

wow, thank you for sharing! obviously understand why you wouldn't name the program; is there any chance you could share how many apps they normally receive? if they didn't tell you, usually programs will list on their website or there'll be an article online. 

if it's a trend, i wonder why. what's changed between this year and last?

[Chex]

13 minutes ago, prufrock_ said:

i thought my hopes couldn't get any higher but here we are, flying towards the sun.

Hahaha

[DanielNiver]

14 minutes ago, cnaomi said:

wow, thank you for sharing! obviously understand why you wouldn't name the program; is there any chance you could share how many apps they normally receive? if they didn't tell you, usually programs will list on their website or there'll be an article online. 

if it's a trend, i wonder why. what's changed between this year and last?

Sorry I can't out the program; didn't intend to play with anyone's emotions 😬 so I apologize if I did that. Figured everything was already sent to the cosmos so it didn't matter much, but again, I'm sorry if I disturbed, good or bad, any zen we all try and achieve. Anyway, I did plan on hyping the school for next app cycle.

As for the number of apps they usually expect, I was told, maybe two years back when I was first feeling things out, that high 400s-500s was often what they get. 

Edited January 23 by DanielNiver

[prufrock_]

catsaregood.pdf's email said BU had over 650 applicants this round, so we shouldn't assume every program had a lower count this year.

Edited January 23 by prufrock_

[ssuunn]

38 minutes ago, cnaomi said:

if it's a trend, i wonder why. what's changed between this year and last?

I'm not sure about the mystery school in question, but it maybe is trending toward fewer applications for MFA programs. If you look at Michigan's Rackham Graduate School statistics, (one of the only schools that I know posts these numbers), Creative Writing MFA applications there seemingly peaked in 2021 and have dropped steadily. (I'd link to it directly, but I think it would get flagged as spam, but if you search for 'University of Michigan Graduate Stats' it should pop up.)

2019 - 986 applications
2020 - 1020 apps
2021 - 1044 apps
2022 - 807 apps
2023 - 728 apps

Knowing that Michigan is one of the top programs that most writers are going to apply to, it doesn't seem to me to be a huge leap in thinking that MFA applications overall might be declining a little bit.

edit: I'm also looking at their English PhD app numbers and the same story occurs: a peak in 2021 and a more swift drop-off. (It's also somewhat similar trajectory in History, Slavics, Germanics...) This could be a general unattractiveness with graduate degrees in the humanities. Hard to say, really.

Edited January 23 by ssuunn

[triciadawn]

1 hour ago, ssuunn said:

I'm not sure about the mystery school in question, but it maybe is trending toward fewer applications for MFA programs. If you look at Michigan's Rackham Graduate School statistics, (one of the only schools that I know posts these numbers), Creative Writing MFA applications there seemingly peaked in 2021 and have dropped steadily. (I'd link to it directly, but I think it would get flagged as spam, but if you search for 'University of Michigan Graduate Stats' it should pop up.)

2019 - 986 applications
2020 - 1020 apps
2021 - 1044 apps
2022 - 807 apps
2023 - 728 apps

Knowing that Michigan is one of the top programs that most writers are going to apply to, it doesn't seem to me to be a huge leap in thinking that MFA applications overall might be declining a little bit.

edit: I'm also looking at their English PhD app numbers and the same story occurs: a peak in 2021 and a more swift drop-off. (It's also somewhat similar trajectory in History, Slavics, Germanics...) This could be a general unattractiveness with graduate degrees in the humanities. Hard to say, really.

Good point. In this economy, the last thing on anyone’s mind might be going to grad school for an art degree. 😅 Unless they really want to delay life for a couple of years, in which case, they probably haven’t done enough research on programs. 
 

It DOES seem really quiet this year. I’ve been on draft for 8 years, and this is the quietest cycle by far. I wonder if this indicates less applications overall. 

[ssuunn]

7 minutes ago, triciadawn said:

It DOES seem really quiet this year. I’ve been on draft for 8 years, and this is the quietest cycle by far. I wonder if this indicates less applications overall. 

It could; I've noticed less activity than last year, (or rather a lot of the same people making posts/commenting). But it could also be the trend of the younger, largely American crowd not using Facebook as much or at all. FWIW I'm not Gen Z, but I had to make a Facebook to join Draft and that's the only thing I use it for.

There is also the larger trend that's been theorized: the enrollment cliff. According to... whoever looks at this stuff... we're currently at the peak of college enrollments, and after 2026 or so these numbers will either stagnate or decline. I'm genuinely not sure what might happen to the arts/humanities if it turns out to be true. Hell—Purdue even ended their MFA program because their English department overcommitted on graduate students during the pandemic, so I can only imagine when universities start axing things, MFA programs would be among the first to go.

[pomelo]

Sending hugs to people already receiving decisions. I can’t imagine. As much I want this timeline to speed up, I don’t know if I’m emotionally ready to handle a rejection yet (though I know it’s coming!) At least I have a friend’s birthday, Lunar New Year and Galentine’s/Valentine’s celebrations next month to cushion my fall. And Oscar nominations just came out! I’m gonna spend the next few weeks watching as many nominated movies as possible. Happy to see “Past Lives” nominated. I hope you all can find ways to bring yourself comfort and joy 🫶🏽

[aurqcyei]

18 hours ago, catsaregood.pdf said:

crying and sobbing and fighting for my life but in a chill unbothered way (narrator: they were not chill and unbothered)

i'm not surprised by the rejection itself just more so surprised by the time frame I got it at!!! like BU really said.. hm we're going to make you sad EARLIER than you prepared yourself for lol like I was trying to prep myself for bad news for.. next month.. and the month after not like.. today/this week 

I'm sorry. I understand how you feel, but I really hope you don't take the rejection personally! A lot of writing is so subjective and due to the taste of ad coms and readers that year.

I've been submitting/applying to lit mags, workshops, and fellowships for a year or two now, for both poetry and fiction, and rejections really are just painful either way, whether they take 300+ days to respond or a day or two. My first few rejections from lit mags, I was entirely too dramatic and spent most of my evenings baking brownies and salting them with my tears. So much crappy TV was watched during those months and I slept on wet pillows. That said, I can guarantee you that each subsequent rejection stings less (but they still sting, haha).

What does help is actually being a reader for the slush pile (if you aren't already). I highly recommend that experience for everyone, since you get to see how subjective tastes can be, how much work mags can accept, and just the sheer volume of submissions that come in. I did veto a lot of work, but sometimes I would recommend a story, the second reader would +1 my recommendation, and the editor will shoot it down simply because there wasn't space, it didn't align with that issue's vibe, or another work they accepted was quite similar, etc. From what I've read, MFA applications are quite similar to the pipeline of a mag, so I think maybe it's something to consider? 

Again, please don't feel disheartened, and hopefully the rest of your cycle turns out well. Wishing the best for all of us.