jadedoptimist Posted February 20 Posted February 20 Just now, mr. specific said: Michigan says they hope to send out decisions this week! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! curious about your source since you've posted something similar before, but I won't press!
Hjanep Posted February 20 Posted February 20 3 minutes ago, ssuunn said: I've been thinking a lot about this phenomenon: when a few people get into almost every school they applied to... Last year I think there was a poet who got into like 8 fully-funded top tier programs. Good writing is good writing objectively, sure, (and I'm sure they're brilliant), but it seems kinda alarming that 8+ different adcoms thought the same thing by admitting that person. To me, that's a sort of omen to these programs that hints that they don't really have things in particular that they're looking for, and I can't stop feeling like that sort of erases all the unique things all of us bring to the table. Thoughts? I would just take this as motivation that if you work at this hard enough and long enough many adcoms will recognize the skill
mr. specific Posted February 20 Posted February 20 (edited) 9 minutes ago, jadedoptimist said: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! curious about your source since you've posted something similar before, but I won't press! This one's reliable. Comes in direct email from their admissions office. They did say they "hoped" to send final decisions, so there is some wiggle room. Edited February 20 by mr. specific hedging.
Chex Posted February 20 Posted February 20 10 minutes ago, jadedoptimist said: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! curious about your source since you've posted something similar before, but I won't press! Last year, Michigan notified on 2/21. Today is 2/20. Makes sense that they'll be notifying soon, any day now.
jadedoptimist Posted February 20 Posted February 20 5 minutes ago, mr. specific said: This one's reliable. Comes in direct email from their admissions office. They did say they "hoped" to send final decisions, so there is some wiggle room. Ah, I see! You're poetry, right? Did you inquire over the weekend? Just now, Chex said: Last year, Michigan notified on 2/21. Today is 2/20. Makes sense that they'll be notifying soon, any day now. Oof, this one's got a little kick to it. I'll be having an anxious week, most likely...
itsbeensnowing Posted February 20 Posted February 20 I get the feeling there'll be a lot happening this week, but maybe that's wishful thinking. I'm getting antsy with all these decisions from schools I didn't apply to.
Scribe Posted February 20 Posted February 20 38 minutes ago, jadedoptimist said: @SisterRimbaud welcome & good luck! and thanks, @Scribe. It's a confusing process and we shouldn't go too hard on ourselves! Nah. I think I’m gonna beat myself up until there’s an “a” in my signature. or the rest of my life.
pomelo Posted February 20 Posted February 20 (edited) 24 minutes ago, ssuunn said: I've been thinking a lot about this phenomenon: when a few people get into almost every school they applied to... Last year I think there was a poet who got into like 8 fully-funded top tier programs. Good writing is good writing objectively, sure, (and I'm sure they're brilliant), but it seems kinda alarming that 8+ different adcoms thought the same thing by admitting that person. To me, that's a sort of omen to these programs that hints that they don't really have things in particular that they're looking for, and I can't stop feeling like that sort of erases all the unique things all of us bring to the table. Thoughts? I wonder about this too. A couple months ago, I had a chat with a former writing workshop instructor. He graduated from UT’s Michener program about a decade ago. He only applied to three programs and got into Michigan and waitlisted at Iowa. Of course, this was a decade ago. But still! Meanwhile, there are writers like T Kira Madden who are immensely talented but only accepted to one program (Sarah Lawrence). Kudos to anyone who’s admitted to multiple programs. I’m sure it happens more frequently than we think but I imagine it’s still rare. I try not to weigh myself against the most competitive applicants. I know I’m not where I want to be as a writer, that’s what the MFA is for! Edited February 20 by pomelo SisterRimbaud and saramsarang 2
mr. specific Posted February 20 Posted February 20 6 minutes ago, pomelo said: I wonder about this too. A couple months ago, I had a chat with a former writing workshop instructor. He graduated from UT’s Michener program about a decade ago. He only applied to three programs and got into Michigan and waitlisted at Iowa. Of course, this was a decade ago. But still! Meanwhile, there are writers like T Kira Madden who are immensely talented but only accepted to one program (Sarah Lawrence). Kudos to anyone who’s admitted to multiple programs. I’m sure it happens more frequently than we think but I imagine it’s still rare. I try not to weigh myself against the most competitive applicants. I know I’m not where I want to be as a writer, that’s what the MFA is for! I think there also are certain writers who happen to hit the zeitgeist of a particular moment, when a few years earlier or later they might not be in such high demand. I know there are just amazing writers that no one can deny, but I find the most interesting writing is often polarizing and intensely off-putting to some people while being incredibly compelling to others. smeef420, Chex and writernity 3
AngusWanderer Posted February 20 Posted February 20 More news on the NYU front: I have been offered the Wiley Birkhofer Fellowship (if I'm not mistaken). It does come with a substantial stipend. I'm over the moon right now! They did say that they made the call early, and it can still be weeks before the whole process is complete. I am praying for everyone applying to the program! I have also been rejected by Mississippi over the weekend😅 smeef420, mangojalapeno, sunnysequoia and 14 others 16 1
saramsarang Posted February 20 Posted February 20 13 minutes ago, Chex said: Last year, Michigan notified on 2/21. Today is 2/20. Makes sense that they'll be notifying soon, any day now. For some reason I thought Michigan had an elimination system? I think I might have read up wrong on this but I thought they sent out rounds of rejections before acceptances went out. I can't remember for the life of me where I read it and why that's the impression I have. Anyways, I'm in agreement with all of you, this week looks like a busy one. On my list, I think February will close with Michigan and Syracuse! Ahh I hope many more of us will hear with acceptances or at least waitlists and not just rejections, hang in there everyone, the week has only just begun! Also just a quick question, but what are everyone's thoughts on Brown? A lot of MFA students I talked to applied to Brown and expressed how much they wanted to get in, but ultimately ended up being rejected. No one was able to offer much information about Brown's MFA and I applied based on whatever I found on their website and the internet. I wasn't able to speak to any Brown alumni nor present students unfortunately. It could be that I didn't try hard enough because I got to it in the end and I'd lost steam by then, but it did seem harder to contact them than other school people. So in my head Brown became this "mysterious person that everyone wants but no one can seem to have" type. I'm sure that's not the case, but it's still funny to me, so I was just curious on what everyone else had to say.
prufrock_ Posted February 20 Posted February 20 1 hour ago, jadedoptimist said: it's making me feel like a total idiot because i didn't know you only had to pay the fee once to apply to nwp I'm right there with you; i applied to NWP but not michener! as for our mysterious YD, sometimes stars align on the page and beyond it. I imagine 10%-20% of all applications from any slush have good enough writing to get into the program, and what turns you from that 10% to 'admitted' is less subjective than we may think --- prestigious awards & an ivy undergrad, LOR's from a Pulitzer winner, an sop that's two pages yet reads like a novel synopsis because your life is like Forest Gump. But it's also possible they just wrote a really killer short story and have an sop that shows they'd be fun to work with for a few years, which is all it takes to get in anywhere.
Hjanep Posted February 20 Posted February 20 7 minutes ago, saramsarang said: For some reason I thought Michigan had an elimination system? I think I might have read up wrong on this but I thought they sent out rounds of rejections before acceptances went out. I can't remember for the life of me where I read it and why that's the impression I have. Anyways, I'm in agreement with all of you, this week looks like a busy one. On my list, I think February will close with Michigan and Syracuse! Ahh I hope many more of us will hear with acceptances or at least waitlists and not just rejections, hang in there everyone, the week has only just begun! Also just a quick question, but what are everyone's thoughts on Brown? A lot of MFA students I talked to applied to Brown and expressed how much they wanted to get in, but ultimately ended up being rejected. No one was able to offer much information about Brown's MFA and I applied based on whatever I found on their website and the internet. I wasn't able to speak to any Brown alumni nor present students unfortunately. It could be that I didn't try hard enough because I got to it in the end and I'd lost steam by then, but it did seem harder to contact them than other school people. So in my head Brown became this "mysterious person that everyone wants but no one can seem to have" type. I'm sure that's not the case, but it's still funny to me, so I was just curious on what everyone else had to say. The MFA writers podcast has an episode on Brown that I found to be very informative pomelo 1
lemmmein Posted February 20 Posted February 20 39 minutes ago, ssuunn said: I've been thinking a lot about this phenomenon: when a few people get into almost every school they applied to... Last year I think there was a poet who got into like 8 fully-funded top tier programs. Good writing is good writing objectively, sure, (and I'm sure they're brilliant), but it seems kinda alarming that 8+ different adcoms thought the same thing by admitting that person. To me, that's a sort of omen to these programs that hints that they don't really have things in particular that they're looking for, and I can't stop feeling like that sort of erases all the unique things all of us bring to the table. Thoughts? 3 minutes ago, mr. specific said: I think there also are certain writers who happen to hit the zeitgeist of a particular moment, when a few years earlier or later they might not be in such high demand. I know there are just amazing writers that no one can deny, but I find the most interesting writing is often polarizing and intensely off-putting to some people while being incredibly compelling to others. Yeah, I don't think much about writing (at the level we're probably mostly at) is objectively good? This seems to happen with just one or two people per year, and if there were an objectivity to it, I'd imagine it would come up more often. That said, there has been so much writing about the "type" of writing MFA programs put out over the last 20 years. This person probably either a) did something so in line with the type of work these professors want to work with or b) something so different and interesting they all recognized it at once. That doesn't narrow things down very well, but having spent the last year reading all the books by Michener/Iowa/Vandy grads I could find, I definitely think there's a stylistic/motivational/thematic range most of these programs like, especially the ones that take themselves the most seriously. And that's not necessarily bad! It's something I'll be watching in my own writing, but yeah... Those are my morning-after-being -on-here-too-late thoughts.
dietcokeenjoyer Posted February 20 Posted February 20 hi all. long-time lurker first-time poster. congratulations to everyone who has been accepted and waitlisted so far!! i left draft last week and have tried to limit how much i'm checking this page (i find it does more harm than good) but am feeling pretty low atm. this is my first time applying for MFAs (fiction) and so far it's been a slog of rejections (UW, JHU, Cornell, and I'm believing Amherst as well.) i have six more left to hear back from (Brooklyn College, Hunter, NWP, Syracuse, Michigan, Columbia), but with zero waitlists or acceptances, i have started to just sink into defeat. i'm three years out of school and left my job as a full-time journalist in january. i'm trying to freelance, but with these constant rejections it's hard to find it in me to write or trust that any sentence i put down is worthwhile. i guess i'm just asking for some advice on pushing through the not-good-enough feeling. i'm embarrassed to get rejected from all 10 schools i applied to, as though that's a rubber stamp on my forehead that says "NOT A WRITER." i guess i'm just sorta feeling like a fraud -- stupid for believing this was possible for me, like one of the bad singers on american idol whose audition they air just to poke fun at. anyway... love to everyone going through this process. it's something to be proud of regardless of outcomes. pomelo, Jim VK, smeef420 and 1 other 4
mr. specific Posted February 20 Posted February 20 8 minutes ago, AngusWanderer said: More news on the NYU front: I have been offered the Wiley Birkhofer Fellowship (if I'm not mistaken). It does come with a substantial stipend. I'm over the moon right now! They did say that they made the call early, and it can still be weeks before the whole process is complete. I am praying for everyone applying to the program! I have also been rejected by Mississippi over the weekend😅 That's incredible news about NYU! Congrats! For those who get funded, I think its probably about the best place you can go in terms of faculty. If they called you early with $$$, they must be really impressed with your poetry. AngusWanderer 1
saramsarang Posted February 20 Posted February 20 I am out of reactions for the day but @SisterRimbaud welcome to the forum! I hope this cycle goes well for you, sending well wishes and hugs! @AngusWanderer Congratulations on the fellowship, sounds exciting!! (Mississippi's loss honestly) @Hjanep Ahh yupp yupp I heard the podcast! Brown was the only one I completely relied on the internet for information, so I went hunting around for resources. I've just never seen a Brown vet online or any other person, the cohort just seems very private I suppose, so I was wondering about it! It's cool though, I'm just letting my brain wander to stop myself from falling into an anxious spiral! SisterRimbaud and AngusWanderer 2
lemmmein Posted February 20 Posted February 20 13 minutes ago, prufrock_ said: I'm right there with you; i applied to NWP but not michener! as for our mysterious YD, sometimes stars align on the page and beyond it. I imagine 10%-20% of all applications from any slush have good enough writing to get into the program, and what turns you from that 10% to 'admitted' is less subjective than we may think --- prestigious awards & an ivy undergrad, LOR's from a Pulitzer winner, an sop that's two pages yet reads like a novel synopsis because your life is like Forest Gump. But it's also possible they just wrote a really killer short story and have an sop that shows they'd be fun to work with for a few years, which is all it takes to get in anywhere. Yesss totally agree that it might not be just the sample too! I'd guess a *lot* of the applications these programs get are good enough to join workshops. The things that give an edge might be real slight. ha I only knew about NWP and Michener because I've been applying there for so long. It's a really weird system.
jadedoptimist Posted February 20 Posted February 20 6 minutes ago, prufrock_ said: I'm right there with you; i applied to NWP but not michener! Ah, good to know I'm not alone. 3 minutes ago, saramsarang said: @Hjanep Ahh yupp yupp I heard the podcast! Brown was the only one I completely relied on the internet for information, so I went hunting around for resources. I've just never seen a Brown vet online or any other person, the cohort just seems very private I suppose, so I was wondering about it! It's cool though, I'm just letting my brain wander to stop myself from falling into an anxious spiral! Brown is my dream school and I agree; it's sort of hard to find info about it and there seems to be fewer people announcing admits on here and Draft in general. maybe they discourage social media posts? In any case, I'm also anxiously awaiting their results in March. @dietcokeenjoyer I love diet coke too! Welcome to the forum. I'm sorry to hear you're feeling discouraged, but you shouldn't, especially since this is your first cycle! If you don't get any acceptances, you'll be super informed and ready next year, and you'll have the summer to write a great story for your apps. Ultimately, you're the only one with the power to declare yourself not a writer – and you have the power to name yourself one , as well! you got this! dietcokeenjoyer, smeef420 and Chex 3
mr. specific Posted February 20 Posted February 20 14 minutes ago, saramsarang said: Also just a quick question, but what are everyone's thoughts on Brown? I didn't apply because I knew their style didn't really align with mine, but my friend who's more experimental made it to the final round a few years back, but after an interview was ultimately turned down. They are not looking for the same "MFA-style" literary fiction or poetry, whatever that means. Btw if you want to read the best SOP of all time, this is Mark Baumer's (RIP) from when he got into Brown. https://thebaumer.com/post/4484816657/brown-mfa goldentulip 1
AngusWanderer Posted February 20 Posted February 20 Also, I've heard from a reliable source that Michener just sent out the first poetry acceptance (not me). Fingers crossed for everyone. I do hope someone here gets in! writercl 1
BarryDairy Posted February 20 Posted February 20 7 minutes ago, dietcokeenjoyer said: hi all. long-time lurker first-time poster. congratulations to everyone who has been accepted and waitlisted so far!! i left draft last week and have tried to limit how much i'm checking this page (i find it does more harm than good) but am feeling pretty low atm. this is my first time applying for MFAs (fiction) and so far it's been a slog of rejections (UW, JHU, Cornell, and I'm believing Amherst as well.) i have six more left to hear back from (Brooklyn College, Hunter, NWP, Syracuse, Michigan, Columbia), but with zero waitlists or acceptances, i have started to just sink into defeat. i'm three years out of school and left my job as a full-time journalist in january. i'm trying to freelance, but with these constant rejections it's hard to find it in me to write or trust that any sentence i put down is worthwhile. i guess i'm just asking for some advice on pushing through the not-good-enough feeling. i'm embarrassed to get rejected from all 10 schools i applied to, as though that's a rubber stamp on my forehead that says "NOT A WRITER." i guess i'm just sorta feeling like a fraud -- stupid for believing this was possible for me, like one of the bad singers on american idol whose audition they air just to poke fun at. anyway... love to everyone going through this process. it's something to be proud of regardless of outcomes. Welcome! I get this feeling soooo much. It must be really discouraging. I'm sorry you haven't gotten any yeses yet. Hopefully you'll hear some good news soon! It's really silly and my friends make fun of me for it but I have a huge dry erase board that I've had for like 7 years that has the words 'I AM A WRITER' written across it. It's a constant reminder that no matter what rejections I face or jobs I lose, I'll always be a writer and that's not something anyone can take from me. I want to say Austin Kleon has also mentioned doing similar things as an artist to keep the world of rejection, imposter syndrome, and self-doubt at bay. smeef420 and mudpuddle1 2
jadedoptimist Posted February 20 Posted February 20 4 minutes ago, AngusWanderer said: Also, I've heard from a reliable source that Michener just sent out the first poetry acceptance (not me). Fingers crossed for everyone. I do hope someone here gets in! *screeching noises, loud slams, gurgles, and finally silence* writercl, goldentulip, SisterRimbaud and 2 others 5
Chex Posted February 20 Posted February 20 7 minutes ago, jadedoptimist said: *screeching noises, loud slams, gurgles, and finally silence* I need to read more of your poetry, jaded, lol. MJY, jadedoptimist, SisterRimbaud and 1 other 4
SisterRimbaud Posted February 20 Posted February 20 (edited) @saramsarang Thank you! Hugs all around lol! I chose my schools based on reading all the books I could get my hands on from the respective faculties. So for Brown, I really enjoyed reading "Pink Waves " by Sawako Nakayasu. @dietcokeenjoyer I totally relate to this. It's my first time applying, and what I keep telling myself is: it took Spielberg three years of applying before he finally got accepted to film school, and he has won oscars so who knows lol! I feel like I've already grown so much just through this process, so if the worst happens, at least I'm ready for next time Edited February 20 by SisterRimbaud typo saramsarang and BarryDairy 2
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