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2024 Creative Writing MFA Applicants Forum


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6 minutes ago, CLCH said:

Hey! Fiction here. Do you guys think Iowa is still notifying people? I'm not on anything else so can't see.

And anyone hear about Brown or Boston University yet? 

BU seems to be done as far as I can tell, there are both acceptances and rejections in the spreadsheet. Nothing yet on Brown.

Iowa has one questionable entry for fiction and one legit one for translation, other than that I’m not seeing anything!

Edited by 3feetofsnow
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@Rixor Yeah, it's a tough situation. I did ask our property management for an extension. They told us we couldn't get an extension, but that we could renew for a month-to-month lease at $1000 on top of what we pay now! LOL 

I may reach out to the program and ask for an update. Based on info from previous years, they should be notifying by the end of February, but I am super afraid they won't this year. Ahh. Thank you for the advice!

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10 hours ago, mr. specific said:

Not my first time around—my third. got rejected and waitlisted at a bunch of places and turned down my one partially-funded acceptance. Was not going to try again and then with the incredible support of my mentors and friends decided to throw everything at one last go around.

My writing is way better than it was last time around and I also took the other parts of the application more seriously, like actually did more than one draft of SOP and had people read my sample. I'm also very, very lucky with my references. Not sure how much that other stuff matters in relation to the sample. A lot is luck and who's reading from year to year from what I can tell. When they take 3 or 4 or 5, they probably have 20 that are more or less equally good. So yeah, keep at it.

Yeah, I figured this was mostly it. I think it must speak to the improvement of your writing that you went from no fully-funded acceptances to three! I suppose I just have to keep working to get myself from top 20 material to top 5 material

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21 minutes ago, 3feetofsnow said:

BU seems to be done as far as I can tell, there are both acceptances and rejections in the spreadsheet. Nothing yet on Brown.

Iowa has one questionable entry for fiction and one legit one for translation, other than that I’m not seeing anything!

I haven’t seen any BU acceptances for fiction. Someone correct me if I’m wrong, though! 

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53 minutes ago, AngusWanderer said:

I'm international. Last year I received my waitlist via email. Hope this helps. 

When did you receive the waitlist email? I'm curious, please share. 

49 minutes ago, CLCH said:

Hey! Fiction here. Do you guys think Iowa is still notifying people? I'm not on anything else so can't see.

And anyone hear about Brown or Boston University yet? 

Someone reported a missed call and voicemail from Samantha Chang on Tuesday, wherein Chang shared she'd just started contacting people but would be away/unavailable until Friday. The call was rescheduled. I believe more people will be notified by next week. Those accepted or waitlisted should know by mid March. 

Brown notifies in March (often mid March). Boston has notified most applicants, although a few say they've heard nothing. Maybe Boston sends the emails in alphabetical order. Might help to ask them directly. 

43 minutes ago, 3feetofsnow said:

BU seems to be done as far as I can tell, there are both acceptances and rejections in the spreadsheet. Nothing yet on Brown.

Iowa has one questionable entry for fiction and one legit one for translation, other than that I’m not seeing anything!

The fiction report is genuine. Iowa has started calling fiction admits, but only a few have been contacted so far. 

Edited by Chex
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8 minutes ago, triciadawn said:

I haven’t seen any BU acceptances for fiction. Someone correct me if I’m wrong, though! 

Oh sorry you’re right, all the fiction entries so far have been rejections. I’m on my phone so it’s easy to misread in the app!

@Chex good to know about Iowa!

Edited by 3feetofsnow
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3 minutes ago, Chex said:

When did you receive the waitlist email? I'm curious, please share. 

Someone reported a missed call and voicemail from Samantha Chang on Tuesday, wherein Chang shared she'd just started contacting people but would be away/unavailable until Friday. The call was rescheduled. I believe more people will be notified by next week. All accepted or waitlisted should know by early March. 

Brown notifies in March (mid to early March). Boston has notified most applicants, although a few say they've heard nothing. Maybe Boston sends the emails in alphabetical order. Might help to ask them directly. 

The fiction report is genuine. Iowa has started calling fiction admits,but only a few have been contacted so far. 

Email from Elizabeth Willis on 11 March 2023 (Poetry)

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5 minutes ago, AngusWanderer said:

Email from Elizabeth Willis on 11 March 2023 (Poetry)

Thank you! That's good to know. 

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Anyone have a pulse on University of Oregon for poetry? I don't think anyone has seen anything and they usually have all their rejections out by now.

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26 minutes ago, Chex said:

Boston has notified most applicants, although a few say they've heard nothing. Maybe Boston sends the emails in alphabetical order. Might help to ask them directly. 

I haven't received a rejection yet. I saw a rejection with someone's last name starting with V. Mine starts with T. Holding out hope! 

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I thought Boston did rejections in rounds-- at least that's what I've assumed. I'm also still waiting on word from them (m last name). I'm not on Facebook but last report at least on Grad Cafe it looks like some people got denied on 1/22 (likely for incomplete apps or clerical errors?) and a lot of people got denied on 2/14. Has there been anything more recent on draft?

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7 minutes ago, airlinefood_enjoyer said:

I thought Boston did rejections in rounds-- at least that's what I've assumed. I'm also still waiting on word from them (m last name). I'm not on Facebook but last report at least on Grad Cafe it looks like some people got denied on 1/22 (likely for incomplete apps or clerical errors?) and a lot of people got denied on 2/14. Has there been anything more recent on draft?

Looks like the most recent rejection wave was on the 14th. I hope this means good news for us! 

But yeah, their rejections are staggered. 

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10 minutes ago, decayingballads21 said:

How do unranked waitlists work and what are the odds of moving off them? Specifically I’m on a waitlist with 11 others for my top choice program.

Someone give me hope 😭😭

unranked is based on vibes. so if someone similar to your work drops out, then you'd move into acceptance. If it's a larger program, the odds can be pretty good! Wishing the best for you!

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Granted, this is for NYC residents but in the case that I don't get in anywhere, I will be applying to this program and thought it would be good for others to consider as well. While my sample was very personal, I do see ways it could have been better and I'm going to start reworking it. I don't know why I'm even counting myself out of the race when it's likely I'm not hearing from anywhere until March anyway but yayyyyy anxiety lol. 

Anyway, here you go in case you're also interested in applying and want a head start getting your application ready for the next cycle that will probably open up soon. May the odds ever be in our favor. 

https://centerforfiction.org/grants-awards/nyc-emerging-writers-fellowship/apply-to-the-nyc-emerging-writer-fellowship/

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(just edited the post because I'm feeling embarrassed in hindsight, so just ignore this because I haven't figured out how to delete posts on here yet!)

Edited by saramsarang
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11 minutes ago, saramsarang said:

Hello everyone, sorry to cut in on a completely different tangent through the stress about Iowa and BU! I received an acceptance from Binghamton today for their MA English program (with concentration in Creative Writing). I applied to Binghamton as a safety net in case my MFA applications didn't work out, but I was only going to go if I received at least partial funding for it. I really do love their program and I'd love to attend Binghamton but unfortunately there's no mention of funding or anything in the acceptance letter itself. They did say on the website that all students are considered for scholarships, fellowships and such while applying, so I am planning to email them about the funding. I know someone on Draft asked a similar question but the responses were mostly that it depends on the university. So I just wanted to ask if anyone knows anything about Binghamton's funding or has any advice about how to write the email to them? 

Congrats on the A! I don’t know anything about Binghamton, but there’s an email template for inquiries about funding at the end of this article: https://www.profellow.com/tips/how-to-negotiate-your-funding-offer-for-graduate-school-an-email-template/

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Darn Robocalls... Every time I get an unknown call, my heart flutters a little. But it's always just a robot voice trying to scam me out of money.

@decayingballads21 I don't know if this helps you feel better, but I keep telling myself that the people who got accepted into my top programs probably, like most of us, applied for 10+ schools. 

While your dream program might be OSU, an OSU acceptee's top program might be, idk, UWyoming, Cornell, NYU, UWMadison or something. And if they got into OSU, there's a good chance they got admitted or waitlisted those places, too. 

To my knowledge, certain schools like OSU have an incoming class almost entirely comprised of former waitlisted students. Other schools (e.g. John Hopkins) tend not to admit many students off the waitlist. 

You emailed, you told them the program is your top-choice, I think that puts you in a really good spot for consideration and I really hope you get admitted off the waitlist. Manifesting it for you! 

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@littlealien There’s one fiction acceptance logged for Iowa, see @triciadawn and @Chex’s posts above for more detail (they’re the second and third entries on this page).

@saramsarang Congrats on the A! I don’t know anything about Binghamton specifically, but there’s an email template for inquiries about funding at the end of this article: https://www(dot)profellow(dot)com/tips/how-to-negotiate-your-funding-offer-for-graduate-school-an-email-template/

Edited by 3feetofsnow
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1 minute ago, 3feetofsnow said:

@littlealien There’s one fiction acceptance logged for Iowa, see @triciadawn’s post above for more detail (it’s the second entry on this page).

@saramsarang Congrats on the A! I don’t know anything about Binghamton specifically, but there’s an email template for inquiries about funding at the end of this article: https://www(dot)profellow(dot)com/tips/how-to-negotiate-your-funding-offer-for-graduate-school-an-email-template/

Ahh thank you so much, this is really helpful!!

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