2024 Creative Writing MFA Applicants Forum

[decayingballads21]

3 hours ago, MernaHanson said:

For anyone waiting on word from the University of Wyoming, I heard from a friend in the program that their decisions will go out this week.

PS. For what it's worth, I've only heard amazing things from the current students about their time in Wyoming and their new program director Molly Brown.

Thank you for sharing this info! Any word on how many people they are accepting for each genre??

 

[writernity]

Does anyone know what happened to these forums?? Suddenly they're completely inaccessible on mobile due to spam ads  seems to be working fine on desktop, but even in my adblock browser app on mobile I was getting constant redirects to scam pages.

Anyways, hoping for good news this week for everyone here!! 🙏 For the Weekly Writernity Forecast, I'm predicting that it might be a bit quiet this week, but a big acceptance storm front will be moving in next week. I am expecting to see some continuing rain from NYU this week, with a handful of acceptances trickling in already, but NYU is known to spread its news out and the drizzle may continue throughout March and even into April. Official Pittsburgh acceptances/rejections should be pouring in any day now, and we may see Hunter and Brooklyn College testing the waters with interview requests soon. Stony Brook should also likely be reaching out for interviews soon following their email earlier this month, and Manhattanville is running late on expected result time so there may be a deluge in the next week. 

Hold onto your hats and prepare the umbrellas, everyone! Soon the good news will pour upon ye!

[orangee]

2 hours ago, noor0908889 said:

Hi guys I got a zoom interview from University of Miami. Does anybody know what kind of questions they ask? Has anyone ever given an interview for MFA Program? How was the experience? Do you have any tips or topics that I need to prepare myself on?

Hi, what genre are you applying to? I interviewed for poetry for a different MFA program this year and in a past application cycle.

[cowboifairy]

23 hours ago, decayingballads21 said:

I’ve been waitlisted at university of New Mexico for cnf! I haven’t heard much about this school in the group or on here— anyone else apply/hear back?

 

keeping my fingers crossed for all of us!

Hey! I was accepted for fiction and just had a call with Andrew Bourelle to learn a bit more. I can share a bit about what I learned but feel free to ask any specific qs! I'm meeting the current students on Thursday so can also forward any questions along. Basically, the TLDR is that the program is small but seems to focus on giving students as wide a range of experiences as possible. They encourage students to take cross-genre workshops and classes in the largest English department, have a lot of professional course options, and make working with Blue Mesa/their reading series super accessible. The total cohort is six per year for the MFA, but there is a larger 15-20 per year in the entire English department. Again, happy to share more and maybe meet you in the fall!

[jadedoptimist]

Got my michener rejection. Gotta say, I'm grateful for my waitlists, but I was really hoping for a funded acceptance by now. Brown, UVA, and Iowa are p r e t t y long shots and I'm feeling discouraged. However, my list for next year is looking spiffy!

[electricstardust]

23 minutes ago, ssuunn said:

Just when we were talking about applicants who are 30+ applying to programs... I just got into Oregon for poetry!

congratulations!!!!! amazing news!!!!

[sunnysequoia]

2 hours ago, Karmazinov said:

 

I've wondered about this too - whether being older puts you at a disadvantage. I'm older than both of you.

I can imagine the rationale of the institutions wanting to invest in younger writers who might go on to have careers which reflect back glory on the institution they came from...

Anyone know if being if there's an age cut off beyond which it is very unlikely to get admitted?

 

 

2 hours ago, Rixor said:

I don't know if my input matters much here, but in all my research before applying, I've only ever heard that older applicants are preferred over younger ones. It's illegal to discriminate either way, but programs do apparently have preferences. The rationale is that programs want people who have lived out in the real world for a while. An undergraduate student in their senior year has spent 16 years of life in academia, and will spend 2-3 more right after if admitted. There's often inherent naivety there just due to lack of living. Programs want people who have life experience, first and foremost because life experiences fuel peoples' writing and other creative work. Having worked a 9-5, having navigated career changes, being a parent, being a spouse, having watched the world change to a greater extent than someone younger has... All of these are merits. From what I've read, at least.

I do wonder if programs like young students, too, because they're probably easier to 'train up' and 'mold' into writing in a certain style. Iowa faced a lawsuit for this a while back... "application statistics collected by the university show that, over the past five years, none of the 105 applicants age 51 or older were accepted into the workshop’s fiction program. Nearly half of the 135 fiction students accepted from 2013 to 2017 were between the ages of 18 and 25." So, 25+ seems to be the magic age. I don't know what the 'cut off' would be, but maybe 51. 

It definitely seems like programs tend to be biased toward younger writers, but it's not impossible to get admitted even if one is older. When I visited Miami University in Ohio recently, I audited a prose workshop in which there was a significantly older woman; she was probably in retirement age, maybe in her late 60s or 70s. That day, the class happened to be workshopping her story, and I greatly admired her courage in sharing her work with a population generations younger than her and the class for their generous feedback and inclusivity. So it's never too late to pursue an MFA, and I would say don't sell yourself short. Take a chance on yourself and don't tell yourself "no," because then the only thing preventing you from pursuing an MFA is not rejections from the programs, but you yourself. 

[prufrock_]

8 minutes ago, jadedoptimist said:

Got my michener rejection. Gotta say, I'm grateful for my waitlists, but I was really hoping for a funded acceptance by now. Brown, UVA, and Iowa are p r e t t y long shots and I'm feeling discouraged. However, my list for next year is looking spiffy!

wishing you wont need it!! but do you wanna share your list for next year? I gotta start making mine as well.

[Rixor]

10 minutes ago, writernity said:

Does anyone know what happened to these forums?? Suddenly they're completely inaccessible on mobile due to spam ads  seems to be working fine on desktop, but even in my adblock browser app on mobile I was getting constant redirects to scam pages.

Anyways, hoping for good news this week for everyone here!! 🙏 For the Weekly Writernity Forecast, I'm predicting that it might be a bit quiet this week, but a big acceptance storm front will be moving in next week. I am expecting to see some continuing rain from NYU this week, with a handful of acceptances trickling in already, but NYU is known to spread its news out and the drizzle may continue throughout March and even into April. Official Pittsburgh acceptances/rejections should be pouring in any day now, and we may see Hunter and Brooklyn College testing the waters with interview requests soon. Stony Brook should also likely be reaching out for interviews soon following their email earlier this month, and Manhattanville is running late on expected result time so there may be a deluge in the next week. 

Hold onto your hats and prepare the umbrellas, everyone! Soon the good news will pour upon ye!

A mod dropped by and said the forums got hacked, and that they're working on it. I hope it gets resolved soon!

The forums have been glitching for me today. A bit ago, it wouldn't let me make any replies/posts. It's also let me make, like, 1/4th of the reactions I used to be able to. Wonder what's up.

Haha--thank you for the weather update! I'm hoping we hear from Washington this week or the next!! But above all, hoping for good news for everyone!! 

[writernity]

1 minute ago, Rixor said:

A mod dropped by and said the forums got hacked, and that they're working on it. I hope it gets resolved soon!

The forums have been glitching for me today. A bit ago, it wouldn't let me make any replies/posts. It's also let me make, like, 1/4th of the reactions I used to be able to. Wonder what's up.

Haha--thank you for the weather update! I'm hoping we hear from Washington this week or the next!! But above all, hoping for good news for everyone!! 

Ty!! I figured it was something like that but didn't see it in my skim over the past few pages, yall have been Chatty these past few days lol! (which is a good thing, love to see it!)

[jadedoptimist]

1 minute ago, prufrock_ said:

wishing you wont need it!! but do you wanna share your list for next year? I gotta start making mine as well.

Ya ofc! and thanks for the well wishes:) same to you!

here's the list so far... 

UVA, WUSTL, Brown, Michener, UMich, Iowa, UW-M, Syracuse, Cornell, NWP, Vanderbilt, UofOregon, Northwestern Litowitz.

[Scribe]

2 hours ago, ssuunn said:

I'm 31 and this is my second go. Hopefully I won't have to do this again, but if I do, my third try will definitely be the last. It does kinda give me whiplash when I see undergrads getting into programs (you all deserve it, don't get me wrong!) but I'm often thinking about what they're writing about and why I'm not standing out. I think it's worth it to give it another try if you have to!

One thing I'm using to leverage the pain is that, through my job, I can go back for an MA at almost no cost, so it's not the "end" of getting a graduate degree for me. I might also have a chapbook coming out this year, so it's really just about setting reasonable goals and not putting all your happiness eggs into the MFA basket!

Older. 31. 
That’s cute. 

[itsbeensnowing]

2 hours ago, Karmazinov said:

 

I've wondered about this too - whether being older puts you at a disadvantage. I'm older than both of you.

I can imagine the rationale of the institutions wanting to invest in younger writers who might go on to have careers which reflect back glory on the institution they came from...

Anyone know if being if there's an age cut off beyond which it is very unlikely to get admitted?

 

Here's what University of Arizona's MFA program says on the matter:

"Is the program typically made up of younger writers or more mature writers? It’s a mix, and it varies year to year. The average age of our grad students is about 27 most years, but we have several students in their 30s and 40s too. Compared to a 30 year old, a 22 year old is less likely to be competitive in terms of life experiences and their craft in writing, but a 35 year old is less likely to have the freedom to attend a residential MFA program."

 

I'd guess anything 50+ or even 40+ is pretty seldom represented among full residency MFA programs, but it's hard to say how much of that comes down to the relative lack of applications, considering many people in that age range have life factors that would complicate being able to attend, hence why you tend to see older writers going for low res options. I imagine the vast majority of applications for full res are coming from young people straight out of their undergrads (or within a couple years), so I have to wonder how the % acceptance would shake out for different age ranges.

[justasmidge]

3 hours ago, darr1 said:

Depression sure does amplify the worthlessness feeling of rejections. Anyone else dealing with that?

And on a related issue - anyone else applying for the first time as an "older" applicant? I'm early 30s, and while I'm totally glad I did not apply when I first wanted to (10 years ago; my writing wasn't ready and I've had a lovely non writing career since then), I can't help but feel like my current tally of 0a/1w/6r is going to lead to a do-over. Is it worth it to try again as a mid-30s applicant?

As someone who also lives with depression and anxiety, I see you.

I will be 37 in May, which is wild to think of, but I'm here, but I do believe that my age has contributed to me being a better writer because of what I've experienced and what I will continue to experience. If I don't get in anywhere, I'm absolutely trying again. Granted, living in NYC does give one a bit of what I like to call "Peter Pan syndrome" because it seems like we never grow up but there are so many cool people doing cool things in their late 30s, 40s, and 50s and beyond.

[sylviaplathtears]

I realize it varies but-- around what time do people start making decisions about schools/when do we hear back from waitlists?? I'm begginggg someone to give me an acceptance and put me out of my misery ❤️ 

[itsbeensnowing]

8 minutes ago, sylviaplathtears said:

I realize it varies but-- around what time do people start making decisions about schools/when do we hear back from waitlists?? I'm begginggg someone to give me an acceptance and put me out of my misery ❤️ 

For the waitlists I'm on (one for funding, one for acceptance), the schools have said people tend to wait til the last minute to turn down (or accept) their offer, so a lot of waitlist movement won't happen until mid April. It's like a vicious cycle where people are waiting on their own waitlists, so they don't turn down offers yet, thus preventing movement on those waitlists.

It can definitely happen before then, but for sanity's sake it's probably best to assume nothing will happen til then.

Edited February 27 by itsbeensnowing

[Scribe]

One or two people have asked about Arizona. Someone on draft reports they are dealing with "major debt issues" and wonders if that is affecting the notifications. 

[Rixor]

Adding onto the waitlist movement topic, after having one of my accepted programs get put into 'program might be cancelled' limbo, I'd be very, very apprehensive to drop any of my a's or w's until I'm certain my favored programs will be actually happening with funding. Maybe it's paranoia, but I'd probably encourage you all to maybe do the same and not turn down acceptances too early.  Nothing is certain until it's certain, unfortunately.

Edited February 27 by Rixor

[Scribe]

36 minutes ago, Rixor said:

Adding onto the waitlist movement topic, after having one of my accepted programs get put into 'program might be cancelled' limbo, I'd be very, very apprehensive to drop any of my a's or w's until I'm certain my favored programs will be actually happening with funding. Maybe it's paranoia, but I'd probably encourage you all to maybe do the same and not turn down acceptances too early.  Nothing is certain until it's certain, unfortunately.

This is how I’d play it. I think it’s unethical for the rest of you. 

[pananoprodigy]

It's a big decision, there's nothing unethical about using the time allotted to you to be sure you're choosing the best option! I really don't think people are waiting to turn down acceptances out of laziness. I mean obviously if you know 100% that you're not attending you should decline it asap, but I just feel like most people don't know that with such certainty at this stage. The wait is agonizing but that's just part of the vibe unfortunately.

[darr1]

2 hours ago, ssuunn said:

Just when we were talking about applicants who are 30+ applying to programs... I just got into Oregon for poetry!

just smiled very broadly - congratulations!!!!

[cooks_10]

Can someone share where to find this "spreadsheet" I've seen mentioned on here. Also is there a FB group for applicants as well as this forum?

[messindistress]

8 minutes ago, cooks_10 said:

Can someone share where to find this "spreadsheet" I've seen mentioned on here. Also is there a FB group for applicants as well as this forum?

There's a group on FB called Draft that has a worksheet that records people's responses. I requested to join a couple of days ago and got in the other day.

[sunnysequoia]

1 hour ago, Scribe said:

One or two people have asked about Arizona. Someone on draft reports they are dealing with "major debt issues" and wonders if that is affecting the notifications. 

There's an NYT article on this from just a week ago. I think this has to be why Arizona decisions haven't come out yet. If the university is in financial trouble, any potential impact is going to hit the non-essential academic departments first, meaning the arts 😬 I don't think there's any reason for us to freak out until we receive concrete news, but definitely don't decline any waitlists or even accept an offer until a program has provided you with 100% assurance in writing that you will receive funding.

[justasmidge]

I just got an e-mail from Stony Brook to check my portal and they gave me a $6,500 stipend and 25% tuition remission!!! I honestly wasn't expecting this but wow. I need to process all of this!