2025 Creative Writing MFA Applicants Forum

[pananoprodigy]

Jinxed myself lol. Just checked my Ohio State portal -- first rejection of the season for me 🙃 hope you all get better news today

[Mystic_Sunshine]

2 minutes ago, pananoprodigy said:

Jinxed myself lol. Just checked my Ohio State portal -- first rejection of the season for me 🙃 hope you all get better news today

Same here...

I know that getting rejected from one place doesn't mean anything but now I am worried worried.

[pananoprodigy]

18 minutes ago, Mystic_Sunshine said:

Same here...

I know that getting rejected from one place doesn't mean anything but now I am worried worried.

Honestly I think it's pretty rare/lucky for the first school you hear back from to be a funded acceptance. It would obviously take a lot of the stress out of the coming months but I think statistically it probably doesn't happen like that for most people. Definitely doesn't mean you won't get one though! Don't get worried yet!

[programedlove333]

20 minutes ago, pananoprodigy said:

Honestly I think it's pretty rare/lucky for the first school you hear back from to be a funded acceptance. It would obviously take a lot of the stress out of the coming months but I think statistically it probably doesn't happen like that for most people. Definitely doesn't mean you won't get one though! Don't get worried yet!

Yeah, I am anticipating a rejection from the first program i applied to (WASHU STL) because it was the only one with a deadline that early. With other programs, I had more time to revise, figure out what worked etc. All this to say, better news to come!!

[Mystic_Sunshine]

1 hour ago, pananoprodigy said:

Honestly I think it's pretty rare/lucky for the first school you hear back from to be a funded acceptance. It would obviously take a lot of the stress out of the coming months but I think statistically it probably doesn't happen like that for most people. Definitely doesn't mean you won't get one though! Don't get worried yet!

You're right  

back to waiting! 

[saintjdog]

how are y'all keeping yourself sane during the wait?

[Jane Wyman]

3 minutes ago, saintjdog said:

how are y'all keeping yourself sane during the wait?

I'm not. I'm in an adrenalized state of hypervigilance.

[exvat]

1 hour ago, saintjdog said:

how are y'all keeping yourself sane during the wait?

Meditation and Dharma practice, mostly. And a correctly prescribed SNRI ✨

And the perspective of being 39 and barely surviving multiple life threatening crises over the years. Helps me remember that not getting into an MFA program is a good day compared to what I've already survived, and now thrived through.

So, like I said: mostly meditation.

[pananoprodigy]

1 hour ago, saintjdog said:

how are y'all keeping yourself sane during the wait?

Fanfics and whiskey, baby 🤠

edit: and working on creative projects that I usually find myself putting to the side in favor of the more commercial or literary ones on my roster. Giving myself a permission slip to just make stuff for the sake of making stuff 

Edited 16 hours ago by pananoprodigy

[PsychPoet]

1 hour ago, saintjdog said:

how are y'all keeping yourself sane during the wait?

I'm personally not sweating it. I put out the best application I could at the time whenever a deadline came up. Some are better than others, but it was the best I could do at that exact moment. 

So, the stress for me was getting everything ready. Once I've submitted and it's out of my hands I'm pretty chill about it. I know my stress won't up my chances, so no reason to punish myself with stress. 

However, I stress about the group I ultimately applied to. If I had it to do over again (and I may well next year), I'd have applied a little more widely. Probably should have done Notre Dame and Ohio State (yes, the game last night may be impacting my thinking), but the reason I ultimately didn't was that at the time I felt like neither had the faculty I was looking for so why mess with two places I don't really want to live. 

Also probably should have done Johns Hopkins, but I do understand why I didn't. Still, if I could change one thing that'd be it. 

[prufrock_]

i sat down to write a serious literary novel that could be the seeds of my thesis.

but after only 1k words, sexy ghosts started showing up.

my minds too mushy until this process ends to be serious.

[everything bagel lover]

2 hours ago, saintjdog said:

how are y'all keeping yourself sane during the wait?

I've been writing prompts from a book I have (3 a.m. writing prompts) and filling my down time with events and friends. It's been hard on my bank account but good on my psyche. I also try not to check any of this when I get off work since I have all of this open on my work computer all day lol

[PsychPoet]

12 minutes ago, prufrock_ said:

i sat down to write a serious literary novel that could be the seeds of my thesis.

but after only 1k words, sexy ghosts started showing up.

my minds too mushy until this process ends to be serious.

This made me chuckle! 

For some more comic relief have a look at the draft spreadsheet. Some clown posted he was notified by Emerson 1/9 via phone. I happen to know no decisions have been made let alone notification sent out - via phone. 

Can you imagine being "that" guy? Why even do this? 

[pananoprodigy]

3 minutes ago, PsychPoet said:

This made me chuckle! 

For some more comic relief have a look at the draft spreadsheet. Some clown posted he was notified by Emerson 1/9 via phone. I happen to know no decisions have been made let alone notification sent out - via phone. 

Can you imagine being "that" guy? Why even do this? 

Yeah it's so wild to me how the chaos demons consistently flock to these groups every year lol

[Sumire11]

1 hour ago, prufrock_ said:

i sat down to write a serious literary novel that could be the seeds of my thesis.

but after only 1k words, sexy ghosts started showing up.

my minds too mushy until this process ends to be serious.

Honestly, keep the sexy ghosts, sounds like a rad project

[PsychPoet]

6 hours ago, pananoprodigy said:

Yeah it's so wild to me how the chaos demons consistently flock to these groups every year lol

I don't get it. How can that possibly be fun for anyone? 

5 hours ago, Sumire11 said:

Honestly, keep the sexy ghosts, sounds like a rad project

Yes! Haha! 

[LulusMom]

I think people who lie about early acceptances do it because the liar wants people to think they were rejected from a certain school, and be more likely to accept at other schools they applied to, which increases the liar's likelihood of getting in off the waitlist. For example, the person who did that at Emerson probably wants to go there, and knows that if someone thinks they were rejected from Emerson but got in at Ohio State, then they might accept Ohio State immediately, and when Emerson comes out, it will be a less competitive waitlist. 

This seems pretty fucked up to me though, because as difficult as this process is, I like to think that writing well is enough, and that there aren't any games being played.