2025 Creative Writing MFA Applicants Forum

[prufrock_]

3 minutes ago, essentialflowers said:

wyoming please accept me wyoming please accept me wyoming please accept me wyoming please accept me wyoming please accept me wyoming please accept me wyoming please accept me wyoming please accept me 

  jadedoptimist had the right move for this last year that got them into brown, imma bring it back for us:

            🕯      🕯   🕯
     🕯                            🕯
  🕯                                    🕯
🕯             ❤️ wyoming      🕯

🕯                fiction               🕯
  🕯              summoning    🕯
    🕯            circle           🕯
        🕯                         🕯
            🕯     🕯        🕯  

[everything bagel lover]

UNLV poetry acceptance dropped stay calm guys (my heart stopped)

Edit: HUGE congrats to Uyioghosa if you're here!!

Edited February 20 by everything bagel lover
to congrats :)

[exvat]

Alright Columbia and NYU, the monastery I'm looking at opens for reservations on March 15, so you have until then to accept me with full funding or else I pursue happiness and writing on my own—SO THERE 😤

[lurkingwriter3]

10 minutes ago, everything bagel lover said:

UNLV poetry acceptance dropped stay calm guys (my heart stopped)

Edit: HUGE congrats to Uyioghosa if you're here!!

Feels like a gut punch seeing an acceptance and having a silent phone🫣

[DisplayNamesAreTheWorst]

1 hour ago, MegHe said:

I just had my interview for Oxford's MSt in Creative Writing and ohhh my gosh they asked some questions I was not prepared for. Dying inside a little. But they were incredibly kind and gracious, even when I fumbled my responses. Just putting that out there - I know there was another person or two in this forum who were going to interview for the same program. Don't want to give too much away about the questions, but if it puts anyone at ease, the panelists were absolutely lovely. 

I just finished mine too! They were so kind and I felt SO unprepared! Those questions were not what youtube prepared me for.

Rooting for you!! 

[MegHe]

Just now, DisplayNamesAreTheWorst said:

I just finished mine too! They were so kind and I felt SO unprepared! Those questions were not what youtube prepared me for.

Rooting for you!! 

I'M SO GLAD I'M NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO FELT UNPREPARED. I prepped for HOURS and I felt so rung out at the end of it. Thank you for validating my experience 😂 

[jinny-r]

Should I give up hope on U of Arizona? Applied for both fiction and poetry and heard nothing so far, but there have been waitlists already on Draft this month.

[DJ Lambchop]

To anyone who has already received a Johns Hopkins fiction rejection, can I ask what your rejection said? I am still waiting on a response from this school and I’m wondering what the hold up is. Perhaps tiered rejections?

[Catpaw]

5 minutes ago, jinny-r said:

Should I give up hope on U of Arizona? Applied for both fiction and poetry and heard nothing so far, but there have been waitlists already on Draft this month.

Ah, do you mean U of Arizona, or Arizona State University?

I'm awful at remembering which abbreviations refer to which school (and I'm not on Draft!), so I may have missed updates about U of Arizona results coming in...

[pananoprodigy]

1 hour ago, Tinky C. Clown said:

thank you all re: alabama for the reassurance! i don’t mean to sound entitled or ungrateful at all – i am just having a thing where my brain wants me to undercut my successes and feed my insecurities, y’know?

Just wanna echo what others have said (Alabama is a GREAT school!) and validate that I sooo relate to your line of thinking. I think a lot of us are used to instinctively looking for reasons to downplay our own accomplishments, but in this case I think you gotta throw yourself a bone and celebrate that you got into a fantastic program!

[strawberrymatcha]

11 minutes ago, DJ Lambchop said:

To anyone who has already received a Johns Hopkins fiction rejection, can I ask what your rejection said? I am still waiting on a response from this school and I’m wondering what the hold up is. Perhaps tiered rejections?

also curious about this, though based on last year’s thread they might just be sorted alphabetically!

[DJ Lambchop]

1 minute ago, strawberrymatcha said:

also curious about this, though based on last year’s thread they might just be sorted alphabetically!

Yeah, I considered this, but based on the draft (if any of the names are real!) it looks random. 

[AyvaM]

On Monday I got rejected from Michener and Vandy in one fell swoop. It was also my anniversary with my partner, to add insult to highly competitive injury lol. Anyway, I have wallowed enough and finally checked back in here to see the updates. I ran out of reacts very quickly. 🌻

 

One million congratulations to everyone for everything and one million commiserations to everyone else for everything else. This forum is the brightest spot in an otherwise semi-painful waiting game. It reminds me to step out and feel a little joy for someone else every day, and maybe moo along to the moo-bot whenever I obsessively check Draft. 🐮 Season's not done yet y'all, but for what it's worth, I'm supremely proud of everyone here. 🌻🌻🌻🌻

 

1a/1w/2R/5p

Edited February 20 by AyvaM

[jinny-r]

20 minutes ago, Catpaw said:

Ah, do you mean U of Arizona, or Arizona State University?

I'm awful at remembering which abbreviations refer to which school (and I'm not on Draft!), so I may have missed updates about U of Arizona results coming in...

U of Arizona. There are a few entries, mostly CNF and poetry. There is one fiction waitlist. I don't know why they won't just release in one go 😭

[seezeegee]

24 minutes ago, DJ Lambchop said:

To anyone who has already received a Johns Hopkins fiction rejection, can I ask what your rejection said? I am still waiting on a response from this school and I’m wondering what the hold up is. Perhaps tiered rejections?

Dear [name],

On behalf of the Writing Seminars faculty, we would like to express our appreciation for your interest in the graduate programs at Johns Hopkins University.  I regret to say, however, we are unable to offer you a position in program at this time. The graduate admissions committee reviews a large number of applications and there is intense competition for the limited number of positions available.

Thank you very much for your interest in our program. We wish you every success in pursuing your graduate training.

Best Regards,
Office of Graduate Admissions and Enrollment

Edited February 20 by seezeegee

[WrenArch]

Notre Dame already sent out interview offers to a few poets on draft but nothing for fiction. Anyone know when we should expect to see people get interviews for fiction? And is no interview basically a soft reject? Thanks!

[pananoprodigy]

2 minutes ago, WrenArch said:

Notre Dame already sent out interview offers to a few poets on draft but nothing for fiction. Anyone know when we should expect to see people get interviews for fiction? And is no interview basically a soft reject? Thanks!

I'm on the edge of my seat about this one too. I would assume no interview is a soft rejection, but no idea when fiction interviews will start popping up (altho I'd assume it could be any time now)

[Catpaw]

7 minutes ago, jinny-r said:

U of Arizona. There are a few entries, mostly CNF and poetry. There is one fiction waitlist. I don't know why they won't just release in one go 😭

Ah! Yeah I wish they wouldn't drip it out like this... Well, I guess I will count U of Arizona a soft rejection then. Damn.

[zaira]

37 minutes ago, DJ Lambchop said:

To anyone who has already received a Johns Hopkins fiction rejection, can I ask what your rejection said? I am still waiting on a response from this school and I’m wondering what the hold up is. Perhaps tiered rejections?

I selfishly hope they're not tiered because that would mean my application is in much worse shape than I imagined haha. 

FWIW my name is very high alphabetically. And the vast majority of the names in the sheet are fictional characters (e.g. Laura Palmer, Dale Cooper, Mr. Milchick) so I wouldn't necessarily use those as a basis for data. Not sure what the hold up is on the rest of the JHU rejections. Could be anything from tiered to just a really slow notification system that handles it in batches. 

[epr]

13 minutes ago, zaira said:

I selfishly hope they're not tiered because that would mean my application is in much worse shape than I imagined haha. 

FWIW my name is very high alphabetically. And the vast majority of the names in the sheet are fictional characters (e.g. Laura Palmer, Dale Cooper, Mr. Milchick) so I wouldn't necessarily use those as a basis for data. Not sure what the hold up is on the rest of the JHU rejections. Could be anything from tiered to just a really slow notification system that handles it in batches. 

From my past years’ rejections they’re not tiered, its just alphabetical lol. My name’s towards the end of the alphabet and I usually get my rejection about a day or so after the first round goes out

[Jitterbug98]

Wondering when BU fiction will start coming out. It's odd that it's just been scattered poetry rejections so far. I also noticed that a lot of the people from the spreadsheet who got early BU rejections had acceptances or waitlists at other very competitive schools, which is odd too! 

Edited February 20 by Jitterbug98

[zaira]

1 minute ago, Jitterbug98 said:

Wondering when BU fiction will start coming out. It's odd that it's just been scattered poetry rejections so far. I also noticed that a lot of the people from the spreadsheet who got early BU rejections had acceptances or waitlists at other very competitive schools, which is odd too! 

Right. I don't know what to make of this. I guess it boils down to subjectivity. Really hoping we get something on the fiction side soon (though at this stage I'm expecting to get rejections across the board haha). 

[everything bagel lover]

Y'all I just got a call from NAU, I'm accepted and 1st on the waitlist for funding!!!! (I'm on an insane killstreak so far all acceptances and simultaneously no guaranteed funding but I trust the process ❤️) 

Edited February 20 by everything bagel lover
funnier verbage

[pananoprodigy]

2 minutes ago, everything bagel lover said:

Y'all I just got a call from NAU, I'm accepted and 1st on the waitlist for funding!!!! (I'm on fire on getting so far all acceptances and simultaneously no guaranteed funding but I trust the process ❤️ ) 

YESSSS CONGRATS!!!! maybe we'll be lumberjacks together!!!

[bibsy]

anyone have any insight into uc irvine? looks like acceptance calls went out last week, and rejections appeared on the sheet two days ago (2/18) - but no new rejections were added yesterday. i haven't received an email to check my portal, and my app still only shows "submitted." i haven't seen anyone report a waitlist notif from uci, so i'm lightly hopeful that's a possibility without growing too attached to the thought!