2025 Creative Writing MFA Applicants Forum

[pananoprodigy]

Reminder (for myself as well) that ✨what's meant for you will never pass you✨

[Cosmicinkwell]

8 minutes ago, Lady Gladys said:

Re: IWW
This feels like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Didn't apply to IWW but I literally made this comparison in regards to MFAs today lol

[nikolairostov]

I’m in shock. I got the call.

[Cosmicinkwell]

5 minutes ago, nikolairostov said:

I’m in shock. I got the call.

Congrats!

[exvat]

6 minutes ago, nikolairostov said:

I’m in shock. I got the call.

Congratulations!! 🎉 

[Tinky C. Clown]

10 minutes ago, nikolairostov said:

I’m in shock. I got the call.

congratulations!!! any idea how many calls she has left?

[nikolairostov]

Thank you all! My name is for sure last in the alphabet so if she’s going based on that, none for fiction.

[gordonandwafflesandmrblik]

2 minutes ago, nikolairostov said:

Thank you all! My name is for sure last in the alphabet so if she’s going based on that, none for fiction.

Congratulations!! What a dream, and nice to find out on a Saturday. I hope you’re able to celebrate spectacularly. Would you be able to share long do you have to accept the offer officially? I’m wondering if they wait to send out the rejections, because they extend more offers if anyone has to reject theirs. Otherwise I feel like they would do the kindness of sending out their rejections much sooner lol

[Hjanep]

2 minutes ago, gordonandwafflesandmrblik said:

Congratulations!! What a dream, and nice to find out on a Saturday. I hope you’re able to celebrate spectacularly. Would you be able to share long do you have to accept the offer officially? I’m wondering if they wait to send out the rejections, because they extend more offers if anyone has to reject theirs. Otherwise I feel like they would do the kindness of sending out their rejections much sooner lol

Fwiw last year they sent some “your app is still under consideration” emails to the waitlist and snail mail rejected everyone else (post marked early March maybe the 3rd). I think everyone has until 4/15 to decide for all these fully funded programs

[rapunzel]

congrats everyone! looks like they do notify across multiple days, that's my bad

2 minutes ago, gordonandwafflesandmrblik said:

Congratulations!! What a dream, and nice to find out on a Saturday. I hope you’re able to celebrate spectacularly. Would you be able to share long do you have to accept the offer officially? I’m wondering if they wait to send out the rejections, because they extend more offers if anyone has to reject theirs. Otherwise I feel like they would do the kindness of sending out their rejections much sooner lol

i think part of the delay might be because they physically mail rejections? so even if the letters are dated march 1, they might not get to you until like march 15th -- whereas waitlisted people find out by email on around march 1, i think

[everything bagel lover]

25 minutes ago, nikolairostov said:

I’m in shock. I got the call.

HOLY SHIT CONGRATULATIONS!!

[Hjanep]

16 minutes ago, nikolairostov said:

Thank you all! My name is for sure last in the alphabet so if she’s going based on that, none for fiction.

What time zone are you in out of curiosity? I wonder if that’s part of the calculation

[nikolairostov]

50 minutes ago, Hjanep said:

What time zone are you in out of curiosity? I wonder if that’s part of the calculation

I just checked my voicemail (I called back a minute after I saw the missed call without listening) and she said she was going home and that she’d call back on Monday morning. So I think I was probably the last call for the weekend.

Also said I have until the end of March to decide.

[snottlebie]

48 minutes ago, nikolairostov said:

I just checked my voicemail (I called back a minute after I saw the missed call without listening) and she said she was going home and that she’d call back on Monday morning. So I think I was probably the last call for the weekend.

Also said I have until the end of March to decide.

You should have until April 15 to decide - it’s  the “April 15 resolution is an agreement among the signatory graduate schools to provide applicants until April 15 to consider offers of admission that also include financial support.” 
 

Making you decide earlier is not something they can do, as Iowa abides by the April 15 resolution. Of course, maybe they didn’t word it like “you must decide.” But just an fyi 

[Tuxedocat]

2 hours ago, nikolairostov said:

I’m in shock. I got the call.

Congratulations!!!! This is amazing!! 🤩 

[gogina44]

2 hours ago, nikolairostov said:

Thank you all! My name is for sure last in the alphabet so if she’s going based on that, none for fiction.

just how far back in the alphabet are you? some last names can get really, really back there… trying to cope 😭

[PsychPoet]

On 2/19/2025 at 8:04 PM, pananoprodigy said:

Appreciate you!!! Been rooting you on hardcore as well!

For those of you who applied last cycle and re-applied to some of the same places were the specific SoP prompts and/or essay questions for schools the same, similar, or completely different? Still have quite a few pending apps, but at least two of those I'm now inclined to pass on should I get in, so I'm starting to think about and plan for next year? 

Anyway, thanks in advance. 

PS: I HATE writing SoPs. Writing about myself to explain and sell is bad medicine in every possible way. 

[isabella swan]

2 hours ago, nikolairostov said:

I just checked my voicemail (I called back a minute after I saw the missed call without listening) and she said she was going home and that she’d call back on Monday morning. So I think I was probably the last call for the weekend.

Also said I have until the end of March to decide.

Do you have any idea how many people have been notified so far? Also, if it's okay to ask, how many stories did you submit? and were they written in traditional narrative or were you slightly experimental? 

[nikolairostov]

43 minutes ago, isabella swan said:

Do you have any idea how many people have been notified so far? Also, if it's okay to ask, how many stories did you submit? and were they written in traditional narrative or were you slightly experimental? 

Don’t know how many people but assuming I was the last, at least for fiction.

I submitted two stories and the first chapter of a novel, 35 pages total. I would describe my style as (mostly) realist and traditional with a somewhat ornate prose style. Not a Gass or Pynchon but not a Hemingway either.

[inkidacat]

1 hour ago, gogina44 said:

just how far back in the alphabet are you? some last names can get really, really back there… trying to cope 😭

they might not be going in alphabetical order, so i would say give it till monday! 

[Catpaw]

3 hours ago, PsychPoet said:

For those of you who applied last cycle and re-applied to some of the same places were the specific SoP prompts and/or essay questions for schools the same, similar, or completely different?

Most will still be the same, but some can change drastically (Hopkins made a major shift recently, for example) or otherwise reword their prompt in a way that's distinct from what it used to be (I think UVA did this). And sometimes they'll add or subtract mini-essays too.

If applying again for a future round, do double-check every single school's SOP requirement. Confirm it's what you expect it to be. Most will be the same, but then there's the ones that surprise you...

(This advice is brought to you by me wishing that I'd thought to do this, as I got some nasty surprises a few weeks before the deadlines and had to rework my SOPs for those schools accordingly.)

[rafikiman]

7 hours ago, nikolairostov said:

I’m in shock. I got the call.

Congrats!! That is amazing!! 🎉🎉🎉🎉

Have you submitted your acceptance to the Draft spreadsheet?

If not, then yours would be the 5th reported acceptance (there's 4 on the sheet as of now). That brings it to last year's number (5/25 acceptances reported) so I think we can call it done.

[nikolairostov]

1 minute ago, rafikiman said:

Congrats!! That is amazing!! 🎉🎉🎉🎉

Have you submitted your acceptance to the Draft spreadsheet?

If not, then yours would be the 5th reported acceptance (there's 4 on the sheet as of now). That brings it to last year's number (5/25 acceptances reported) so I think we can call it done.

I don’t have social media so I’m afraid not.

[rafikiman]

40 minutes ago, nikolairostov said:

I don’t have social media so I’m afraid not.

The Draft spreadsheet is just a Google form submission / Google sheet, so no social media needed. I put a post above with the links to the form and sheet but it's stuck in mod purgatory. If anyone's interested, just DM me for the links.

[Catpaw]

11 hours ago, smallchange said:

How bout you? What's your genre? Or anyone who wants to share

I'd probably describe my genre as some kinda blend between psychological realism and surrealism as well—the two always end up muddled together in my fiction, I guess. I've been very interested in detailed character-work lately, whereas a few years earlier I think I was more focused on language and image.

(Also yes, agreed, I'm always curious what other people write, if others feel comfortable sharing! So if someone is reading this and is feeling inclined to share as well, please totally do so!)

12 hours ago, smallchange said:

the novel I'm trying to write definitely has an undercurrent of mental illness that gives it an "unreality,"

Tbh your project sounds fascinating to me so I hope you keep working on your novel over the next months! I too have been too stressed recently to write much (for obvious reasons lol), but I'm also looking forward to writing in the next months without having to think about a deadline... Feels like such a luxury to contemplate, after grinding for months for these apps!