2025 Creative Writing MFA Applicants Forum

[Tuxedocat]

19 minutes ago, decayingballads21 said:

I’ve seen that post! I just didn’t know if that was standard to he asking all those sorts of questions on an initial acceptance call. Thought they were meant to be brief and sort of a vibe check as well? Anyone have any experiences they can share of acceptance calls?

Ah ok makes sense! Curious to see what others say about this because I’m having a scheduled acceptance call with Columbia this week. I don’t have any experience with acceptance calls either so not fully sure what to expect.

[essentialflowers]

Question: does everyone have a "university id" listed on top of Iowa's application in the HawkId web portal? 

[pananoprodigy]

25 minutes ago, decayingballads21 said:

I’ve seen that post! I just didn’t know if that was standard to he asking all those sorts of questions on an initial acceptance call. Thought they were meant to be brief and sort of a vibe check as well? Anyone have any experiences they can share of acceptance calls?

The one acceptance call I've had lasted about all of 45 seconds; I think she could tell I was internally screaming and not really processing anything other than "you're in" so she let me hop off pretty quick lmao. I think in your case if you genuinely have questions about logistics you'd be totally fine to ask them, but I also think it's perfectly normal/fine to go into it expecting not to say much more than "thank you so much, I'm very excited, I look forward to talking again soon," etc. 

[ksiezniczka.monisia]

3 minutes ago, essentialflowers said:

Question: does everyone have a "university id" listed on top of Iowa's application in the HawkId web portal? 

Yeah, I'm sorry

[pananoprodigy]

9 minutes ago, essentialflowers said:

Question: does everyone have a "university id" listed on top of Iowa's application in the HawkId web portal? 

I think so if I remember right from last year. This round I've been taking a "whatever happens on the portals is none of my business" approach which I highly recommend lol. I think they're one of the most unreliable ways to torment yourself 

[MaxMyDog]

12 minutes ago, essentialflowers said:

Question: does everyone have a "university id" listed on top of Iowa's application in the HawkId web portal? 

I'm not sure I understand your question? But yes there's an ID number?

[everything bagel lover]

48 minutes ago, decayingballads21 said:

I’ve seen that post! I just didn’t know if that was standard to he asking all those sorts of questions on an initial acceptance call. Thought they were meant to be brief and sort of a vibe check as well? Anyone have any experiences they can share of acceptance calls?

My first acceptance call was about 30 minutes and he gave me a BUNCH of information that I wrote down and it was generally very nice and I maybe screamed when he said I was in, but he said he likes doing the acceptance calls because of the excitement.

My second one was about 2-3 minutes long, very brief and very kind, she expressed a lot of enthusiasm and said that an email would follow with information. Definitely good to express gratitude and interest! The only question I really asked was "Are you my contact person going forward in this process?"

Edited 20 hours ago by everything bagel lover
typossssss

[decayingballads21]

5 hours ago, everything bagel lover said:

UNLV is so hard to predict tbh, they've been known to do secret waitlists, especially with CNF and to radically spread apart both acceptance notifs and rejections. It looks like this year they called two poetry admits the same day so I'm guessing that maybe they are doing it by genre? But I have no idea

 

Edit to addendum because I don't want to spam the forum: AHHHH I scream with anticipation. I'm crossing my fingers and my whole body for good news regarding a GTA position from CSU, maybe today since someone on Friday got offered a position. I feel so close to the finish line but it's still just out of my grasp and it's making my stomach churn. Hoping for a flood of good news for all of us today.

FWIW I got an acceptance Friday from CSU for cnf, I got the impression they don’t fully fund everyone/ not everyone with funding has a GTA. So delay in acceptances could be from that. I know of 4 cnf accepted students only 2 of us have a GTA, and out of 12 accepted students there were 2 or 3 offers without funding sent out 

 

 

[everything bagel lover]

24 minutes ago, decayingballads21 said:

FWIW I got an acceptance Friday from CSU for cnf, I got the impression they don’t fully fund everyone/ not everyone with funding has a GTA. So delay in acceptances could be from that. I know of 4 cnf accepted students only 2 of us have a GTA, and out of 12 accepted students there were 2 or 3 offers without funding sent out 

 

 

I got accepted to CSU last Wednesday and was told that GTA info would come in the next few weeks. When you were accepted, did they also give you a GTA?

They don't fund everyone which is stressful. I know that another person accepted into fiction on Wednesday put funding tbd in their draft notif as well.

Edit to add: Also, 12 accepted students total? I was told that there are 5 accepted fiction students, so I guess that would put them at 5 fiction, 4 cnf, 3 poetry? 

Edited 19 hours ago by everything bagel lover
doing basic math

[decayingballads21]

2 minutes ago, everything bagel lover said:

I got accepted to CSU last Wednesday and was told that GTA info would come in the next few weeks. When you were accepted, did they also give you a GTA?

They don't fund everyone which is stressful. I know that another person accepted into fiction on Wednesday put funding tbd in their draft notif as well.

Yes it came with my acceptance. My best guess is they might be waiting to see if any offers are declined then they’d have more $! 
 

it is very stressful but I have my fingers crossed for you! 

[ssensibility]

I asked this in here about a week ago, but does anyone know when University of Southern California or University of Georgia acceptances / decisions come out? I see one USC waitlist on the Draft sheet. Didn't know if anyone in here applied or had any insider info! 

[programedlove333]

got an email from the UNCG director about an interview! im a fiction applicant

[everything bagel lover]

42 minutes ago, decayingballads21 said:

Yes it came with my acceptance. My best guess is they might be waiting to see if any offers are declined then they’d have more $! 
 

it is very stressful but I have my fingers crossed for you! 

Congratulations!! Thank you I appreciate it, I’m really hoping it comes through! 

[exvat]

Well, just did a long walking meditation labeling every sensation as just "seeing" or "hearing" or "feeling," and now it's just back to "waiting" like the SpongeBob coffee gif.

Hit my digits, NY schools 😀

[Cosmicinkwell]

Feeling rather defeated today. Will try to get ahold of these feelings and channel them more positively but the not knowing is killing me.

[Eloise2897]

Continued radio silence from Syracuse has me gnawing at the bars of my enclosure

Edited 18 hours ago by Eloise2897
typo

[saintjdog]

Why is Johns Hopkins staggering rejections??? It seems like fiction rejections went out last week on 2/18 and 2/19, but I still haven't received mine. I don't understand the point of this at all! Is this normal?

[quadcrossedfingers]

Hello! I've been lurking but I'm popping in to celebrate - I got waitlisted at UMich for poetry!! It came after three straight rejections and I was feeling pretty much heartbroken (really had my hopes on UW Madison because I have family there 😕 ) but I'm feeling much better now and able to wait out my three pending apps without the abject dread and mounting panic that I won't get in anywhere, even if that is still true haha.

I'm vibing soooo hard for a spot to open at UMich for me! They didn't put out a ranking but they said it was a short list. Ofc I'm proud to even be waitlisted there, but I wish I knew what to plan for. Trying not to get my hopes up but I can't help myself. Either way, hooray! ❤️ 

[prufrock_]

Just now, saintjdog said:

Why is Johns Hopkins staggering rejections??? It seems like fiction rejections went out last week on 2/18 and 2/19, but I still haven't received mine. I don't understand the point of this at all! Is this normal?

yes, they take a two weeks+ to reject everyone for some reason based on last years data (i also haven't picked up a rejection from them yet). I can only assume it's a non automated system and whichever admin does it all just takes their time.

[pananoprodigy]

6 minutes ago, quadcrossedfingers said:

Hello! I've been lurking but I'm popping in to celebrate - I got waitlisted at UMich for poetry!! It came after three straight rejections and I was feeling pretty much heartbroken (really had my hopes on UW Madison because I have family there 😕 ) but I'm feeling much better now and able to wait out my three pending apps without the abject dread and mounting panic that I won't get in anywhere, even if that is still true haha.

I'm vibing soooo hard for a spot to open at UMich for me! They didn't put out a ranking but they said it was a short list. Ofc I'm proud to even be waitlisted there, but I wish I knew what to plan for. Trying not to get my hopes up but I can't help myself. Either way, hooray! ❤️ 

eeek congrats!!! That's huge!!!!

[Lady Gladys]

9 minutes ago, quadcrossedfingers said:

Hello! I've been lurking but I'm popping in to celebrate - I got waitlisted at UMich for poetry!! It came after three straight rejections and I was feeling pretty much heartbroken (really had my hopes on UW Madison because I have family there 😕 ) but I'm feeling much better now and able to wait out my three pending apps without the abject dread and mounting panic that I won't get in anywhere, even if that is still true haha.

I'm vibing soooo hard for a spot to open at UMich for me! They didn't put out a ranking but they said it was a short list. Ofc I'm proud to even be waitlisted there, but I wish I knew what to plan for. Trying not to get my hopes up but I can't help myself. Either way, hooray! ❤️ 

Congratulations! Huge accomplishment!!

[strawberrymatcha]

20 minutes ago, prufrock_ said:

yes, they take a two weeks+ to reject everyone for some reason based on last years data (i also haven't picked up a rejection from them yet). I can only assume it's a non automated system and whichever admin does it all just takes their time.

it does seem a bit odd that the majority of rejections came out on consecutive days last year (2/13-15) whereas this year there’s been a bit of a pause. you’re probably right though, all we can do is wait at this point!

[HalBear]

Y'all this waiting is starting to be painful.

But the wise words of Billy Joel are helping me through.. "You can't be everything you wanna be before your time." 

 

 

[beet_root]

1 hour ago, programedlove333 said:

got an email from the UNCG director about an interview! im a fiction applicant

me too! high five lol

[gordonandwafflesandmrblik]

5 hours ago, CLCH said:

I got into Iowa for fiction over the weekend.

Hi everyone! I have not posted at all but I've read everyone's posts. I got an acceptance call from Iowa over the weekend and wanted to let you guys know what Sam Chang said she's going to be making calls for probably this whole week. So if you haven't heard anything, it's still possible! 

 

also, for those of you getting discouraged, I reapplied. It's so random and crazy. Last year I was waitlisted at five programs and this year I was rejected from all five of those same programs. I thought, Jesus, I guess I got worse in the last year. And right when I was feeling down, I got the phone call.

Keep goiiiiiiinnnnngggggg!!!!

Wanted to give you a huuuge congratulations🎊 and also a huge thank you for sharing that they’ll keep making calls. This message allows me to keep dreaming/hoping/fantasizing for the week, so please know you’ve genuinely made a stranger’s whole week lol! Sending good karma your way