2025 Creative Writing MFA Applicants Forum

[Nauna]

3 hours ago, smallchange said:

Thinking of making a t shirt that says “I got rejected from Iowa Writer’s Workshop and all I got was this dumb t shirt”

OMG I NEED THAT SHIRT

[ssuunn]

Hi poets — University of Oregon poetry decisions should be going out tomorrow! If it's like last year, waitlists will follow in the days afterwards. (I heard that fiction is still behind fyi).

[Tinky C. Clown]

1 hour ago, ssuunn said:

Hi poets — University of Oregon poetry decisions should be going out tomorrow! If it's like last year, waitlists will follow in the days afterwards. (I heard that fiction is still behind fyi).

thanks for the info!

Edited March 5, 2025 by Tinky C. Clown

[thelovelyunkown]

Any advice on how to find/choose recommenders when you donʻt have a lot of options? None of my professors except for one can attest to my skills as a creative writer. Next round Iʻm a little concerned Iʻm going to have to ask them to write 5+ letters of recommendation. Iʻm not really sure what to do. 

[exvat]

19 minutes ago, thelovelyunkown said:

Any advice on how to find/choose recommenders when you donʻt have a lot of options? None of my professors except for one can attest to my skills as a creative writer. Next round Iʻm a little concerned Iʻm going to have to ask them to write 5+ letters of recommendation. Iʻm not really sure what to do. 

The only 2 poets I knew who were familiar with my work and could write letters were my former workshop leaders at weeklong writers' conferences. The third letter was from my Chemistry MS advisor... from 15 years ago. I'm not sure what your timeline and financial means are, but for me (who's never taken a lit/English course), workshops were pretty much my only access to potential recommenders, as well as writing community in general.

Edited March 5, 2025 by exvat

[thelovelyunkown]

6 minutes ago, exvat said:

The only 2 poets I knew who were familiar with my work and could write letters were my former workshop leaders at weeklong writers' conferences. The third letter was from my Chemistry MS advisor. I'm not sure what your timeline and financial means are, but for me (who's never taken a lit/English course), workshops were pretty much my only access to potential recommenders, as well as writing community in general.

Iʻll keep that in mind! 

[KennyK]

Were there any updates for Riverside on draft?

Edited March 5, 2025 by KennyK
Edit

[donuthead36]

2 minutes ago, KennyK said:

Were there any updates for Riverside on draft?

Nothing new today on the spreadsheet. Still just one Fiction and one Nonfiction, both notified on 3/2

[KennyK]

14 minutes ago, donuthead36 said:

Nothing new today on the spreadsheet. Still just one Fiction and one Nonfiction, both notified on 3/2

Is it normal for programs to only notify one of each group and leave the others hanging?

[ssuunn]

43 minutes ago, KennyK said:

Were there any updates for Riverside on draft?

I asked my friend there and they think all the initial offers might've gone out at the same time (for all genres).

[lurkingwriter3]

This is a crushing cycle. Feeling like I’m just not good enough

[rapunzel]

thank you for your lovely responses @Hjanep @zaira !! it's definitely a cliche to say i'm still in the process of "finding my voice" and often i'm too afraid to write about things that matter to me or that i'm passionate about personally just because i worry 1) that there's not much i have to say that people will be interested in and 2) that even if it is, i'm not at a place in my life or in my writing journey where i'll be able to do them justice. but i guess the point is to go for it anyway? we're all taking huge leaps of faith by even applying to mfas! 

[lurkingwriter3]

My grandmother is a proud Irish immigrant. She was just diagnosed with Stage 3/4 breast cancer.

 

I don’t have the stomach to tell her I didn’t even get an interview for Notre Dame💔

[Scribe]

1 hour ago, lurkingwriter3 said:

This is a crushing cycle. Feeling like I’m just not good enough

You are. 

1 hour ago, lurkingwriter3 said:

This is a crushing cycle. Feeling like I’m just not good enough

It's not your year. 

1 hour ago, lurkingwriter3 said:

My grandmother is a proud Irish immigrant. She was just diagnosed with Stage 3/4 breast cancer.

 

I don’t have the stomach to tell her I didn’t even get an interview for Notre Dame💔

Write about it. 
Irish families don't care about Notre Dame. They care about each other.
Between the fights. 

[thelovelyunkown]

Renewing my candles and hoping for news when I wake up! 

             🕯️         🕯️          🕯️

     🕯️                                    🕯️

    🕯️   Brown  Acceptance    🕯️

      🕯️                                   🕯️

             🕯️           🕯️           🕯️

Edited March 5, 2025 by thelovelyunkown

[vilum]

5 hours ago, lurkingwriter3 said:

My grandmother is a proud Irish immigrant. She was just diagnosed with Stage 3/4 breast cancer.

 

I don’t have the stomach to tell her I didn’t even get an interview for Notre Dame💔

Praying for your grandmother. I know she is proud of you either way, and any acceptance or rejection would not change that. 

[misssalem]

2 hours ago, thelovelyunkown said:

Renewing my candles and hoping for news when I wake up! 

             🕯️         🕯️          🕯️

     🕯️                                    🕯️

    🕯️   Brown  Acceptance    🕯️

      🕯️                                   🕯️

             🕯️           🕯️           🕯️

     

Joining your prayer circle because it's all I got atp

 

                        🕯️

               🕯️               🕯️

        🕯️                           🕯️

    🕯️     Brown acceptance    🕯️

        🕯️                           🕯️

             🕯️                🕯️

                        🕯️

 

 

 

[kpoetrottenapplecore]

i got into my top choice school (university of south carolina) but still haven't heard back from two others (uncg & uk). i wanna kinda lock in and accept but am unsure if i should wait to hear responses back from the other two or not. what do y'all think? should i just go ahead & accept or should i keep waiting just in case? 

[Hjanep]

1 minute ago, kpoetrottenapplecore said:

i got into my top choice school (university of south carolina) but still haven't heard back from two others (uncg & uk). i wanna kinda lock in and accept but am unsure if i should wait to hear responses back from the other two or not. what do y'all think? should i just go ahead & accept or should i keep waiting just in case? 

Just wait. You could get into 2, decide the vibes are off at your top choice and go elsewhere. You’ve made it this far, just see it through

[pananoprodigy]

50 minutes ago, kpoetrottenapplecore said:

i got into my top choice school (university of south carolina) but still haven't heard back from two others (uncg & uk). i wanna kinda lock in and accept but am unsure if i should wait to hear responses back from the other two or not. what do y'all think? should i just go ahead & accept or should i keep waiting just in case? 

Definitely just wait! There’s still over a whole month till deadline day, anything can happen. South Carolina will be an option for you no matter what but imo there’s zero reason to cut off other options before you even have them unless you’re 10000% positive South Carolina is it 

[Nauna]

Can I just say how frustrated I am that the US's leadership is currently wreaking such havoc on the state of research and admissions in higher education? So many of us are in limbo over these delays; the ripple effect is massive & they clearly don't care. 

...I'm not usually one to rant, but I just had to get that out. 🥂 Here's to all of us pushing through this chaos with our chins up. ❤️ 

[kulfikat]

Has everyone heard from Virginia Tech about rejections? I see some rejections were reported yesterday, and my portal says "Decided" under application status, but I haven't heard anything. Anyone else yet to hear from them? 

[Hank Moody]

1 minute ago, kulfikat said:

my portal says "Decided" under application status, but I haven't heard anything. Anyone else yet to hear from them? 

Same here. Wonder what that means. Can't imagine it's good news at this point.

[fakepoet]

Hey everyone! Been lurking for months now, told myself I wouldn't make an account, and finally caved today bcs I do have a question. I don't have Draft so I can't ask people there/my results aren't on the spreadsheet.

I received a fully funded offer from Hunter for poetry. They emailed me telling me I was shortlisted, interviewed me, then sent an official offer letter. Their program deadline to accept the offer is March 14th, at which point if I haven't accepted they will "reluctantly move on to the next candidate on their list." The cursory research I've done points to Hunter having signed the 4/15 resolution, but it's under the name CUNY Grad Center, so I'm not 100% sure if this program specifically is covered. I was surprised their unofficial deadline was so early—I understand doing it in rounds and wanting to finalize the cohort asap, but the admitted student visit is the night before their deadline, which feels silly. I was recently accepted to Brooklyn as well and am on the Michigan waitlist—obviously, I want to keep my options open re Michigan and stuff. And these schools might not even be done notifying by the 14th—I'm still waiting on half of my schools' results. Anyone have anymore knowledge on whether Hunter counts as having signed the 4/15 resolution thing? + how should I go about bringing this up with the program director in a classy way? They seem really lovely and I do think I'll probably end up there, but I want to keep my options open, especially considering that Michigan would offer more financial security. Brooklyn also doesn't expect an answer from me until 4/15, so the Hunter deadline being so early feels kinda random.

Happy to answer any questions about the interview or anything if anyone is curious or has one coming up. All hope is not lost if you haven't heard from Hunter—I feel like they probably send out acceptances in phases depending on who accepts their offers.

(PS re NYU—I was in their MFA program for a year and basically got soft expelled by the admin behind my program's back this summer for Palestine-related reasons. The money situation is strange because some people receive MUCH more financial support from the program than others. I personally didn't like the social dynamic the mixed funding setup created. Some people received thousands of dollars a month and had fellowship-provided jobs related to the program, some people got nothing. And of course only a certain type of person can afford to pay half tuition at NYU. If I were Deborah Landau I would cut the program in half and fully fund everybody. But I digress. If anyone has questions about the NYU program I'm happy to answer them to the best of my ability. Got my Ocean connect and dipped so I consider my time there a success lol)

[kulfikat]

7 minutes ago, Hank Moody said:

Same here. Wonder what that means. Can't imagine it's good news at this point.

Yeah, me neither.

I'm imagining things: in the wildly unlikely scenario that all their acceptances and waitlists have rejected their offer already, we're still in the run.... but of course, this is my imagination going bonkers...

I presume, realistically, my name is one of the last few, alphabetically, so they probably haven't gotten to me yet. Or it may also have to do with international students. No clue. I'm speculating.