2025 Creative Writing MFA Applicants Forum

[Tinky C. Clown]

9 minutes ago, orb weaver said:

Got the call from University of Washington last night 😳 in for poetry

omg congrats! seattle? do you know if they've started fiction calls?

[orb weaver]

Just now, Tinky C. Clown said:

omg congrats! seattle? do you know if they've started fiction calls?

Yes on Seattle, not sure on fiction, but I can ask next time I talk to them!!

[zgirl]

1 hour ago, zgirl said:

I got a call from the University of Houston yesterday (with full funding). I also found out they are taking 4 MFA in poetry and 3 PhD Students—the same numbers for fiction. I'm waiting for the SLC and U of H funding package, but the University of Houston is my top choice. Thank you for all the advice and encouragement, and good luck to everyone still waiting to hear back.

The last update is because I only applied to three schools. I got waitlisted from NYU, so they have started to send those out for anyone waiting. 

 

 

[nauseated]

having a bit of a crashout bec I've realised my SOPs didn't really do justice to the specificities of the programs I was applying to. sort of understandable because I did the whole process on my own with no one to run them by but its so hair-clawy because !!! such an obvious and preventable thing !!!

[Tinky C. Clown]

7 minutes ago, orb weaver said:

Yes on Seattle, not sure on fiction, but I can ask next time I talk to them!!

thank you! nothing on draft yet, so probably not. did they mention how many apps they got?

[fakepoet]

just so you guys know, Sharon is unfortunately not teaching at NYU anymore. Her last workshop was fall 2023. I think Catherine Barnett is there full-time now instead, which is why she's not at Hunter anymore

[exvat]

Just now, fakepoet said:

just so you guys know, Sharon is unfortunately not teaching at NYU anymore. Her last workshop was fall 2023. I think Catherine Barnett is there full-time now instead, which is why she's not at Hunter anymore

Thanks for this. It does seem like, over the last six months or so, the discrepancy has grown between the faculty listed on their website versus who's actually teaching... V cool 😑

I guess that's common with websites tho. I emailed an Ivy League school last year to let them know they deadnamed Stephanie Burt. They were cool about it tho, so.

[Tuxedocat]

51 minutes ago, saintjdog said:

waitlisted at NYU for fiction, i really thought i would get no positive news this cycle!!! my only goal was to get at least one waitlist i'm insanely proud of myself

 

32 minutes ago, orb weaver said:

Got the call from University of Washington last night 😳 in for poetry

Congrats to you both!!! Such great news!!

[seah0rse]

1 hour ago, VOID DARLING said:

does anybody know when the poetry notifs will drop? 🥺 literally my last decision and the wait is driving me crazy!

I have no special intel but I did spend all of my seminar yesterday looking at previous years data for Brown 🫠 - seems like poetry followed day of/day after playwriting, but it is a Friday so news might not come til next week? & there were some acceptances that came thru about a week after initial round, closer to the 15th.

[orb weaver]

Wait-list at Oregon !!

[exvat]

1 hour ago, MegHe said:

Right? Right?! 

Haha I'm so ahead of myself - I could well be on the bottom of the waitlist. I can only reiterate my interest in the program and limit myself to checking in with them like...once every 4-6 weeks. (Unless that's bad -- someone tell me if that's a bad idea!)

I'm trying for patience myself (re: moolah), but I think you could probably check in a little earlier than 4 weeks. Tho I'm definitely not knowledgeable of the waitlist arts, so maybe I'll defer to those who are.

However! The Columbia professor I talked with yesterday was like, "Be the squeaky wheel about money! Ask for what you need! Be bold!" So I'm drafting The Ultimatum™ this weekend to send to their bean counters. Fwiw!

Edited Friday at 07:29 PM by exvat
Update: just saw that the federal government is canceling $400M in grants/funding to Columbia, so maybe I'll save my energy here...

[WrenArch]

Do we think Oregon is done notifying for acceptances and waitlists? It's all so sparse and spread out! Maybe the emails are very personalized/sent individually, since usually in past years they've notified via phone call? Or, maybe not a lot of people are reporting on draft and they've wrapped up acceptances?

[Tinky C. Clown]

1 minute ago, WrenArch said:

Do we think Oregon is done notifying for acceptances and waitlists? It's all so sparse and spread out! Maybe the emails are very personalized/sent individually, since usually in past years they've notified via phone call? Or, maybe not a lot of people are reporting on draft and they've wrapped up acceptances?

no fiction waitlists reported

[orb weaver]

6 minutes ago, WrenArch said:

Do we think Oregon is done notifying for acceptances and waitlists? It's all so sparse and spread out! Maybe the emails are very personalized/sent individually, since usually in past years they've notified via phone call? Or, maybe not a lot of people are reporting on draft and they've wrapped up acceptances?

Got the poetry wait-list email about an hour ago

[everything bagel lover]

57 minutes ago, orb weaver said:

Got the call from University of Washington last night 😳 in for poetry

Congratulations!!!!!

14 minutes ago, orb weaver said:

Wait-list at Oregon !!

Congratulations!!

Also I can't find the OG post but congratulations @saintjdog and other good news people!!! ❤️❤️ 

[analog_e]

I've been obsessively writing poetry to keep my mind occupied. I just finished a decent little lyric sequence of poems centered around fine art and art school dropouts. They're all prose poems, but very much poems, which is an odd affectation for me as someone who mostly writes long form fiction. But I think I have a knack for it and I have enjoyed my poetry courses with Lisa a fair bit more than I enjoyed writing short fiction. It leaves me wondering whether perhaps not getting into Brown Fiction will be such a negative, because it opens the possibility of applying to Brown for poetry next year (and this time being wise and applying to some safety schools >_<)

[Mr Good Man]

Does anybody know if Uni of Tennessee is done sending out poetry acceptances? 

[seah0rse]

11 minutes ago, analog_e said:

I've been obsessively writing poetry to keep my mind occupied. I just finished a decent little lyric sequence of poems centered around fine art and art school dropouts. They're all prose poems, but very much poems, which is an odd affectation for me as someone who mostly writes long form fiction. But I think I have a knack for it and I have enjoyed my poetry courses with Lisa a fair bit more than I enjoyed writing short fiction. It leaves me wondering whether perhaps not getting into Brown Fiction will be such a negative, because it opens the possibility of applying to Brown for poetry next year (and this time being wise and applying to some safety schools >_<)

hot take since brown’s been my dream program for a long time too, but perhaps there are programs out there that would allow you more cross-genre play & have faculty that would be wonderful mentors for your work! I don’t believe there are really safety schools in the MFA world because it’s all such a gamble (tho obvs a cohort of 4 is more selective than a cohort of 10) & we can’t really tell based on lists & websites what the actual program vibe will be, yknow? been really helpful for me to talk to current students elsewhere & learn about the kinds of support they’re getting from faculty for their more experimental-leaning work!

[undeadllama]

anyone heard from miami of ohio for fiction? i've seen a few poetry and nonfiction on the spreadsheet but at very spread out dates. it's one of the last schools i'm waiting to hear back from!

[analog_e]

8 minutes ago, seah0rse said:

hot take since brown’s been my dream program for a long time too, but perhaps there are programs out there that would allow you more cross-genre play & have faculty that would be wonderful mentors for your work! I don’t believe there are really safety schools in the MFA world because it’s all such a gamble (tho obvs a cohort of 4 is more selective than a cohort of 10) & we can’t really tell based on lists & websites what the actual program vibe will be, yknow? been really helpful for me to talk to current students elsewhere & learn about the kinds of support they’re getting from faculty for their more experimental-leaning work!

I can't imagine Brown wouldn't allow me to do just about whatever I want, but I do need to explore other programs. I have a feeling I won't get in this year because my admission banks on a narrative of redemption/resurgence, how I came out of addiction to graduate from UVA, and when I applied I hadn't really proven that yet—I still very much had my cocaine GPA on my transcript. Everything looks way better now and I've made straight As but they don't know that. I decided to try my chances and just apply to Brown and see what happens figuring it's a no go, with next season being my actual serious "I think I can do this" effort. Who knows, though, I have amazing recommendation letters, an incredible SOP, and a strong writing sample. It could be enough!

[FFFRANK]

4 minutes ago, undeadllama said:

anyone heard from miami of ohio for fiction? i've seen a few poetry and nonfiction on the spreadsheet but at very spread out dates. it's one of the last schools i'm waiting to hear back from!

I’ve been waitlisted by them (fiction). There’s no ranking information, don’t know how many people are on the waitlist, and I don’t know if they’ve finished sending out waitlist notifications.

[undeadllama]

thanks! congrats on the waitlist!

[zaira]

1 minute ago, analog_e said:

I can't imagine Brown wouldn't allow me to do just about whatever I want, but I do need to explore other programs. I have a feeling I won't get in this year because my admission banks on a narrative of redemption/resurgence, how I came out of addiction to graduate from UVA, and when I applied I hadn't really proven that yet—I still very much had my cocaine GPA on my transcript. Everything looks way better now and I've made straight As but they don't know that. I decided to try my chances and just apply to Brown and see what happens figuring it's a no go, with next season being my actual serious "I think I can do this" effort. Who knows, though, I have amazing recommendation letters, an incredible SOP, and a strong writing sample. It could be enough!

Really hoping you get into Brown this year! It sounds like it's your dream program. 

The only thing I'll mildly caution against is assuming a program will be a perfect fit based on outward appearance alone. I know Brown has a reputation for experimentation (though I've also heard it leans more traditional than people expect, especially recently). 

At any MFA program, there can be subtle pressure to fit your work into certain boxes. Sometimes the blend of faculty and students is perfect, everyone's supportive, and you get the freedom to stretch out as much as you want. Other times there's a push to conform, whether from faculty or peers. Not saying Brown would be like this of course! It's just generally a good idea to see the vibes of the cohort and feel things out. You probably already know this, just serves as a good reminder as we all enter these last few weeks of results. 

Here's hoping you get an acceptance soon! Rooting for you! 

[MegHe]

1 hour ago, exvat said:

I'm trying for patience myself (re: moolah), but I think you could probably check in a little earlier than 4 weeks. Tho I'm definitely not knowledgeable of the waitlist arts, so maybe I'll defer to those who are.

However! The Columbia professor I talked with yesterday was like, "Be the squeaky wheel about money! Ask for what you need! Be bold!" So I'm drafting The Ultimatum™ this weekend to send to their bean counters. Fwiw!

Good luck!! Let us all know how The Ultimatum™ goes! 

[analog_e]

4 minutes ago, zaira said:

Really hoping you get into Brown this year! It sounds like it's your dream program. 

The only thing I'll mildly caution against is assuming a program will be a perfect fit based on outward appearance alone. I know Brown has a reputation for experimentation (though I've also heard it leans more traditional than people expect, especially recently). 

At any MFA program, there can be subtle pressure to fit your work into certain boxes. Sometimes the blend of faculty and students is perfect, everyone's supportive, and you get the freedom to stretch out as much as you want. Other times there's a push to conform, whether from faculty or peers. Not saying Brown would be like this of course! It's just generally a good idea to see the vibes of the cohort and feel things out. You probably already know this, just serves as a good reminder as we all enter these last few weeks of results. 

Here's hoping you get an acceptance soon! Rooting for you! 

Most of my impression of Brown is based on talking to people who went there for undergrad, my fiddle instructor whose brother and sister in law both work for Brown, and going thru interviews with folks. The overall impression I've gotten is that they just sort of let you take your approach, whether that's experimental or traditional, and don't really try to enforce a house style. That's the most important facet in choosing an MFA for me—I don't want to be wormed into writing the much maligned "MFA fiction" people speak of. Granted, this is all based on secondary or tertiary information and I have never been to Brown. I'm on a train to Providence right now because I figured I should go somewhere for spring break and why not tour the campus at least and engage in some tattoo tourism. I'm sure you're right that it's very cohort dependent but I'm not sure how I could prepare and investigate more than I have already whether the program might be a good fit for me.