2025 Creative Writing MFA Applicants Forum

[Hjanep]

9 minutes ago, VOID DARLING said:

thank you so much for asking and for sharing this info!

though am i just hallucinating this or did they at some point on their website state that decisions will go out by mid-March? wondering because 15 March is literally in 2 days.... so they have to accept, waitlist and reject all their applicants by then?

Historically they have done the Michigan style full sweep of decisions over the course of a couple days…

[prufrock_]

Wyoming acceptance posted in draft

just dropped to my knees in a wawa.

[essentialflowers]

two accepted fiction applicants from wyoming is CRAZY work. oh well.

[cooliejulie86]

And no posted acceptances for UF's 6 spots?

[GingerBB]

Hey guys, longtime lurker here and finally figured out how to make an account. First off, thanks to everyone who posted here — this forum has kept me going through a verrry stressful few weeks! And now, I have some info on Boston University — in case anyone’s interested!

So I got accepted on Saturday, for Fiction. Was absolutely thrilled to get the call, as this was my first time applying and I had all hard/soft rejects up until that point barring a waitlist at NYU (and no way was I going to get off it with full funding). I was also given one of the fellowships! Then, on Monday I was sent an email that had three others marked as recipients, informing us that we had all been given fellowships. I got my Graduate School official acceptance on Tuesday. 

My guess — they informed fellowship recipients first, and will share the rest next week, because I learned that BU is on spring break this weekend. So if you haven’t heard from them yet, hang in there!

And, major congrats to everyone who’s already been waitlisted/accepted!

[Jitterbug98]

18 hours ago, Tinky C. Clown said:

their funding is really bad. only a few scholarships – i just turned one down today 

Hi just curious how long ago did you get the scholarship offer from Emerson?

[Chex]

21 minutes ago, GingerBB said:

Hey guys, longtime lurker here and finally figured out how to make an account. First off, thanks to everyone who posted here — this forum has kept me going through a verrry stressful few weeks! And now, I have some info on Boston University — in case anyone’s interested!

So I got accepted on Saturday, for Fiction. Was absolutely thrilled to get the call, as this was my first time applying and I had all hard/soft rejects up until that point barring a waitlist at NYU (and no way was I going to get off it with full funding). I was also given one of the fellowships! Then, on Monday I was sent an email that had three others marked as recipients, informing us that we had all been given fellowships. I got my Graduate School official acceptance on Tuesday. 

My guess — they informed fellowship recipients first, and will share the rest next week, because I learned that BU is on spring break this weekend. So if you haven’t heard from them yet, hang in there!

And, major congrats to everyone who’s already been waitlisted/accepted!

Congratulations!! And thank you for sharing the deets here, as I'm aware there are people anxiously waiting to hear from Boston. 

[GingerBB]

3 minutes ago, Chex said:

Congratulations!! And thank you for sharing the deets here, as I'm aware there are people anxiously waiting to hear from Boston. 

Thank you so much, and absolutely!! This time a week ago I was the one tearing my hair out waiting for updates lol 

[zaira]

30 minutes ago, GingerBB said:

Hey guys, longtime lurker here and finally figured out how to make an account. First off, thanks to everyone who posted here — this forum has kept me going through a verrry stressful few weeks! And now, I have some info on Boston University — in case anyone’s interested!

Thank you, thank you, thank you for the insight! And a very hearty congratulations on your acceptance and fellowship! That's so exciting! 

[GingerBB]

7 minutes ago, zaira said:

Thank you, thank you, thank you for the insight! And a very hearty congratulations on your acceptance and fellowship! That's so exciting! 

You’re so welcome! And yes, I’m still pinching myself!! Boston was my dream program from the start and I’m super duper excited about this.

Rooting for you to hear good news next week! 🤗🤗🤞

[tomat0tomat0]

4 hours ago, tomat0tomat0 said:

email says they accept 6 people in fiction per year and also waitlist 6.

also i 100% got too excited and misread the email here-- it's true that they accept 6ppl/yr (in fiction at least), but not sure how many on the waitlist (not sure why gradcafe wont let me edit the og post?)

will ask in email of continued interest & update asap

[orb weaver]

1 hour ago, cooliejulie86 said:

And no posted acceptances for UF's 6 spots?

I'm one of the poetry spots, I know one of the waitlisted.

[cooliejulie86]

2 minutes ago, orb weaver said:

I'm one of the poetry spots, I know one of the waitlisted.

Congrats!!!!! I'm wondering about fiction specifically, but that is so exciting!

[Hjanep]

Delulu confessional time. Last year, I got my Iowa rejection before everyone. Or I was very much in the first wave despite my historically spotty NYC mail service. After I got my R (I’m pretty sure this was the order of operations), Iowa emailed what was effectively the waitlist (yes I know they already waitlisted people this year) and told people who hadn’t received the snail mail rejections that their applications were still under consideration. Just got my mail for the day. Still no rejection. Idk why I do this to myself but here I am with golden retriever level optimism. Thought I would share in case anyone else wanted a trip to crazy town. 

[womanonline]

UTK waitlists just went out! i made it 😁

[writeordie]

22 minutes ago, Hjanep said:

Delulu confessional time. Last year, I got my Iowa rejection before everyone. Or I was very much in the first wave despite my historically spotty NYC mail service. After I got my R (I’m pretty sure this was the order of operations), Iowa emailed what was effectively the waitlist (yes I know they already waitlisted people this year) and told people who hadn’t received the snail mail rejections that their applications were still under consideration. Just got my mail for the day. Still no rejection. Idk why I do this to myself but here I am with golden retriever level optimism. Thought I would share in case anyone else wanted a trip to crazy town. 

I am also on this journey. Not the "last year" part, but the "If I still haven't heard from Iowa, maybe hope isn't lost"  mentality. Fully aware this is likely denial, but I don't care, because crazier things have happened. Like the current administration. Or the stories people tell of their acceptance emails going to spam and finally realizing it in early April when their #1 choice calls them to find out why they haven't gotten a response to their offer of a teaching load of 0:0, generous stipend, and a new beach condo that comes with a labradoodle.

[prufrock_]

i haven't gotten a letter from iowa and would love to join the delulu train.

let's fuel it: my iowa portal still says under consideration. 

Would anyone who has received a rejection letter from iowa be able to confirm their portal is updated? (also sorry for picking at your scabs, please only look if it wont hurt!)

Edited March 13 by prufrock_

[cooliejulie86]

5 minutes ago, prufrock_ said:

i haven't gotten a letter from iowa and would love to join the delulu train.

let's fuel it: my iowa portal still says under consideration. 

Would anyone who has received a rejection letter from iowa be able to confirm their portal is updated? (also sorry for picking at your scabs, please only look if it wont hurt!)

I got the worst level of rejection letter a couple days ago and portal shows me still in progress

[pananoprodigy]

5 minutes ago, prufrock_ said:

i haven't gotten a letter from iowa and would love to join the delulu train.

let's fuel it: my iowa portal still says under consideration. 

Would anyone who has received a rejection letter from iowa be able to confirm their portal is updated? (also sorry for picking at your scabs, please only look if it wont hurt!)

Just checked mine - under Admissions Decision it says "In Progress" (I got my letter in the mail yesterday fwiw)

[prufrock_]

okay thanks, i think i just gas lit myself -- mine says 'in progress' not 'under consideration'. I'll take it that my mail just got lost!

[Mr Good Man]

32 minutes ago, womanonline said:

UTK waitlists just went out! i made it 😁

Congrats! 

Poetry or fiction? 

[tomat0tomat0]

1 hour ago, tomat0tomat0 said:

also i 100% got too excited and misread the email here-- it's true that they accept 6ppl/yr (in fiction at least), but not sure how many on the waitlist (not sure why gradcafe wont let me edit the og post?)

will ask in email of continued interest & update asap

update: received incredibly kind follow-up email from current prof; 12 people on fiction waitlist, not officially ranked.

[womanonline]

19 minutes ago, Mr Good Man said:

Congrats! 

Poetry or fiction? 

Funny thing is... I applied for Creative Nonfiction? Or I thought I did. I saw a post on Draft awhile back that alluded to UTK only having fiction and poetry, but I don't think I would've applied if it hadn't allowed me to choose CNF? I've been concerned about that since seeing the post (and still a little concerned since they didn't mention genre in the email). 

But this has spiraled me into a longer post. Basically, I had no idea what I was doing the last two years attempting to apply to MFAs. I wasn't apart of these groups and my professors did not fully prepare me for what it would be like or the stakes of applying. I didn't know about stipends or financial packages, didn't consider location/rent or cohorts, didn't realize how few people they accepted. I didn't even know what the best schools were to apply to. I applied to Emerson College last season and got accepted despite not having all of my recommendations (and having objectively not great samples), but I wasn't able to go because I ended up having to do another year of undergrad due to a schedule mix-up. This year I was waitlisted at UTK (with a much better application and full recommendations). Both years, those were the only schools that I applied to. 

I found this group (and Draft) a few months ago when trying to find out when I'd hear back from UTK. It has sincerely opened my eyes (and taken over my life a little bit). I've learned so much and been so grateful -- but also, to some degree, still feel left out. I never had the experience of applying to far-away or prestigious universities in undergraduate because of primarily fear and doubt (and lack of knowing what I wanted to study) but also due to financial reasons. I've always wanted to be able to apply to a bunch of great schools and see if I got in just to even have that experience at all, even if they were rejections. I regret that external worries about the future led me to apply late and to only one school (of which I'm still not sure if they would have a focus in my genre). 

All of this is just to say that I have regrets. And despite being so grateful and excited for this waitlist, I will be taking myself off of it. I want to try again. I'm not sure that Knoxville is the place for me anyway. I've lived in rural Mississippi my entire life, and I want to see if I could get further away. I just want to see realistically what my options are. I feel more confident to be able to do this after this experience and learning so much from this group. 

(Side note: Am I crazy for this?)

Also, for those that are wondering, UTK said they sent out five acceptance offers. I'm not sure if that is fiction or nonfiction at this point, but I really thought I applied for nonfiction. They also did not mention if it was a ranked waitlist or how many people were on it. They didn't even spell my name right in the email lol. 

Last thing -- Considering everything I've said, does anyone have recommendations for which (fully funded) universities to apply to next round for CNF? 

Edited March 13 by womanonline
added more lol

[Tinky C. Clown]

2 hours ago, Jitterbug98 said:

Hi just curious how long ago did you get the scholarship offer from Emerson?

first week of February! it’s rolling tho so don’t count it out. emerson seems really sketchy to me and the director was being weird about not wanting to offer me an official scholarship if i wasn’t likely to accept. they honestly seem desperate to me and i wouldn’t advise anyone to go if they had other options, and even if you don’t, id sooner apply again than go there 

[Jitterbug98]

3 minutes ago, Tinky C. Clown said:

first week of February! it’s rolling tho so don’t count it out. emerson seems really sketchy to me and the director was being weird about not wanting to offer me an official scholarship if i wasn’t likely to accept. they honestly seem desperate to me and i wouldn’t advise anyone to go if they had other options, and even if you don’t, id sooner apply again than go there 

Hmm good to know. I was accepted there around that time too but I haven't gotten an official scholarship offer. The director emailed me recently asking if I have any questions for her and reiterating how they'd love to have me join in the fall, so maybe that's her trying to suss out how likely I am to accept their offer if they give me a scholarship. Not really sure. 

Edited March 13 by Jitterbug98