2025 Creative Writing MFA Applicants Forum

[shadygrove]

okay, kind of relieved honestly to finally just have that Brown rejection!!

thank you to everyone who's shared comforting words with folks and who's talked about the potential benefits of not getting in on a first round of apps. it's really validating and is helping me look forward to the next year (and next round) >:-)  

[analog_e]

3 minutes ago, shadygrove said:

okay, kind of relieved honestly to finally just have that Brown rejection!!

thank you to everyone who's shared comforting words with folks and who's talked about the potential benefits of not getting in on a first round of apps. it's really validating and is helping me look forward to the next year (and next round) >:-)  

Shady Grove my little love

Shady Grove I say 

Shady Grove my little love

You'll get an MFA

[glowingbrightly]

32 minutes ago, Hjanep said:

Ok yes agree but I do just want to say. MBA is so helpful for understanding a lot of very applicable things regarding how the world works and it’s pretty broad in application. Definitely follow your dreams follow your passion etc. But if you’re thinking of maybe doing a different grad program, it’s one that is way less narrow than say law school or med school. And there is something deeply satisfying about going into an app cycle with a little more transparency around your odds based on GMAT. That being said, I’ll be seeing you all back here in the fall for round 3 of MFA apps but if I didn’t already have an MBA the NYU program would be interesting to me. 🤗

I wouldn’t pay either NYU or Columbia for these dual degrees but just want to chime in and add that some of the best poets I know have MFA/JDs—including both faculty at Irvine—so it’s certainly nothing to sneeze at. Law school has much broader applications for language and critical thinking skills than one might assume at first.

[shadygrove]

5 minutes ago, analog_e said:

Shady Grove my little love

Shady Grove I say 

Shady Grove my little love

You'll get an MFA

HEHEHE right back at you, analog!!! I'll see you there!! 🫡❤️

[KennyK]

Sfsu spring break is next week. Do we think there’s a chance I could hear from them today?

[zaira]

Wish I could join all of you in applying next year, those of you going for another round! This season's my one and done. I definitely don't have another application round in me haha. Even if I don't get in anywhere this season, eh, I tried my best. 

Really hoping all of you get into the programs of your dreams next year if it didn't work out this year! You're amazing people and any program would be lucky to have you ❤️

[Sumire11]

1 hour ago, analog_e said:

Well, it's a bust. I cried for a while, including a fair bit in public while eating breakfast, but I'm feeling fine now. Just glad to have the closure. See you all next year for the arc where I get accepted to every program : )

I'm probably skipping a cycle but I wish you the best!

[gradschoolpspspsps]

2 hours ago, everything bagel lover said:

What schools are folks still waiting on that aren't soft r's? I know a good amount of people are done receiving news for this season.

I'm not really sure what's a soft r, I'm pretty new to this forum. I'm still waiting on Boise State, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, SIU, USC, and West Virginia. 

I'm currently waitlisted at Arizona State, Miami University, Ole Miss, and UTK. 

[everything bagel lover]

Just now, gradschoolpspspsps said:

I'm not really sure what's a soft r, I'm pretty new to this forum. I'm still waiting on Boise State, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, SIU, USC, and West Virginia. 

I'm currently waitlisted at Arizona State, Miami University, Ole Miss, and UTK. 

Congratulations on the waitlists! That's quite a few and I've got my fingers crossed for you that one or more pan out!

Soft r means that acceptances and waitlists have already gone out for the school, but you haven't heard anything. This usually means that they haven't sent rejections out yet but you're 99.5% sure you're getting one. For example, Wyoming sent out acceptances and waitlists last week and I wasn't a recipient of either, so I'm assuming that the rejection letter will be forthcoming. I'm already counting it as a rejection even though they haven't explicitly told me that it is. Rejections tend to lag behind acceptance and waitlist notifs.

[writercl]

year 2 of almost being rejected everywhere (applied to a mere 3 poetry programs last year and 8 this year with a mix of both poetry and fiction). still waiting on UH, as I have received no official correspondence, but not feeling super great about that either. trying not to lose hope on this last app, but it's hard not to! i've thought over applying for m.a. lit programs that are still open to apply to and have nice looking programs. i feel a little weird about it, as well as burnt out (applying to schools and writing what feels like a bazillion statement of purposes). i know i can still be a writer without doing an MFA program, but i want to be a professor, so i do need a degree. i enjoy researching my literature interests, so it's obviously not the worse idea to pivot a bit, if it means getting the ball rolling and continuing my pursuit of education and knowledge. but man!! this kind of stinks. i'm trying to allow myself to be disappointed... if that makes sense. i know i have other options, and i am grateful for that... but it doesn't negate the fact that this does, in fact, stink.

happy to have a community of writers like this, in this forum, though. i haven't been that active this year compared to last year, but it was nice to know that y'all were here.

praying for you guys ♡ keep writing, stay strong, keep the faith, remember that a rejection from a program does not mean you are not a good writer and that no admissions committee could ever take your pen and paper away from you.

keep. writing.

[Sumire11]

9 minutes ago, zaira said:

Wish I could join all of you in applying next year, those of you going for another round! This season's my one and done. I definitely don't have another application round in me haha. Even if I don't get in anywhere this season, eh, I tried my best. 

Really hoping all of you get into the programs of your dreams next year if it didn't work out this year! You're amazing people and any program would be lucky to have you ❤️

I hope you'll keep on writing. Best of luck!

[Hjanep]

I sent notes to NYU and Montana asking for status updates and Montana said: 

The department has input a decision however it takes approximately 7-10 business days for the Graduate School to process so it will hopefully be next week that you hear back.

🫠

[Lady Gladys]

22 minutes ago, gradschoolpspspsps said:

I'm not really sure what's a soft r, I'm pretty new to this forum. I'm still waiting on Boise State, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, SIU, USC, and West Virginia. 

I'm currently waitlisted at Arizona State, Miami University, Ole Miss, and UTK. 

I'm pretty sure Notre Dame notified, so that is probably an r. Still waiting to hear from Boise here, too. I haven't seen anything.

[zaira]

11 minutes ago, Sumire11 said:

I hope you'll keep on writing. Best of luck!

Oh absolutely! I'll never stop writing. Next step will be the query trenches if the MFA doesn't happen. Can't wait to replace my MFA rejections with agent rejections, let's gooooo! 

[gradschoolpspspsps]

37 minutes ago, everything bagel lover said:

Congratulations on the waitlists! That's quite a few and I've got my fingers crossed for you that one or more pan out!

Soft r means that acceptances and waitlists have already gone out for the school, but you haven't heard anything. This usually means that they haven't sent rejections out yet but you're 99.5% sure you're getting one. For example, Wyoming sent out acceptances and waitlists last week and I wasn't a recipient of either, so I'm assuming that the rejection letter will be forthcoming. I'm already counting it as a rejection even though they haven't explicitly told me that it is. Rejections tend to lag behind acceptance and waitlist notifs.

Thank you!! I was pretty sure that's what it meant, I'm just not sure which have gone out yet

16 minutes ago, Lady Gladys said:

I'm pretty sure Notre Dame notified, so that is probably an r. Still waiting to hear from Boise here, too. I haven't seen anything.

Okay, good to know, thank you! I thought Boise was still waiting. Maybe we'll hear today still. I'll mark Notre Dame as probably off. I was kinda hoping for that one, my little cousin just got in there for undergrad and it would've been so fun to be there with him. 

[glowingbrightly]

Just realized CU-Boulder is the only school I haven’t heard anything from…

[everything bagel lover]

1 minute ago, glowingbrightly said:

Just realized CU-Boulder is the only school I haven’t heard anything from…

What genre are you? Fiction and poetry notifications have gone out. I'd maybe check your spam or the portal directly. If there's nothing, you should reach out to the director. Or if you're CNF, idk what the call is because there's no data in the draft about CNF at Boulder.

[glowingbrightly]

3 minutes ago, everything bagel lover said:

What genre are you? Fiction and poetry notifications have gone out. I'd maybe check your spam or the portal directly. If there's nothing, you should reach out to the director. Or if you're CNF, idk what the call is because there's no data in the draft about CNF at Boulder.

Thanks, I’m poetry. I checked portal before posting and nothing. Idrc enough to contact them but it’s weird they haven’t sent anything. Are you sure rejections went out? It’s largely irrelevant to me now but think it’s possible they are holding back in case they have more openings than expected. 

[everything bagel lover]

1 minute ago, glowingbrightly said:

Thanks, I’m poetry. I checked portal before posting and nothing. Idrc enough to contact them but it’s weird they haven’t sent anything. Are you sure rejections went out? It’s largely irrelevant to me now but think it’s possible they are holding back in case they have more openings than expected. 

I'm fiction and I got a rejection, but now that I'm looking through the spreadsheet, it doesn't look like there's any poetry rejections so maybe you're on to something. Congratulations on Irvine btw!! 

[twelveyearoldrat]

1 hour ago, Lady Gladys said:

I'm pretty sure Notre Dame notified, so that is probably an r. Still waiting to hear from Boise here, too. I haven't seen anything.

ND is the only one i’m waiting on too (for fiction) and i was just curious if you saw that on draft (i’m not on draft) and haven’t seen anything on the results page that isn’t from last szn 

[Hjanep]

Anyone else daydreaming that there’s too much overlap on these “short” waitlists and these schools end up dipping into the R pile? No? Just me? Ok cool

[Lady Gladys]

20 minutes ago, twelveyearoldrat said:

ND is the only one i’m waiting on too (for fiction) and i was just curious if you saw that on draft (i’m not on draft) and haven’t seen anything on the results page that isn’t from last szn 

They did their interviews a few weeks ago. From what I understand, interviewees were finalists. I can't say for sure if I saw any acceptances on Draft after that.

[smallchange]

3 hours ago, Hjanep said:

Ok yes agree but I do just want to say. MBA is so helpful for understanding a lot of very applicable things regarding how the world works and it’s pretty broad in application. Definitely follow your dreams follow your passion etc. But if you’re thinking of maybe doing a different grad program, it’s one that is way less narrow than say law school or med school. And there is something deeply satisfying about going into an app cycle with a little more transparency around your odds based on GMAT. That being said, I’ll be seeing you all back here in the fall for round 3 of MFA apps but if I didn’t already have an MBA the NYU program would be interesting to me. 🤗

Looked into this and definitely sounded interesting but it seems to be for people who want to go into film producing. Sounds cool tho! USC has a similar program (business of cinematic arts) and I believe a new masters in the English department which is kind of the equivalent for publishing. 

this is real - have several friends going through the law school app process right now and it seems extremely stressful but there is something about knowing where you stand based on your numbers that sounds kind of nice after this experience. Definitely considering something a bit more career-oriented next time around (possibly journalism school) but I will also probably also see you here next fall …. the mfa dream is a hard one to crush. 

[pananoprodigy]

I see that Boise did poetry interviews in early Feb, but there are no reports for fiction. Last year's spreadsheet only shows interviews for poetry as well. Do we think they only interview poetry for some reason? i.e. as a fiction writer who didn't get an interview, should I count them as a soft r?

[writeordie]

Story time! In 2014, coming off my first nonfiction book, which was a labor of necessity (a topic I felt needed to be discussed, though I took limited joy in it), and feeling the urgent need to pursue fiction (My True Love^TM), I applied to 9 programs and a fellowship.

0a. 

For ten years thereafter, I studied craft on my own time, wrote stories, then a novella, then a novel, and then sections of two more--none of which I attempted to publish. I was learning and honing my practice. I knew I wasn't ready. I took workshops, and joined a writers group, and then a second; meanwhile, I worked in publishing to support my writing habit (lol), and of course, I continued to learn a great deal from editing and from reading voraciously. I did hella community work related to the stories I want to tell and the folks whose voices I want to champion, and I put out another nonfiction project.

The whole time, I knew I wanted to try again, but it was never the RIGHT time. Plus, my work is genre fiction, and niche, and tricky to pitch to literary fiction programs, so I knew the material had to be EPIC to land me a spot.

This season, I applied to 9 schools, and got One. Beautiful. Shining. Fully-funded. Offer. 

It wasn't the school I had initially expected to wind up at. But a funny thing happened that changed my feeling on that, and I am so INCREDIBLY grateful it did. 

One night, I was sweating the rejections and whether this school was right for me, and totally having an conniption over it, let's be real, and then I went to sleep and had a dream about [author who is head of a major department]. In it, we had lunch, and he extended his considerable wisdom and advice, and when I woke up, I felt weirdly peaceful. I remembered that this was about MENTORSHIP for me, and time to write, and I decided that if this school extended those things, then I was going to accept.

LO AND BEHOLD: That morning, I shit you not, the director of the program began to text me. They invited me to lunch. They, in fact, offered me a place to live near their own home, and the possibility of carpooling and gardening together. We talked about common interests and politics--of which we shared many--and in the end, I felt a sense of built-in community. I visited the school shortly thereafter, and let me tell you, that vibe was EVERYWHERE. The faculty spoke of my protagonist by name. They were excited to show me around, to work with me, to answer any question I had, to handle any administrative hurdle that might come my way. The first-years took me to lunch, told me where to hang out, texted me literary jokes, shared my aesthetic. 

Today, I was waiting to hear from Brown, like fucking everyone here (hug), and I decided I no longer needed to know. Though it's a dream school to basically everyone, there was no way they could offer me what the other school had: A feeling that I was going home to write. 

May everyone here hold out for that. I really hope you get to go home. ❤️