2025 Creative Writing MFA Applicants Forum

[Cosmicinkwell]

Are we thinking WashU is just like... not doing an MFA this year? They're sooooo late. And I heard they might be affected by cuts.

[exvat]

6 minutes ago, Cosmicinkwell said:

Are we thinking WashU is just like... not doing an MFA this year? They're sooooo late. And I heard they might be affected by cuts.

I hate to imagine it, but it does seem likely that some MFA programs might get shut down completely in all this chaos. Hopefully nobody here would be affected. My coworker's hearing rumors that her own university's Clinical Psych grad program may get the ax, and I'm like... If therapist factories aren't even safe, then poet factories for sure aren't...

[Cosmicinkwell]

Just now, exvat said:

I hate to imagine it, but it does seem likely that some MFA programs might get shut down completely in all this chaos. Hopefully nobody here would be affected. My coworker's hearing rumors that her own university's Clinical Psych grad program may get the ax, and I'm like... If therapist factories aren't even safe, then poet factories for sure aren't...

Bleak...

[exvat]

12 minutes ago, Cosmicinkwell said:

Bleak...

I hope it doesn't happen, but the news is pretty bleak. The stuff going down at Penn is just awful.

[rapunzel]

so with the way things are shaping up it looks like i'm going to be seeing some of y'all again for next year's forum, so i wanted to reflect on the process this year (i'm a first time applicant) and thank y'all again for building such a supportive community!

i don't know if anyone else had a similar experience, but i think it's pretty common: going back to your sample submissions and cringing and thinking, i could definitely have done better. honestly if i learned anything from these past few months and from that cringe feeling it's that i don't think i was fully ready to apply this year, even though i might have thought i was back in november. of course we're all going to be improving in our writing for the rest of our lives, so that's not the best metric of whether or not we're "ready," but i think there's a point at which your improvement on your own kind of slows down and that's when something like an mfa is probably the most helpful. if i did get in somewhere this year, now that i have the chance to really reflect on all this, i don't know if i would be capable of making the best use of it. i have learned, though, that putting myself through the mfa (at least in the abstract) is still really important to me, and i'm hoping to push myself a lot more this year and assess whether or not i'm "ready" in the fall. 

anyway, thank you all for your support these past few months! there really is something about suffering in purgatory together

[prufrock_]

46 minutes ago, exvat said:

I hate to imagine it, but it does seem likely that some MFA programs might get shut down completely in all this chaos. Hopefully nobody here would be affected. My coworker's hearing rumors that her own university's Clinical Psych grad program may get the ax, and I'm like... If therapist factories aren't even safe, then poet factories for sure aren't...

Yeah, reading that article about Penn terrified me. I can't imagine quitting my job, breaking my lease, and getting ready to move just for the rug to be pulled last minute.

 

and it might happen at any time for the duration of the program.

[smallchange]

15 hours ago, Catpaw said:

I'd probably describe my genre as some kinda blend between psychological realism and surrealism as well—the two always end up muddled together in my fiction, I guess. I've been very interested in detailed character-work lately, whereas a few years earlier I think I was more focused on language and image.

(Also yes, agreed, I'm always curious what other people write, if others feel comfortable sharing! So if someone is reading this and is feeling inclined to share as well, please totally do so!)

Tbh your project sounds fascinating to me so I hope you keep working on your novel over the next months! I too have been too stressed recently to write much (for obvious reasons lol), but I'm also looking forward to writing in the next months without having to think about a deadline... Feels like such a luxury to contemplate, after grinding for months for these apps!

Thanks, you too! Agree about character-work; I'm a huge imagery person and used to do a lot of screenwriting, where dialogue and visuals do so much of the work. I guess I'm just growing into writing fiction honestly and figuring out how to do character-work in fiction is very different but (for me at least) way more rewarding. Would love to share work tbh if you're up for it - feel free to dm me. Sounds like we might have some stuff in common!

[womanonline]

i’m so ready to go to sleep so i can wake up and see if there’s any results tomorrow 

[snottlebie]

1 hour ago, exvat said:

I hate to imagine it, but it does seem likely that some MFA programs might get shut down completely in all this chaos. Hopefully nobody here would be affected. My coworker's hearing rumors that her own university's Clinical Psych grad program may get the ax, and I'm like... If therapist factories aren't even safe, then poet factories for sure aren't...

There is a google doc floating around on gradadmissions Reddit that lists schools that have frozen or reduced grad school admissions or certain programs. WashU is listed (in the unverified section of the document) as  pausing admissions from the School of Arts and Sciences, which would explain the delay. 

[rafikiman]

10 hours ago, Chex said:

Hi, I know you mean well but I urge you to reconsider posting those links here. There's a reason no one else has posted them before. It's a private group and the moderators explicitly asked that the links not be shared elsewhere. People fill out their data there with the understanding that access to it is closed and confidential. And since every member has access to in-group conversations/interactions and can reach out to the moderators to correct or confirm something, there's more internal trust, which makes the results there several degrees more reliable than, for instance, GradCafe's results page. You'll also notice that a few people filled out the form with their legal names. It's not cool to post that on a public page without their consent.

If the post you made here is approved, please consider editing the links out. And if you still want to privately share a link to someone who's not in the group, please only share the link to the view-only data, not the editable Google form. In that case, a DM would be better than a public post.

Gotcha, thanks for the heads up.

I hadn't thought about all of that. Won't be publishing the links

[Mystic_Sunshine]

5 hours ago, pananoprodigy said:

Dear MFA Gods: If I get into my top choice I vow to give anyone who asks me free notes on their SOPs and samples next cycle. 

So mote it be

So mote it be 

So mote it be

Can I claim this too?

MFA gods...pls

[DakotaSt]

I got a call today from West Virginia University letting me know i'm accepted for CNF! Its fully funded and am really excited that it is three years instead of two like some of the other places I have been admitted to. Has anyone heard anything, good or bad, about WVU's program? I'm trying to get as much info as I can and would love to hear others experience there. 

[KennyK]

1 hour ago, snottlebie said:

There is a google doc floating around on gradadmissions Reddit that lists schools that have frozen or reduced grad school admissions or certain programs. WashU is listed (in the unverified section of the document) as  pausing admissions from the School of Arts and Sciences, which would explain the delay. 

@snottlebie was Notre Dame on there? Are you able to check for please?🥺 

[everything bagel lover]

7 minutes ago, KennyK said:

@snottlebie was Notre Dame on there? Are you able to check for please?🥺 

I know you didn't at me, but I just found it and they're not on there. A lot of stuff targeted is in the sciences (which is scary), but it doesn't seem to be affecting MFA or arts programs generally other than WashU St Louis because it's their whole Arts & Science program. Some programs are having their whole grad programs targeted like Penn. You can find the spreadsheet pretty easily if you go to the gradadmissions subreddit.

Also, CONGRATS @DakotaSt!!! ❤️ 

[exvat]

17 minutes ago, DakotaSt said:

I got a call today from West Virginia University letting me know i'm accepted for CNF! Its fully funded and am really excited that it is three years instead of two like some of the other places I have been admitted to. Has anyone heard anything, good or bad, about WVU's program? I'm trying to get as much info as I can and would love to hear others experience there. 

Woohoo! Congrats! 🎉

[Lady Gladys]

20 minutes ago, KennyK said:

@snottlebie was Notre Dame on there? Are you able to check for please?🥺 

Notre Dame's program isn't undergoing any changes.