2026 Creative Writing MFA Applicants Forum

[itsgivingliterary]

24 minutes ago, goodoldneon said:

Waiting for Syracuse and University of Arizona's fiction results this week. Is that true that we could possibly start hearing from Iowa this weekend?

I'd guess iowa is gonna start calling people around friday. last year the first notification came I think on the 21st, and I got my waitlist a week later.

[girlwiththegreenribbon]

saw 2 NC state fiction acceptances on draft while mine is still under review on the portal. hoping it's because i'm waitlisted. 

[hermione granger]

super off topic from what everyone is worried about right now but does anyone have info on how selective UIUC is? or how many applicants they get a year?

[hermione granger]

1 hour ago, lizard in a blizzard said:

G name, Michener decision still in review, no acceptances (besides Screenwriting) in the draft. Don’t know how to feel about it.

they got all the way to my M name friend and seems S names here got denied so u may be spared so far afaik! good luck

[beellaas03]

anyone see anything on UC Riverside? I see some movement but mainly for screenwriting. Any poetry people got any news?

Edited February 17 by beellaas03

[mazzykitty]

anyone else with updates on michener (poetry)? i'm last name L and it still says in review for me. 

Edited February 17 by mazzykitty

[TBlack1697]

Wisconsin-Madison sent me a rejection email on Saturday.

NGL, kinda broke my heart as it was one of my top choices. 

Then, just a few minutes ago, I received a follow-up from them, flaunting an “urgent and important update had been made to my portal.”

I had flashes of the faculty sprinting out of their basement confines, robed and sleep-deprived, waving my previously disregarded application through the whipping, frigid Madison air as they collectively shouted, “WAIT, WE MADE A MISTAKE! WAIT, TBLACK1697, PLEASE DON’T GO!! WE LOVE YOU...WE NEED YOU! WAIT—”

With shaky hands, I clicked on the update, squinting my bloodshot eyes:

It was…still a rejection.

They just really wanted to hammer home that I didn’t get in.

For those struggling with rejections, I’m right there with you.

And, if it gives you any solace…

At least you weren’t rejected twice.

[impatientjoy]

Does anyone know if NC state alerts different genres on different days? I feel like I keep seeing only one genre w some schools 

[qlowy]

For Michener decisions: my application still says Complete / In Review when I go to the (new?) MyStatus portal.

But if I go to to OLD (?) MyStatus portal, that's where I found my decision (Denied).

Try here: https://utdirect.utexas.edu/apps/adm/mystatus/statuscheck/admission/00/

[mazzykitty]

thank you so much! i checked both portals, and i'm still in review 🥲 hopefully will get a notification soon. 

Edited February 17 by mazzykitty

[lizard in a blizzard]

5 minutes ago, mazzykitty said:

thank you so much! i checked both portals, and i'm still in review 🥲 hopefully will get a notification soon. 

Me too! Tortuous waiting.

[PLSSSSSSSSSSSSS]

Wanna melt waiting. I think New Writers Project threw out my APP bc they wanted A TRANSCRIPT FROM A COLLEGE I SPENT A WEEK AT that I did not have and like....would not take any explanations. Sad TBH. But who knows... maybe since it's a small SMALL thing it will be overlooked but the status says incomplete. got an offer from a non fully funded school which i wish was funded but ugh my life. and still waiting for ALL my other apps (8) to come back but think its a NO from JHU and prb Pitt. This is my first post and it says submit reply so i hope I'm just posting a post and not replying to someone's post (if I am i'm sorry) 

 

meow

[lisichka]

24 minutes ago, impatientjoy said:

Does anyone know if NC state alerts different genres on different days? I feel like I keep seeing only one genre w some schools 

it's hard to say! especially since no poetry acceptances were logged in the past two years. in 2023 fiction and poetry acceptances went out on the same day but at that time they were doing emails and now they do phone calls so the days could have changed too

[Walter Hartwell White]

43 minutes ago, impatientjoy said:

Does anyone know if NC state alerts different genres on different days? I feel like I keep seeing only one genre w some schools 

It feels like in general the poets are…missing for many schools? I’m an applicant for poetry. I know they said there was an unusual lack of poets in the group this year, which could either be less poets applying in general or less would even know about the Facebook group. But even still, there’s still some poets in the group. I feel like poetry updates have just been missing though. It gives me anxiety because if I knew one poet got in and I didn’t get a call yet I could at least start accepting I got rejected or something but then there’s nothing. Same thing happened with no pitt interview indicated for poetry. 

[precociousreader]

49 minutes ago, PLSSSSSSSSSSSSS said:

Wanna melt waiting. I think New Writers Project threw out my APP bc they wanted A TRANSCRIPT FROM A COLLEGE I SPENT A WEEK AT that I did not have and like....would not take any explanations. Sad TBH. But who knows... maybe since it's a small SMALL thing it will be overlooked but the status says incomplete. got an offer from a non fully funded school which i wish was funded but ugh my life. and still waiting for ALL my other apps (8) to come back but think its a NO from JHU and prb Pitt. This is my first post and it says submit reply so i hope I'm just posting a post and not replying to someone's post (if I am i'm sorry) 

 

meow

oh i feel that. i did dual enrollment in high school in !2017!!!! and so many schools still wanted the transcript (only a few accepted just my ACTUAL degree transcript where the classes are also listed, just as transferred in). it was two weeks of emails and phone calls because i didnt even have a student portal anymore (as it's been almost a decade and it was four classes), and my high school had to get involved. at this point i just tell high schoolers that dual enrollment is a waste of time (for more than just this reason) and they're better off taking AP courses...

 

[Walter Hartwell White]

12 minutes ago, precociousreader said:

oh i feel that. i did dual enrollment in high school in !2017!!!! and so many schools still wanted the transcript (only a few accepted just my ACTUAL degree transcript where the classes are also listed, just as transferred in). it was two weeks of emails and phone calls because i didnt even have a student portal anymore (as it's been almost a decade and it was four classes), and my high school had to get involved. at this point i just tell high schoolers that dual enrollment is a waste of time (for more than just this reason) and they're better off taking AP courses...

 

I can go on a rant about this. I mean, in some ways I think dual enrollment is great. However, when you go through a depressive episode at 16 years old and fail classes it’s not supposed to haunt you since it’s supposed to be just high school. However, dual enrolled makes it not just high school! It haunts you going to grad school! Ugh. There should be a rule anything dual enrolled or even AP shouldn’t really have to stay on a students record permanently if it went bad. Like I have a 3.96 gpa at my actual university I hate that I have to worry about if they’ll care about my community college gpa from when I was 16. Years. Old. 
 

edit: that’s why I feel like they need to be more careful in a way about dual enrollment. I don’t feel like the consequences of me messing up were as heavily stated as they could be besides a bad grade. 

Edited February 18 by Walter Hartwell White

[kiki.xoxo]

8 hours ago, Emblazonries said:

Accepted into George Mason! No funding info quite yet but super excited! Can't believe this is real. 

Did you get an email about your acceptance? I saw people posting about getting in and went to check my portal, and I was also accepted! I didn't receive any emails or phone calls about it, which I thought was odd.

[meanwhile]

On the topic of transcripts, I’m so worried that I don’t have a chance at Idaho. They wanted transcripts from the school I spent my first year at. 

Even though all credits were reported on the official transcripts from where I ended up getting my degree

My first school doesn’t do unofficial transcripts, so I had to order official ones and pay for them. No electronic ones, so had to get them mailed. 

My application wasn’t received by the department until EOD 2/10, nearly a month after applications closed. 

No other school had an issue (or told me they had one) with the transferred credits being reported on the other official transcript. 🥲

[redpanda77]

Any movement on New Writers Project or Texas State? Thanks!

[Emblazonries]

4 minutes ago, Kenzie222 said:

Did you get an email about your acceptance? I saw people posting about getting in and went to check my portal, and I was also accepted! I didn't receive any emails or phone calls about it, which I thought was odd.

Congrats potential future classmate! No email yet, no. Checked my portal because I saw someone on Draft had added theirs lol. Was poking around their website and found that we will probably be receiving a formal email in the coming days https://creativewriting.gmu.edu/graduate-program/faqs and funding to follow, fingers crossed! 

[kiki.xoxo]

6 hours ago, Bugg said:

Did anyone else apply to the University of Kentucky?

I applied for CNF

[crossingmyfingers1212]

has anyone else still not heard anything from michener

[gupppy]

Y’all I’m on the waitlists at JHU and Vanderbilt 😭 feeling blessed but also crazy. I know there’s no way to tell but does anyone know anecdotally of anyone who’s gotten into either school off the waitlist? Trying to get a better idea of what my chances are so I don’t lose hope 

[Jitterbug98]

16 minutes ago, gupppy said:

Y’all I’m on the waitlists at JHU and Vanderbilt 😭 feeling blessed but also crazy. I know there’s no way to tell but does anyone know anecdotally of anyone who’s gotten into either school off the waitlist? Trying to get a better idea of what my chances are so I don’t lose hope 

It definitely happens! Last year I remember people getting into Iowa, Michigan, and UVA off waitlists off the top of my head. Probably other top schools too, those are just the ones I remember. I mean, if you look at the draft spreadsheet, there are at least a few people who have gotten offers at multiple elite fully funded schools. They can only take one of those offers, so spots at the schools they turn down will open up! Since JHU and Vanderbilt both have smallish cohorts it does maybe lower the chances of getting in off the waitlist compared to a larger cohort, but it can still happen. Sometimes even if they don’t give you your rank on the waitlist upfront they’ll give it you if you ask (unless it says unranked in the email or they tell you not to ask, then definitely don’t do that.) And if one of those schools is your top choice, I’ve been told it can be in your favor to let them know especially if the waitlist isn’t ranked. Good luck— whatever happens, those waitlists are definitely something to be proud of  

Edited February 18 by Jitterbug98
Typo

[couscous4two]

Has there been any movement from UCI for fiction in draft? Crickets from them