2026 Creative Writing MFA Applicants Forum

[greenleaf]

31 minutes ago, thrifty3 said:

does anyone have insight/experience on why programs wait to deliver rejections until a while after acceptances/waitlists go out? 

understandably, there is a lot of movement with waitlists and acceptances, but (correct me if i am wrong) a rejection seems set in stone. so what is the rationale behind waiting to send them?

i don't have insight/experience, but i surmise it has something to do with early responses for acceptances/waitlists, especially if they're smaller programs... like they hope that after some initial responses they can offer some WLers accepted spots and move folks at the top of the rejection pile onto the WL, knowing that april 15th is a big movement day and wanting to have enough candidates in case they need them. 

i have no data to back this up but its what i imagine

[guntherpingu]

47 minutes ago, thrifty3 said:

does anyone have insight/experience on why programs wait to deliver rejections until a while after acceptances/waitlists go out? 

understandably, there is a lot of movement with waitlists and acceptances, but (correct me if i am wrong) a rejection seems set in stone. so what is the rationale behind waiting to send them?

I read somewhere that some programs have to wait for the graduate school to approve the rejections and/or the graduate school wants results posted in a very specific order.

And yes, I also think that some schools wait on rejections so they can have an emergency pool to pull from (the secret waitlist, I've heard it called), but like greenleaf, I also can't back this up with evidence.

[carr98]

This is my first year applying to anything-- will someone please tell me what draft is and where to find it?

I have one wait list and a bunch of rejections, and I guess the rest are probably rejections, but if there's another place to check I'd like to be able to check.

[guntherpingu]

1 minute ago, carr98 said:

This is my first year applying to anything-- will someone please tell me what draft is and where to find it?

I have one wait list and a bunch of rejections, and I guess the rest are probably rejections, but if there's another place to check I'd like to be able to check.

It's a group on Facebook where people post/share their results along with a google sheets link that displays the data. If you don't have a fb, you can make a fake one and then request to join. Search "mfa draft" on fb and you'll find it!

[thrifty3]

@guntherpingu @greenleaf thank you both for your thoughts! i had not thought about it like this so that helps!

[greenleaf]

received my penultimate response, another rejection. nyu, its on you... you know where to find me.......

[Nnenna14]

3 hours ago, rumi77 said:

Someone be real with me. 1 Brown fiction acceptance on Sunday posted to Draft. Should I give up hope if I haven't heard back yet

I don’t think you should because that one notification is a bit off to me. Firstly, sending acceptances on a Sunday is kinda odd, especially for Brown. Second, Brown isn’t known to stagger their responses at days intervals. It’s been two working days since that acceptance and still crickets. Usually, waitlists and acceptances go out about the same time, and rejections follow shortly after—same day or next day (I know because I was high on the wait list last year. Also, notice that poetry notifications this year followed this pattern). I’ll say until you get a response from them, still hold on to that delulu. Just saying. 

Edited March 10 by Nnenna14

[lisichka]

got my UW-seattle rejection 💔 that's the end of the line for me, so I'll see those of you who will be applying again later this year! 🫶

[rumi77]

1 minute ago, Nnenna14 said:

I don’t think you should because that one notification is a bit off to me. First off, sending acceptances on a Sunday is odd, especially for Brown. Second, Brown isn’t known to stagger their responses at days intervals. It’s been two working days since that acceptance and still crickets. Usually, waitlists and acceptances go out about the same time, and rejections follow shortly after—same day or next day (I know because I was high on the wait list last year. Also, notice that poetry notifications this year followed this pattern). I’ll say until you get a response from them, still hold on to that delulu. 

I will hold on to the delulu🥹🥹🥹

Fingers crossed 🤞❤️

[lizard in a blizzard]

34 minutes ago, Nnenna14 said:

I don’t think you should because that one notification is a bit off to me. Firstly, sending acceptances on a Sunday is kinda odd, especially for Brown. Second, Brown isn’t known to stagger their responses at days intervals. It’s been two working days since that acceptance and still crickets. Usually, waitlists and acceptances go out about the same time, and rejections follow shortly after—same day or next day (I know because I was high on the wait list last year. Also, notice that poetry notifications this year followed this pattern). I’ll say until you get a response from them, still hold on to that delulu. Just saying. 

wait this is tea

[impatientjoy]

Can someone let Montana know I’m having a tough day & good news from them would really help? 🙃

[marsmentality]

1 hour ago, lisichka said:

got my UW-seattle rejection 💔 that's the end of the line for me, so I'll see those of you who will be applying again later this year! 🫶

I'll be here!

[BowelMovement]

am I tweaking or are Columbia decisions unusually late this cycle

[frootkoops36]

I’m so down bad, I applied to 5 schools total honestly bc I didn’t want to move to the east coast (I help my family financially and have young sisters who I want to stay by) so I applied all to Pacific Northwest schools. Got rejected from 3, and 1 acceptance from a partially funded school (a 10k fellowship, but tuition is like 50k bc it’s a private school…) and I’m waiting on my last school. 
 

I know I could wait another cycle but I also am one of those people who thinks money comes and goes lol and it’s worth the trouble, but I’m also 24 years old and naive at times so I need advice. I feel like I worked my ass off the past two gap years that I took after getting rejected across the board right out of undergrad, so I’m feeling sort of defeated. Maybe I’m a brat because I got 1 acceptance and I should be content w that, but I’m struggling to accept the financial situation. I’m low income and first gen so fml!!!! 

[greenleaf]

25 minutes ago, frootkoops36 said:

I’m so down bad, I applied to 5 schools total honestly bc I didn’t want to move to the east coast (I help my family financially and have young sisters who I want to stay by) so I applied all to Pacific Northwest schools. Got rejected from 3, and 1 acceptance from a partially funded school (a 10k fellowship, but tuition is like 50k bc it’s a private school…) and I’m waiting on my last school. 
 

I know I could wait another cycle but I also am one of those people who thinks money comes and goes lol and it’s worth the trouble, but I’m also 24 years old and naive at times so I need advice. I feel like I worked my ass off the past two gap years that I took after getting rejected across the board right out of undergrad, so I’m feeling sort of defeated. Maybe I’m a brat because I got 1 acceptance and I should be content w that, but I’m struggling to accept the financial situation. I’m low income and first gen so fml!!!! 

hi frootkoops. i feel you: im 25, my 1 acceptance is not funded, and i'm waiting on 1 school (prob rejection, not fully funded if i do get in). i don't have wise advice to give but i do have my perspective given my similar sitch.

i feel i'm most likely to apply another cycle (whether its this fall or next yr) to keep aiming for a fully funded program. i plan to spend more time identifying programs that have the best fit for my writing and make sure i feel proud of every single poem in my sample. i plan to become accountable to some sort of writing community (i saw someone posted a discord in the fb group i might join). at the very best, it means a fully-funded acceptance. at the very least, it makes my writing better, both for having spent the time to read works by profs in mfas and having crafted a better sample, and i'll feel a sense of pride for seeing growth (i hope). somewhere in between, it might mean publications or new connections.

i'm not in a financial situation where i can easily say yes to an unfunded program. i believe money comes and goes but not that much money! i don't want to feel like i'm paying off this decision for the rest of my life. and considering i made the decision to apply late in the game and went mostly off of cities i thought were cool when selecting programs, i know i can be much more intentional in another cycle than i was with this one.

if you decide not to go to your accepted program, i'd encourage you not to think of the time between undergrad and the mfa as gap years. you're living life, you're writing, you're gaining material to write with. these years aren't a gap between degrees, they're life happening here and now! put yourself in situations that stimulate writing. i also wonder if there are any more schools in the PNW (or nearby, like california) that are funded that you could consider

Edited March 10 by greenleaf
added quote

[quetza1e5]

23 minutes ago, frootkoops36 said:

I’m so down bad, I applied to 5 schools total honestly bc I didn’t want to move to the east coast (I help my family financially and have young sisters who I want to stay by) so I applied all to Pacific Northwest schools. Got rejected from 3, and 1 acceptance from a partially funded school (a 10k fellowship, but tuition is like 50k bc it’s a private school…) and I’m waiting on my last school. 
 

I know I could wait another cycle but I also am one of those people who thinks money comes and goes lol and it’s worth the trouble, but I’m also 24 years old and naive at times so I need advice. I feel like I worked my ass off the past two gap years that I took after getting rejected across the board right out of undergrad, so I’m feeling sort of defeated. Maybe I’m a brat because I got 1 acceptance and I should be content w that, but I’m struggling to accept the financial situation. I’m low income and first gen so fml!!!! 

I will say, I encountered this scenario last year (east coast edition) with Emerson. Beforehand, I was acquainted with some of the students and professors in the program and when I asked for their thoughts, they essentially re-iterated don't pay for an MFA. I would agree. A single credit at Emerson is about as much as I make in a month presently, the degree would never pay itself off, and any student loans would be substantial and I'm not exactly comforted by the state of student loans in the US, especially now. This is my second cycle applying to Emerson along with other fully funded programs and if I have a similar cycle to last year, I'm probably just going to apply again in the hopes of full funding and perhaps try for other writing opportunities in the interim. 

[martysupreme]

39 minutes ago, frootkoops36 said:

I’m so down bad, I applied to 5 schools total honestly bc I didn’t want to move to the east coast (I help my family financially and have young sisters who I want to stay by) so I applied all to Pacific Northwest schools. Got rejected from 3, and 1 acceptance from a partially funded school (a 10k fellowship, but tuition is like 50k bc it’s a private school…) and I’m waiting on my last school. 
 

I know I could wait another cycle but I also am one of those people who thinks money comes and goes lol and it’s worth the trouble, but I’m also 24 years old and naive at times so I need advice. I feel like I worked my ass off the past two gap years that I took after getting rejected across the board right out of undergrad, so I’m feeling sort of defeated. Maybe I’m a brat because I got 1 acceptance and I should be content w that, but I’m struggling to accept the financial situation. I’m low income and first gen so fml!!!! 

I know it doesn't feel like it right now, but 24 is SO young. You have SO much time. I mean this in the least patronizing way possible. I'm only 28 now, but it astounds me how much i've read, learned, and grown in the past four years alone, and it's just barely the tip of the iceberg. Don't saddle yourself with debt and rush into paying for an MFA because you feel like it's the best option that'll ever come into your life. It's not true! You have so many more opportunities coming your way. Just keep focusing on writing and reading as much as you can. It's so corny, but the best really is yet to come. You'll see!

[spg_]

hi all, long-time lurker who just made an account here, as it looks like I'm likely once again out of luck. I applied last cycle and this cycle for fiction to a fairly limited number of schools (6 and 5) for location reasons, and am staring down the possibility of another year without any acceptances. I am a poet in addition to a fiction writer, and I'm considering applying next year in poetry instead of fiction. I know there's a lot fewer poets in the spreadsheet than fiction writers, but my question is if that comes with a corresponding level of fewer spots at programs--ie, are the odds roughly the same? Or would I have better odds applying for poetry?

[frootkoops36]

7 minutes ago, martysupreme said:

I know it doesn't feel like it right now, but 24 is SO young. You have SO much time. I mean this in the least patronizing way possible. I'm only 28 now, but it astounds me how much i've read, learned, and grown in the past four years alone, and it's just barely the tip of the iceberg. Don't saddle yourself with debt and rush into paying for an MFA because you feel like it's the best option that'll ever come into your life. It's not true! You have so many more opportunities coming your way. Just keep focusing on writing and reading as much as you can. It's so corny, but the best really is yet to come. You'll see!

This is helpful, sometimes I forget that I maybe am young ??? lol. That sounds dumb but I guess I feel older than I am due to certain experiences/circumstances. Everyone’s advice was super helpful though in saying that maybe paying for an MFA isn’t a great idea. I might even just look for some job opportunities having to do with creative writing specifically to get some more peer review and experience in that regard. I appreciate this.  

[martysupreme]

10 minutes ago, frootkoops36 said:

This is helpful, sometimes I forget that I maybe am young ??? lol. That sounds dumb but I guess I feel older than I am due to certain experiences/circumstances. Everyone’s advice was super helpful though in saying that maybe paying for an MFA isn’t a great idea. I might even just look for some job opportunities having to do with creative writing specifically to get some more peer review and experience in that regard. I appreciate this.  

Look into creating your own writers group with similarly minded peers who are looking to workshop their writing. Another option is online workshops through places like GrubStreet, Center for Fiction, or Lighthouse. All of these offered financial assistance, and I found them really helpful for getting my sample together.Jess also does an MFA bootcamp over the summer both for first time applicants and those who are reapplying.  

Edited March 10 by martysupreme

[arghgradapps]

confused why Brown didn't do rejections today? (fiction). I'm sure it's coming my way but still 

[strawberrymatcha]

I really wish schools didn’t have to send out rejection emails twice lol (once with an email and once with a portal update)

[arghgradapps]

7 minutes ago, strawberrymatcha said:

I really wish schools didn’t have to send out rejection emails twice lol (once with an email and once with a portal update)

your username is making me really want a strawberry matcha. 

[strawberrymatcha]

10 minutes ago, arghgradapps said:

your username is making me really want a strawberry matcha. 

haha real! gotta treat yourself during this process🥲

[imgonnapuke]

8 hours ago, greenleaf said:

if nyu accepts 20-30 per genre per their website, and there are only six poetry acceptances in the draft, lets say anywhere from 100-150% of that off draft, then there's still a chance there's a handful of poetry acceptances still to go out...? i feel like i'm in a state of mind between that confused lady with the floating equations meme and that red-faced guy with the conspiracy theory board meme

update from the nyu event today:

deborah landau said they accepted 24 poetry, 24 fiction, 12 cnf but according to some notes on draft they're still sending out acceptances..."NYU admin has said they're not done with sending out acceptances and waitlists yet! (heard this separately from 2 current NYU MFA students 🙂)"

another person on draft said they got accepted yesterday, so looks like they're continuing to send off offers as people decline/more spaces become available