2026 Creative Writing MFA Applicants Forum

[impatientjoy]

2 hours ago, Spicy Potato said:

***manifesting news from NC State and UNCG for poetry***

NC state feels so confusing!! Part of me is starting to think they did already notify poetry acceptances / waitlists & just none of the people are on draft. The past data didn’t make it seem like they notified genres this far apart?? But I’m in the same boat wondering where they might be lol

[thrifty3]

anyone here apply to western washington university?

[badrattitude]

21 hours ago, spg_ said:

Anyone else waiting on UMD waitlists for fiction? Wondering if they haven't hit the spreadsheet or if I can still hold out hope, lol.

Hi! I just got my waitlist from UMD around 4PM EST. I'm not on the draft so I'm not sure if someone added to it yet. Best of luck to you

[imgonnapuke]

19 hours ago, womanonline said:

You're welcome and thank you! I hope you get good news too!! And last intel is that the portal still isn't updated; I just checked. Looks the same as it did before. I'll probably give it a day or so.

Should I email him back now or wait until tomorrow?? Seems late for an email, but he emailed me at like 7:30 p.m. his time lol

ahhhhh .... as of now youre the only columbia on the draft .... biting my nails!!!

[spg_]

14 minutes ago, badrattitude said:

Hi! I just got my waitlist from UMD around 4PM EST. I'm not on the draft so I'm not sure if someone added to it yet. Best of luck to you

Ah congrats!! Seems like a likely no for me then. Just leaves Brown fiction to be delusional about, lol 🫠

[impatientjoy]

Just realized all the schools I’m waiting on go on spring break next week lol surely they will notify ppl beforehand??

[badrattitude]

4 minutes ago, spg_ said:

Ah congrats!! Seems like a likely no for me then. Just leaves Brown fiction to be delusional about, lol 🫠

I’m waiting to hear back from Brown too. Lets be delusional together!! 

[arghgradapps]

did any other Rutgers-Camden waitlisters get told they were in the "top section"? I want to be happy about this but I'm also thinking about the Temple waitlists on draft who all say they are high up lol. and I don't want to get my hopes up too much. 

[LBA]

just got my fifth poetry waitlist notification (not counting an interview). no acceptances yet. trying to remember it’s very competitive as I only applied to fully funded, and a waitlist is exciting, but feel pretty down as it was my last school to hear from (not counting the interview again). sigh- anyone have any positive waitlist stories?

[arghgradapps]

1 minute ago, LBA said:

just got my fifth poetry waitlist notification (not counting an interview). no acceptances yet. trying to remember it’s very competitive as I only applied to fully funded, and a waitlist is exciting, but feel pretty down as it was my last school to hear from (not counting the interview again). sigh- anyone have any positive waitlist stories?

i would also love to hear some positive waitlist stories

[matchasimsbury]

3 minutes ago, LBA said:

just got my fifth poetry waitlist notification (not counting an interview). no acceptances yet. trying to remember it’s very competitive as I only applied to fully funded, and a waitlist is exciting, but feel pretty down as it was my last school to hear from (not counting the interview again). sigh- anyone have any positive waitlist stories?

last year my friend got waitlisted at iowa mid-march and committed somewhere else bc she thought she wouldnt get in, and then she found out she got into iowa on april 17th and withdrew from the other program she committed to, so theres always hope!!! there's so much time from now until april for things to change! wishing you the best 🫶

[gupppy]

1 minute ago, matchasimsbury said:

last year my friend got waitlisted at iowa mid-march and committed somewhere else bc she thought she wouldnt get in, and then she found out she got into iowa on april 17th and withdrew from the other program she committed to, so theres always hope!!! there's so much time from now until april for things to change! wishing you the best 🫶

Ok I've been wondering about the possibility of hearing back from the places I'm waitlisted at after the April 15th deadline, when I have to commit to a program I've been accepted to. If I commit to that program, then I get an acceptance from a different one, am I able to withdraw my decision? Or does checking "yes" on a school's portal set my decision in stone in some way? 

[lisichka]

2 hours ago, impatientjoy said:

NC state feels so confusing!! Part of me is starting to think they did already notify poetry acceptances / waitlists & just none of the people are on draft. The past data didn’t make it seem like they notified genres this far apart?? But I’m in the same boat wondering where they might be lol

I'm also thinking nc state already notified since fiction and poetry waitlists went out on the same day last year, sigh

[matchasimsbury]

6 minutes ago, gupppy said:

Ok I've been wondering about the possibility of hearing back from the places I'm waitlisted at after the April 15th deadline, when I have to commit to a program I've been accepted to. If I commit to that program, then I get an acceptance from a different one, am I able to withdraw my decision? Or does checking "yes" on a school's portal set my decision in stone in some way? 

i'm pretty certain you can withdraw, you just won't get your deposit back!! for reference, my friend withdrew from nyu when she got into iowa. obviously every program is different, but i don't imagine it's set in stone. i think it makes sense for ppl to be notified of getting off waitlists after the april 15th deadline since thats when everyone is committing and declining other offers

[RABBITTEETH]

23 minutes ago, LBA said:

just got my fifth poetry waitlist notification (not counting an interview). no acceptances yet. trying to remember it’s very competitive as I only applied to fully funded, and a waitlist is exciting, but feel pretty down as it was my last school to hear from (not counting the interview again). sigh- anyone have any positive waitlist stories?

i made an account just so i could reply to this lol! hope i'm doing the reply thing right! i've been anxiously checking these forums for occasional bits of news regarding CW PhDs, as I already have an MFA, and i got in to my MFA program off a waitlist. these kinds of application seasons don't seem to get easier if you are a generally nervous person...

it was my first application season, i only applied to fully-funded programs, and things weren't looking great. i was rejected everywhere except for two waitlists. i was told by my profs to operate under the assumption that i wouldn't get in, so i did & i started interviewing for jobs and planning for next cycle. but then i got a call at the very end of march (might have even been early april?) from a prof at my top choice program that i had been accepted/moved off the waitlist! my program ended up having several people in both genres off the waitlist that year and i have had the best time there. i'm so glad i was picky with my applications, even if it made this season intensely harrowing. so hang in there! a waitlist is a great sign & you really never know for sure how much movement there will be. i'm rooting for you. 

Edited March 12 by RABBITTEETH

[Hank Moody]

58 minutes ago, badrattitude said:

I’m waiting to hear back from Brown too. Lets be delusional together!! 

Listen, statistically speaking, we're 99.95% going to get rejected from Brown anyway but I don't think it's delusional to be suspicious of that lone acceptance that was not followed by waitlists and rejections right after. Historically (and for poetry this year) Brown has followed that pattern. And for some reason I think there was a fake earlier Brown acceptance last year too.

Edited March 12 by Hank Moody

[gafoo]

30 minutes ago, LBA said:

just got my fifth poetry waitlist notification (not counting an interview). no acceptances yet. trying to remember it’s very competitive as I only applied to fully funded, and a waitlist is exciting, but feel pretty down as it was my last school to hear from (not counting the interview again). sigh- anyone have any positive waitlist stories?

Right there with you... Waitlisted at 3 programs, one of which is lowkey my dream nonfic program (ohio state!)🥲 Only thing that's keeping me going is that I connected with a current student who made it in mid-March last year off of the waitlist. It really does happen!

[LBA]

28 minutes ago, RABBITTEETH said:

i made an account just so i could reply to this lol! hope i'm doing the reply thing right! i've been anxiously checking these forums for occasional bits of news regarding CW PhDs, as I already have an MFA, and i got in to my MFA program off a waitlist. these kinds of application seasons don't seem to get easier if you are a generally nervous person...

it was my first application season, i only applied to fully-funded programs, and things weren't looking great. i was rejected everywhere except for two waitlists. i was told by my profs to operate under the assumption that i wouldn't get in, so i did & i started interviewing for jobs and planning for next cycle. but then i got a call at the very end of march (might have even been early april?) from a prof at my top choice program that i had been accepted/moved off the waitlist! my program ended up having several people in both genres off the waitlist that year and i have had the best time there. i'm so glad i was picky with my applications, even if it made this season intensely harrowing. so hang in there! a waitlist is a great sign & you really never know for sure how much movement there will be. i'm rooting for you. 

This is so nice :’) thank you for the encouragement. that’s amazing to hear it worked out for you, and I wish you the same luck with your PhD!

[lisichka]

8 hours ago, barnaclesandbees said:

*sigh* I figured. But when will they just put us out of our misery and send the "rejection" emails?? It's my last one and I want the closure

I assumed rejections would go out this week since people reported portal rejections on 3/10 last year, but my ut austin MyStatus page still says "in review"—it'll be soon!

[lusitania_unsunk]

1 hour ago, LBA said:

just got my fifth poetry waitlist notification (not counting an interview). no acceptances yet. trying to remember it’s very competitive as I only applied to fully funded, and a waitlist is exciting, but feel pretty down as it was my last school to hear from (not counting the interview again). sigh- anyone have any positive waitlist stories?

I'm in the same boat with three waitlists... If anyone gets off a waitlist in the coming weeks please make yourself known for the sake of all of our collective hope!

[barbou]

Any low-res applicants here? For various reasons I can't relocate, and I have the $ for a low-res program and have decided it's worth it to me (sorry for the defensive preamble, but sometimes it seems like Qs about low-res programs get derailed by everyone wanting to tell you why they're cynical cash grabs and only an idiot would consider them, and I really don't need that...maybe that's just on reddit though, lol). 

I've got six acceptances so far (fiction), pared down to four that I'm interested in, and am struggling to weigh them objectively - VFCA, Antioch, Sewanee, Bennington. I'm also waiting on three more schools, including Warren Wilson. 

VCFA, Antioch and Bennington offered scholarship $ - not a ton, but nice (although Antioch in particular I wonder about, from the draft spreadsheet it seems like everyone gets about the same amount even though they called it "competitive?")

Sewanee offered me a named scholarship that goes to just one person in each genre, 30% off tuition. That's so exciting to me, for the $ itself but also for what it means, that they really appreciate and understand my work and I'd fit well with the program...but I somehow missed when I applied that their once a year residency is 6 weeks. It's June 7 - July 17, and at a glance I parsed that as June 7 - JUNE 17 i.e. 10 days. Boy did I feel dumb when I realized (and I confessed this misunderstanding to the program director and now I keep imagining him pulling the offer since I have outed myself as an unserious person who can't read). I have two kids and leaving them for six weeks, such a large portion of their vacation, isn't really doable. I hadn't planned any care for them at that time cause I'm a stay at home parent. So we're at least considering all going down there, and having the kids in day camps (at least the younger one, they're 8 and 12) while I'm in class and my husband works remotely. That's a big thing to try to do, though, and not sure if it's "worth" it...also it's 3 years instead of 2, which I really like, but that means this question of how to manage the summer is something we'd be dealing with for 3 years. If I didn't have kids I'd be very into the idea of six weeks of study! Immersion! More time to get to know classmates and faculty! But that's not even to say "without the difficulty making the 6 weeks work, they'd be my top choice" - I'm not sure!

Bennington offered me deferred admission, for January 2027 (I can also ask to be on their waitlist for summer, and if that doesn't work I still have my spot for winter guaranteed). This hurt my ego at first - why aren't I good enough to be accepted with the rest of the summer people! But now that I've calmed down I'm thinking - maybe it would actually be good to go somewhere where I'm one of the not-as-talented people, so my classmates can really inspire and push me to get better?? I prefer to start this summer, but starting in winter wouldn't be the end of the world. Also, Claire Vaye Watkins teaches there. 

I won't go into what appeals to me about Antioch and VCFA as this is already long, but they both also seem really solid and I'm sure I'd get a lot out of either, and they told me what they liked about my work specifically and why it would be a good fit. Oh and Antioch would let me dabble in screenwriting which I've always been curious about. 

...And then there's Warren Wilson - not sure how likely I am to actually get in there, but based on results thus far I'm guessing pretty likely? Before I started actually applying, I thought "if I get into Warren Wilson I'll just go there, cause they're 'the best' - easy peasy." But now I'm thinking that was not the best way to think about it and I want to be more methodical about the decision...but still not sure how to make a choice that is actually right and not based on my admittedly often emotional reasoning! 

I did try to make a pro-con list, and Warren Wilson won that, but in large part because I listed all faculty at each school I'd be excited to work with, and assigned a point for each one, and WW has SO many great writers on faculty...but there too I second guess myself, cause there wouldn't even be enough time to study with all the ones I listed, and I also have no idea if they teach as well as they write!

Sorry for the very long post, what I'm looking for is any general feedback on how to choose between these places , and especially anyone who has specific experience or information about any of them. Thanks, and best of luck to everyone!!

[thrifty3]

20 hours ago, thrifty3 said:

uw prose applicants — someone on draft said they got an email saying uw hoped to release prose decisions within the next week or so. i applied for prose but didn’t get this email. any other uw seattle prose applicants get it? 

fyi the post ended up being a bit misleading but after the poster said that they sent an email asking about their own application status, it wasn’t an email sent to general applicants, just a personal response to their question

[SocialKonstruct]

1 hour ago, barbou said:

Any low-res applicants here? For various reasons I can't relocate, and I have the $ for a low-res program and have decided it's worth it to me (sorry for the defensive preamble, but sometimes it seems like Qs about low-res programs get derailed by everyone wanting to tell you why they're cynical cash grabs and only an idiot would consider them, and I really don't need that...maybe that's just on reddit though, lol). 

I've got six acceptances so far (fiction), pared down to four that I'm interested in, and am struggling to weigh them objectively - VFCA, Antioch, Sewanee, Bennington. I'm also waiting on three more schools, including Warren Wilson. 

VCFA, Antioch and Bennington offered scholarship $ - not a ton, but nice (although Antioch in particular I wonder about, from the draft spreadsheet it seems like everyone gets about the same amount even though they called it "competitive?")

Sewanee offered me a named scholarship that goes to just one person in each genre, 30% off tuition. That's so exciting to me, for the $ itself but also for what it means, that they really appreciate and understand my work and I'd fit well with the program...but I somehow missed when I applied that their once a year residency is 6 weeks. It's June 7 - July 17, and at a glance I parsed that as June 7 - JUNE 17 i.e. 10 days. Boy did I feel dumb when I realized (and I confessed this misunderstanding to the program director and now I keep imagining him pulling the offer since I have outed myself as an unserious person who can't read). I have two kids and leaving them for six weeks, such a large portion of their vacation, isn't really doable. I hadn't planned any care for them at that time cause I'm a stay at home parent. So we're at least considering all going down there, and having the kids in day camps (at least the younger one, they're 8 and 12) while I'm in class and my husband works remotely. That's a big thing to try to do, though, and not sure if it's "worth" it...also it's 3 years instead of 2, which I really like, but that means this question of how to manage the summer is something we'd be dealing with for 3 years. If I didn't have kids I'd be very into the idea of six weeks of study! Immersion! More time to get to know classmates and faculty! But that's not even to say "without the difficulty making the 6 weeks work, they'd be my top choice" - I'm not sure!

Bennington offered me deferred admission, for January 2027 (I can also ask to be on their waitlist for summer, and if that doesn't work I still have my spot for winter guaranteed). This hurt my ego at first - why aren't I good enough to be accepted with the rest of the summer people! But now that I've calmed down I'm thinking - maybe it would actually be good to go somewhere where I'm one of the not-as-talented people, so my classmates can really inspire and push me to get better?? I prefer to start this summer, but starting in winter wouldn't be the end of the world. Also, Claire Vaye Watkins teaches there. 

I won't go into what appeals to me about Antioch and VCFA as this is already long, but they both also seem really solid and I'm sure I'd get a lot out of either, and they told me what they liked about my work specifically and why it would be a good fit. Oh and Antioch would let me dabble in screenwriting which I've always been curious about. 

...And then there's Warren Wilson - not sure how likely I am to actually get in there, but based on results thus far I'm guessing pretty likely? Before I started actually applying, I thought "if I get into Warren Wilson I'll just go there, cause they're 'the best' - easy peasy." But now I'm thinking that was not the best way to think about it and I want to be more methodical about the decision...but still not sure how to make a choice that is actually right and not based on my admittedly often emotional reasoning! 

I did try to make a pro-con list, and Warren Wilson won that, but in large part because I listed all faculty at each school I'd be excited to work with, and assigned a point for each one, and WW has SO many great writers on faculty...but there too I second guess myself, cause there wouldn't even be enough time to study with all the ones I listed, and I also have no idea if they teach as well as they write!

Sorry for the very long post, what I'm looking for is any general feedback on how to choose between these places , and especially anyone who has specific experience or information about any of them. Thanks, and best of luck to everyone!!

Me. Probably going to Antioch as their faculty has been the most supportive of my writing. Plus I get to keep my day job here in LA.

[guntherpingu]

4 hours ago, LBA said:

just got my fifth poetry waitlist notification (not counting an interview). no acceptances yet. trying to remember it’s very competitive as I only applied to fully funded, and a waitlist is exciting, but feel pretty down as it was my last school to hear from (not counting the interview again). sigh- anyone have any positive waitlist stories?

In my program, there was always at least one or two people (myself included) who got in off the waitlist per year per genre. I would advise emailing your top program around the first week of April to reiterate your interest. I remember saying something like, "This program is my top choice and I would accept an admissions offer if one becomes available."

Good luck, and congrats on the waitlists!

[aveleana]

Created account just to ask this, but does anybody else have information on University of Guelph?

I saw one acceptance on here and one acceptance on Draft, both roughly mid February. Even scavenged through Draft and saw that only one other notification was recorded between the years 2023-2025. So I'm assuming only one/two people reported their acceptance this year?? And if I haven't heard back yet that means I was rejected?

I don't know, I'm going crazy. They were my number one choice and every other school I applied to has notified me of my rejection, but Guelph won't give me that closureee