2026 Creative Writing MFA Applicants Forum

[ojo534]

18 minutes ago, jka1024 said:

They aren't interested in you. Why can't you take the hint?

gradcafe trolling is like a whole new level of unemployed that i didnt even know existed and yet here we are

[taliaj]

Please ignore me if I'm being annoying but did anyone else hear from Missouri State? I'm going literally crazy.

[greenleaf]

22 hours ago, YH94 said:

I will say work+mfa was going to be my plan as someone who has roots and a life in NYC! Even with stipends, I find that the usual mfa yearly income cannot be livable in NYC at all without a support system. I believe someone else said if you plan on being here long-term then job-school balance is very likely to happen either way. 

As for Queens College itself, I think it gives you a really unique position to get a taste of many different genres (yes you can take a poetry class, but literary translation is such a selling point to me considering Queens is world's most linguistically diverse urban area~ not to mention their faculty in children's/YA lit and speculative fiction; they also encourage electives like Columbia but for a MASSIVE fraction of the cost). Access to other CUNY system classes, like at the CUNY Grad Center, was also a huge draw considering I work in edtech and would LOVE to write while also taking a digital humanities class. Overall, I applied to Queens because so much of my writing centers Greek-American experiences in the borough, and so I wanted access to their archives (Louis Armstrong museum, Queens Memory Project, Hellenic American Project, etc.). There are a lot of particulars that drew me to Queens, and so if I were you I would consider what exactly you're aiming to have access to while in the MFA. 

Additionally if you've not visited then distance might be a factor. Queens College is located about 2-miles from the subway and more accessible by bus. It's a bit of a hike depending on where in the city you'll be based/coming from for your evening classes. Is your job in Queens as well or one of the other boroughs? 

Finally, I'm not sure if you received the same but the acceptance email was also incredibly warm and personalized  I went to a reading on campus a few weeks back and got the chance to speak to a current poetry student, who then put me in contact with one of his professors who then put me in contact with an author I really enjoyed. The program seems like a welcoming community!

Thank you so much, this is super helpful! Honestly I'm very likely to accept the offer so hopefully we'll be there together in the fall 🙂

[itsgivingliterary]

welp. im in at mo state! and i have no idea what to do about it lol. that one thread on the facebook page is scary, but i...didn't have anything close to that experience. Mike seems like the real deal. ahhhhhhhh

[taliaj]

38 minutes ago, itsgivingliterary said:

welp. im in at mo state! and i have no idea what to do about it lol. that one thread on the facebook page is scary, but i...didn't have anything close to that experience. Mike seems like the real deal. ahhhhhhhh

Way to go! That's so exciting! I am so happy for you!!!!!! He seems very nice from our communications earlier in the Month. I'm almost tempted to reach out to him and ask about my status, but I really do not want to be annoying. But at this point it's like, what do I have to lose?

If you decide to go, I hope you enjoy it there!!!

[itsgivingliterary]

2 minutes ago, taliaj said:

Way to go! That's so exciting! I am so happy for you!!!!!! He seems very nice from our communications earlier in the Month. I'm almost tempted to reach out to him and ask about my status, but I really do not want to be annoying. But at this point it's like, what do I have to lose?

If you decide to go, I hope you enjoy it there!!!

thank you! im crossing my fingers for you. i don't think it'd be weird to reach out, especially considering how nontraditional their app season has been.

[taliaj]

7 minutes ago, itsgivingliterary said:

thank you! im crossing my fingers for you. i don't think it'd be weird to reach out, especially considering how nontraditional their app season has been.

I just got an email (crazy timing haha) that I'm waitlisted. Not sure if good or bad news at this point, but I'll take it!

[itsgivingliterary]

7 minutes ago, taliaj said:

I just got an email (crazy timing haha) that I'm waitlisted. Not sure if good or bad news at this point, but I'll take it!

omg yay!!!! congratulations!

[taliaj]

18 minutes ago, itsgivingliterary said:

omg yay!!!! congratulations!

Thanks! I'm really wanting it to work out but idk. Waitlists are 50-50 lol

[bluecarpet]

last rejection in. damn i really applied to all that thinking i had a chance. feel stupid for it now... what a waste

[mouthfullofmercury]

Rejected from UW-Madison waitlist, cohort was finalized on 4/15. Still haven't heard a peep from WVU (Fiction) waitlist, fingers crossed folks or see y'all in the next cycle!

Edited April 18 by mouthfullofmercury

[taliaj]

Anyone else still in the trenches?

[axolotlish]

28 minutes ago, taliaj said:

Anyone else still in the trenches?

Yep still waitlisted. Should know by May 1st. Zero expectations it will actually happen though.

[mouthfullofmercury]

 

41 minutes ago, taliaj said:

Anyone else still in the trenches?

Yup, I sent an e-mail to WVU Fiction for a waitlist update and haven't heard back yet! 

[taliaj]

12 minutes ago, axolotlish said:

Yep still waitlisted. Should know by May 1st. Zero expectations it will actually happen though.

Oooh where at?

[axolotlish]

11 minutes ago, taliaj said:

Oooh where at?

NCSU poetry.

[taliaj]

16 minutes ago, mouthfullofmercury said:

 

Yup, I sent an e-mail to WVU Fiction for a waitlist update and haven't heard back yet! 

I hope today is your day!!

[taliaj]

6 minutes ago, axolotlish said:

NCSU poetry.

Good luck!!!

[bucket]

1 hour ago, taliaj said:

Anyone else still in the trenches?

yes!!!! ugh!!!! was told i’m at the top of the waitlist and the director said if i can hold off on any other decisions she may have good news for me in the next “few days,” but that was on the 15th😭😭😭😭😭 i’m dying 

[axolotlish]

9 minutes ago, taliaj said:

Good luck!!!

You, too!

[taliaj]

9 minutes ago, bucket said:

yes!!!! ugh!!!! was told i’m at the top of the waitlist and the director said if i can hold off on any other decisions she may have good news for me in the next “few days,” but that was on the 15th😭😭😭😭😭 i’m dying 

Oh man, that's so nerve wracking! I hope you hear back soon!

[jka0124]

Anyone hear anything good yesterday?
 

Mojo for those of you waiting!! I’d need an old priest, a young priest, and a Xanax. The wait is so stressful! 

[taliaj]

27 minutes ago, jka0124 said:

Anyone hear anything good yesterday?
 

Mojo for those of you waiting!! I’d need an old priest, a young priest, and a Xanax. The wait is so stressful! 

Nothing yet!!! The waiting is killinggggggggggggg me. I know I likely won't hear anything until next week, but hey,a  girl can hope, right?

[commandercowboy]

I have a question for everyone...  how important is prestige? At this point, I've been admitted to a couple programs... most are on the smaller side and aren't super well-known (at least from my perspective), but I just got accepted off the waitlist at one of the smaller programs that would offer full funding + stipend and a lot of financial security because it's in a much smaller, less expensive area. However, I've been accepted to a program that (again, from my perspective) has a pretty hefty "label" BUT... the catch is that I would def have to take out loans to pay the rent/afford cost of living in the city it's in. I was offered a full tuition fellowship there for the entire duration of the program, but they don't give stipends to anyone so... no stipend. I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place (that I'm very lucky to be stuck in, I'll say!), but I would love advice. Extra context: I'm in poetry, and I want to be a professor in the future. 

[barbou]

1 hour ago, commandercowboy said:

I have a question for everyone...  how important is prestige? At this point, I've been admitted to a couple programs... most are on the smaller side and aren't super well-known (at least from my perspective), but I just got accepted off the waitlist at one of the smaller programs that would offer full funding + stipend and a lot of financial security because it's in a much smaller, less expensive area. However, I've been accepted to a program that (again, from my perspective) has a pretty hefty "label" BUT... the catch is that I would def have to take out loans to pay the rent/afford cost of living in the city it's in. I was offered a full tuition fellowship there for the entire duration of the program, but they don't give stipends to anyone so... no stipend. I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place (that I'm very lucky to be stuck in, I'll say!), but I would love advice. Extra context: I'm in poetry, and I want to be a professor in the future. 

If you were talking about the relative prestige of two programs where you had similar offers in terms of funding, etc, I wouldn’t be any help. But I feel qualified to say that no prestige is worth taking out loans, esp since you have the chance to do it funded! Hoping to become a professor - think about how tight and low-paying the academic job market is - if you have these payments hanging over you, now you’re dealing with questions like "can I afford to take this or that job and make my loan payments?" What if you find a job in a high cost of living area - now you’re dealing with the calculus of COL plus loan payment; maybe you have to live far away from campus because you can’t swing a decent place near campus along with loan payments, and you’re either spending a ton of time commuting or now maybe you need a car which could negate the cost savings of living farther away…and with all the stress of cobbling things together to make ends meet, how much energy will you have left for your own writing? Everything gets that much harder, on a career path that is already fairly challenging. [sorry if this is all a given and didn’t need spelling out in detail - it’s just, as someone who recently finished paying off loans from the first time I went to grad school, I think we all know generally that having to pay loans will suck, but until you’ve lived it it’s hard to truly grasp what it’s like to have to factor that payment so heavily into your life for so long, both when you’re starting out but also eight years down the road when you’re making more money, but now you have - just as a for instance - a kid in daycare and another kid who wants to take gymnastics, and you also need a bigger place to house them, but Ope you’re still paying that loan…]

Anyway, I’ve not yet started my program and I’m planning to pay myself (no loans!!) for a low-res one, so maybe what do I know, but my stepdad has taught for decades at a well regarded and fully funded writing program, so I’ve heard a lot about the hiring decisions - the strength of your publications is what will open doors. You may get a little "ooh they went to X School?" boost, but it’s lower on the list of what makes you attractive. Also, some people will be impressed by it, and some won’t care (and who knows, a big name school can work against - will some people assume you’re elitist because you went there?) so it’s really unquantifiable - whereas taking a loan effectively ties a cinder block (of a size you can quantify) around your ankle once you graduate…IMO the gamble of "will the school name counteract the cinder block" is too risky.

I guess this depends somewhat on how much you’d need to take out to cover living expenses…maybe it won’t be as horrible to pay back as my loans were. Then again, my first career was also more lucrative and stable than academia. I’d still be cautious though - another hard to quantify question is, how much will the thought of relying on loans stress you while in the program? Like, if you’re holding yourself to a shoestring budget to take out as small a loan as possible, does the stress of watching the $, thinking about whether you’ll take out the same amount next year or will you need more, etc, hamper your creativity? What if a lack of financial stress gives you the mental space to do your best possible work?
 

Anyway I’ll stop now, I’m kind of like a demon who is summoned anytime someone is pondering whether student loans are "worth it" - on paper, mine actually were worth it, but paying them back still made me feel stifled and resentful - just saying, even if the prestige delivers, you may still wish you’d done it differently.