If I knew then what I know now...

[feralgrad]

Reviving this.

I wish I had put more emphasis on applying to schools with good funding. Everyone says "don't pay for an MFA," but it took me months to internalize this advice; I was naive and assumed this didn't apply to me because I have no undergrad debt. It wasn't until I started crunching numbers that I realized how overwhelming grad school debt would be.

That said, I think many MFA folks on GC place too much emphasis on only applying to funded programs, which tend to be extremely competitive. I picked schools based on geography, which meant I applied to both small private schools and large public schools. I ended up getting into three, and two were private schools with very little funding. I got a fellowship offer from one, but it wouldn't have been enough to save me from $40k in debt. The third school is a large research institution that funds most (but not all) of its students. They haven't released funding decisions yet, and if they choose not to fund me I'll have to apply again next year. Knowing what I know now, I would have applied to more state schools. Most of them have decent funding while being way less competitive.

[avidnote]

On 6/14/2018 at 10:59 AM, laekkauai said:

I wish I had known that GRE's don't really mean much, even for highly ranked programs.

I was aiming for a set score to make up for my transition from social sciences to STEM, so retook it a second time and scored exactly the same, and actually lower on AW. I wasted that time and money, which could have been dedicated to other things like my applications, my actual job, or even my hobbies.

Applied to three schools (not that rankings matter, but to emphasize my point on GREs not meaning the world, one was  ranked top 10, one is in the top 5) and somehow was still admitted with varying levels of funding from 25% to 100% at all programs. I honestly now think SOP (how your research interests fit with the program), and strong, diverse letters of rec matter the most. 

Also wished I applied to some fellowships prior, even if i wasnt confident, to at least try to see if additional funding was possible.

You live and you learn. I think I could write volumes of things that I wish I knew at the time before I started grad school. We have to remember to roll with our choices as well and not get stuck in the past

[DrClinPsyAdvice]

hey, APA has a new series to guide people through the grad application process step by step.  Here's the first video: https://youtu.be/wyHRnnS0MWQ

[DrClinPsyAdvice]

here's part 2 on how to write good personal statements:  https://youtu.be/2UZ8c7HY0N0