Fall 2017 MFA

[Sleam]

9 hours ago, sonja johanson said:

Anybody have thoughts about Warren Wilson vs VCFA? They both sound so great, and I think the low res model will be the best thing for me, given life/work/family. Advice most welcome.

 

No direct experience but I applied to VCFA as they said they were still taking applications. I like the faculty and location better plus it has a great reputation. 

[Pencils]

Hello. Delurking. Thanks to everyone who has posted throughout this process. It's not easy. I appreciate the moral support.

Question for the Draft crowd: There was a GradCafe fiction acceptance this week from St. Mary's in CA. Anyone see decisions in poetry? Generally, does anyone have impressions or experience with this program? I'm interested in the faculty,  still waiting to hear . . . 

Same for California College of the Arts or Mills? I'm hoping they haven't finished notifying acceptances. Feels like this is taking forever. 

[sonja johanson]

2 hours ago, Sleam said:

No direct experience but I applied to VCFA as they said they were still taking applications. I like the faculty and location better plus it has a great reputation. 

I will say that they have been incredibly welcoming throughout the application process - they have made me feel that I am wanted in the community, as opposed to lucky to get in there. Just going by acceptance rates WW is much more selective, but that's not everything, to be certain.

[romola]

1 hour ago, sonja johanson said:

I will say that they have been incredibly welcoming throughout the application process - they have made me feel that I am wanted in the community, as opposed to lucky to get in there. Just going by acceptance rates WW is much more selective, but that's not everything, to be certain.

I've had the same experience with VCFA. A very warm, welcoming program. 

@sonja johanson, where are acceptance rates posted?

[Sleam]

3 hours ago, romola said:

I've had the same experience with VCFA. A very warm, welcoming program. 

@sonja johanson, where are acceptance rates posted?

Patersons? Petersons? A scholarship website. 

[Three21]

@outflare looking for other posters considering Columbia, thoughts? I think you mentioned it!

[badeyebrows]

22 hours ago, Sleam said:

Patersons? Petersons? A scholarship website. 

That's interesting, I'm just seeing Peterson's for the first time. Surprised I didn't stumble upon it earlier in my research. I wonder where they get the acceptance rate data? If it's self-reported from the schools? I'm guessing they pull it from some other source. I've been wondering about my chances at a low-res program, since there's so little data out there compared to what you can find about traditional programs. I'm going to be applying regardless, but after the rejection this past season, it's a little hard to stomach the idea of even more rejection so soon.

Also @Sleam, to follow up on our previous conversation, I'm planning to apply this summer for the winter/spring 2018 term at a number of schools, and right now my list includes Antioch, Pacific, Stonecoast, Spalding and Goucher. Might add VCFA to the list but I haven't researched them as thoroughly. I'm planning to cast a wider net when I only applied to two high-res programs last fall (I'm also going to be much more prepared, since I only decided last October that I'd apply for those two high-res programs, which was uh... pretty late in the game.)

[sonja johanson]

On 3/25/2017 at 5:13 PM, Sleam said:

Patersons? Petersons? A scholarship website. 

Yes, Peterson's. Google "MFA Warren Wilson (or whatever program you want) Peterson's" and you should easily get the hit. @Sleam - today I turned down Stonecoast, and they offered to discuss additional funding in order to change my mind. I think that REALLY want to build the poetry program. If that is your genre, you might contact them. They've been exceptionally nice to work with.

[sonja johanson]

Getting into low res is much easier, just based on the percentages I am seeing in Peterson's. Stonecoast has a 70% acceptance rate, and VCFA has 60%. Both offered me merit scholarships, so that's a thing. WW does not offer merit scholarships, only need based.

[Sleam]

2 hours ago, sonja johanson said:

Yes, Peterson's. Google "MFA Warren Wilson (or whatever program you want) Peterson's" and you should easily get the hit. @Sleam - today I turned down Stonecoast, and they offered to discuss additional funding in order to change my mind. I think that REALLY want to build the poetry program. If that is your genre, you might contact them. They've been exceptionally nice to work with.

Thanks for thinking of me, I'm more of a nonfiction/ fiction writer though. I"m going ahead with VCFA application and see what happens. There's hope though, right? 

[sonja johanson]

2 hours ago, Sleam said:

Thanks for thinking of me, I'm more of a nonfiction/ fiction writer though. I"m going ahead with VCFA application and see what happens. There's hope though, right? 

There's totally hope!!! Lots of the low res places have rolling admissions.

[Sleam]

?

[romola]

I know a best-selling author who credits the (breakaway) success of her latest novel to Stonecoast, fwiw. And I've heard similar praise for Bennington from the author of a successful 2016 novel. 

[teb]

Was just notified via email that my application to the University of Guelph's Creative Writing MFA has been rejected. Setback for me but best of luck to anyone else who applied.

[Sleam]

1 hour ago, teb said:

Was just notified via email that my application to the University of Guelph's Creative Writing MFA has been rejected. Setback for me but best of luck to anyone else who applied.

Sorry to hear that. Take care, s

[Sleam]

On 3/26/2017 at 1:43 PM, badeyebrows said:

Also @Sleam, to follow up on our previous conversation, I'm planning to apply this summer for the winter/spring 2018 term at a number of schools, and right now my list includes Antioch, Pacific, Stonecoast, Spalding and Goucher. Might add VCFA to the list but I haven't researched them as thoroughly. I'm planning to cast a wider net when I only applied to two high-res programs last fall (I'm also going to be much more prepared, since I only decided last October that I'd apply for those two high-res programs, which was uh... pretty late in the game.)

I can't ask my references for more emails! I'll wait and see on Vermont and call it a day at that. I'll have to nurture more professional friends for references another year. 

 

[GlowStick]

Well, I'm just hanging out on four wait-lists right now: McNeese, Hollins, Arkansas, and Wyoming.

Northern Michigan hasn't yet rejected me, but I believe they sent out acceptances a week or two back, so I'm thinking I'm rejected--or maybe I'll end up wait-listed by exactly half of the schools I applied to. Wouldn't that be fun. ^{I want to throw myself into the sun....}

[Pencils]

24 minutes ago, Sleam said:

I can't ask my references for more emails! I'll wait and see on Vermont and call it a day at that. I'll have to nurture more professional friends for references another year. 

 

Hey, @Sleam, if you decide to apply to more places, perhaps dossier service like interfolio would help? Your recommenders upload the letters, and then you can have them submitted to schools more schools without asking them to do extra work. 

[Sleam]

4 hours ago, Pencils said:

Hey, @Sleam, if you decide to apply to more places, perhaps dossier service like interfolio would help? Your recommenders upload the letters, and then you can have them submitted to schools more schools without asking them to do extra work. 

Oh, thanks. I had no idea about that. Just in case...

 

[Scheherazade]

Did any one else get the "you-weren't-accepted-but-were-among-our-top-applicants" email from Boston University? To follow up on @aridari's previous post, I did get the impression that they have a secret waitlist of sorts, and they said they're sending out further information next week.

Even though the email was essentially a rejection, it was an encouraging end (or near-end) to a season filled with nothing but flat-out rejections. BU has my favorite faculty and was one of my top choices, so it was reassuring to know that they saw something promising in my work, even if I wasn't in the top 2% of applicants. I wish more schools would send out tiered rejections. Given the large applicant pools for so few spots, a rejection could signify anything from not quite making the cut to being a total hack. And when you get so many of them, it's hard not to assume the worst.

The nine other rejections I received came in the following forms:

1. 2 schools sent warm form letters from members of their creative writing departments. These letters included information about how many applicants they received. Incidentally, both programs' acceptance rates were historically higher than those of the programs to which I applied. I thus appreciated knowing that their acceptance rates were in the low-single digits, which helped me conceptualize just how competitive fiction MFA admissions are.

2. 5 schools sent me form letters from the graduate department. 1 sent the letter directly to my inbox, while the other four sent me emails to check my status/find my decision letter on their portals.. All but 1 status check email triggered my spam filter, so I only found out after seeing other acceptances on GC. In one case, the actual status check email came several days after I had already found out my status by logging into the portal. These letters were almost indistinguishable: "Your application received careful consideration. Admissions to Lorem Ipsum University are very competitive, and we regret to inform you that we cannot offer you a spot."

3. 2 schools rejected me through their portals without sending any sort of email, snail mail, messenger pigeon, et cetera. Nor did they bother to include a form letter with the rejection. Even more frustrating, rejections trickled out, so I only found closure through a dread-inducing process of logging in every day (or every hour) after the first reported rejection on Grad Cafe.

And I'm still waiting on one notification (for an application due three months ago).

I gained more respect for the schools in category 1. In a process that often lacks transparency, I appreciated their information about the applicant pool. Their letters, though generic, were also empathetic, which portrayed these programs as warm and caring. As someone who values these attributes in a program, I will likely apply again. The rejections in category 2 were what I expected. Most of them came reasonably soon after their acceptance notifications, so at least I wasn't in limbo for too long.

As for the final category... ugh. Is it that hard to notify applicants who have spent considerable amounts of time and money on your application? 

 

[MFA17OrBust]

2 hours ago, Scheherazade said:

Did any one else get the "you-weren't-accepted-but-were-among-our-top-applicants" email from Boston University? To follow up on @aridari's previous post, I did get the impression that they have a secret waitlist of sorts, and they said they're sending out further information next week.

Even though the email was essentially a rejection, it was an encouraging end (or near-end) to a season filled with nothing but flat-out rejections. BU has my favorite faculty and was one of my top choices, so it was reassuring to know that they saw something promising in my work, even if I wasn't in the top 2% of applicants. I wish more schools would send out tiered rejections. Given the large applicant pools for so few spots, a rejection could signify anything from not quite making the cut to being a total hack. And when you get so many of them, it's hard not to assume the worst.

The nine other rejections I received came in the following forms:

1. 2 schools sent warm form letters from members of their creative writing departments. These letters included information about how many applicants they received. Incidentally, both programs' acceptance rates were historically higher than those of the programs to which I applied. I thus appreciated knowing that their acceptance rates were in the low-single digits, which helped me conceptualize just how competitive fiction MFA admissions are.

2. 5 schools sent me form letters from the graduate department. 1 sent the letter directly to my inbox, while the other four sent me emails to check my status/find my decision letter on their portals.. All but 1 status check email triggered my spam filter, so I only found out after seeing other acceptances on GC. In one case, the actual status check email came several days after I had already found out my status by logging into the portal. These letters were almost indistinguishable: "Your application received careful consideration. Admissions to Lorem Ipsum University are very competitive, and we regret to inform you that we cannot offer you a spot."

3. 2 schools rejected me through their portals without sending any sort of email, snail mail, messenger pigeon, et cetera. Nor did they bother to include a form letter with the rejection. Even more frustrating, rejections trickled out, so I only found closure through a dread-inducing process of logging in every day (or every hour) after the first reported rejection on Grad Cafe.

And I'm still waiting on one notification (for an application due three months ago).

I gained more respect for the schools in category 1. In a process that often lacks transparency, I appreciated their information about the applicant pool. Their letters, though generic, were also empathetic, which portrayed these programs as warm and caring. As someone who values these attributes in a program, I will likely apply again. The rejections in category 2 were what I expected. Most of them came reasonably soon after their acceptance notifications, so at least I wasn't in limbo for too long.

As for the final category... ugh. Is it that hard to notify applicants who have spent considerable amounts of time and money on your application? 

 

@sheherazade no word yet from BU, so I'm assuming rejection. did your email come from catherine or directly from the university? were you notified in the portal? and i couldn't agree more with your assessment of how programs manage rejection notices: it says something about the ethos of the program. i also agree that they should spend more time/resources to notify applicants in a timely way. 

[Scheherazade]

50 minutes ago, MFA17OrBust said:

@sheherazade no word yet from BU, so I'm assuming rejection. did your email come from catherine or directly from the university? were you notified in the portal? and i couldn't agree more with your assessment of how programs manage rejection notices: it says something about the ethos of the program. i also agree that they should spend more time/resources to notify applicants in a timely way. 

The email came from Catherine and was sent out en masse; my portal remains unchanged since I submitted my application. Five or so people reported rejections on the GC admissions results page, but it seems like they received verbal rejections from the department after calling or emailing them (rather than getting an official rejection via a form letter or portal check). Her email said that BU's "application system takes a while to send out individual notices," which I took to mean that they are in the process of sending out rejections. Also, a Grad Cafe post from last year says that "all notifications have to be 'approved' by Admissions, causing [a] delay after CW office has sent them," so their late notifications are probably a function of their system rather than the department itself. (BTW, given their late application deadline, high page count limit for the writing sample, and large volume of applications, their response time doesn't strike me as egregious. Some other places, though...)

Anyway, I assume a rejection is forthcoming if you have not been notified yet, but I'm not 100% sure. To be honest, I'm not quite not sure if the email I received was just a nicer way of saying they liked my application but were planning on rejecting me soon, or if there is still a slim possibility of being accepted. It said that I could contact fiction faculty members directly if I needed to know my place on the list right away, but it also implied that they were getting inundated with calls/emails, so I'd rather not pester them. Other pertinent info: out of more than 500 applicants, they sent ten offers, half of whom have accepted.

[SK91]

Does anyone have any thoughts on choosing between UNC-Greensboro, Old Dominion, and SUNY Stony Brook? Stony Brook isn't offering me any funding for the first year, Old Dominion is offering a fellowship, and UNCG is up in the air. Otherwise, I'm at a bit of a loss deciding whether any of those programs is better than the others.

Edited April 1, 2017 by SK91
Clarifying SUNY Stony Brook

[manandcamel]

15 hours ago, SK91 said:

Does anyone have any thoughts on choosing between UNC-Greensboro, Old Dominion, and SUNY Stony Brook? Stony Brook isn't offering me any funding for the first year, Old Dominion is offering a fellowship, and UNCG is up in the air. Otherwise, I'm at a bit of a loss deciding whether any of those programs is better than the others.

I just looked up each program without knowing anything about them - from what I saw, I think that UNCG and Old Dominion are the better programs. OD is three years, but it also has lit requirements. UNCG is 2 years, but calls itself a studio program. How do you feel about lit courses? Do any of the OD courses listed interest you? 

[outflare]

On 3/26/2017 at 11:43 AM, Three21 said:

@outflare looking for other posters considering Columbia, thoughts? I think you mentioned it!

Sorry, I've been offline for a while. I got in to both Columbia and the New School. Bottom line, for me:

I'm leaning toward Columbia. I have a few friends that are writers/teachers and they've all pointed me in their direction. I'll quote from an email from someone I respect greatly:

Okay, to your questions. My former students who've enrolled at New School complain about it. This is a few years ago, though, and they are hardly a statistical sample. Columbia is far more prestigious and the truth is you'll get access to teachers there who are major league. The thing is if you go to Columbia don't work with the adjuncts--even though they are famous. Try to work with Sam or Ben Marcus or someone on the permanent faculty. 

That said, Columbia is expensive. I hope they gave you financial aid? If not, that would be the one thing that would make me hesitate. The truth is, though, when you look at who is really succeeding out there--Columbia (or Iowa or Hunter) is often their starting point. It would be wrong of me not to acknowledge that.

And, last night I had dinner with a dear friend who is, to put it mildly, a head honcho in the publishing world. She also invited along a colleague of hers, who is also a head honcho in the publishing world (I will be utilizing these contacts in a couple of years!). Both of them work with major authors, and publish Big Deal Books. And both said to me that I should only consider Columbia if I'm considering schools in New York. One told me that if he gets a phone call about a manuscript from a contact of his at Columbia, he will put it on the top of his pile. I asked him if he would do the same for New School, and he said he never gets calls from there. Again, both of these people work at a big publisher here in NYC. Their words carry a lot of weight with me, since ultimately my goal is to publish a book.

All that said, I made enough money last year that my FAFSA was a nightmare against me. So this fancy degree will put me seriously into debt. But, surprisingly, I'm okay with that.