Playwriting MFAs

[lavendercloud]

Hey guys! This thread has been a fantastic place for me from early in my grad school dreams through my first year. I love being a mentor & cheerleader for y'all, and I want great things for all of you! That said, I've shifted my focus to leading the MFA Draft '17 Script Workshop over on Facebook. For those of you who are members of the ubiquitous [but nefarious] social networking giant, please join me at https://www.facebook.com/groups/211838119171559. As much as I love to give advice about specific schools - which I'll absolutely do over there too! - I can be a lot more helpful by coordinating script critiques among prospective grads. And it's a lot more fun to see applicants' actual work than just hear about application stats! If any MFA students or alums would like to join and help out, you're welcome to do so too. Right now we've got about 20 members, and it's open to playwrights and screenwriters.

[youngbandido]

Hey guys, so i have two plays I'm thinking about submitting. One has only three characters, one location, and is about as basic as a play can get. In the other there is eight characters, with the stage split into thirds, each third being a different location, and is theatrically much more complex. I'm wondering which one you think would be best to submit. Are the MFA readers looking for complexity or simplicity? Experimental or traditional. Any input would be appreciated. This forum is helping a lot!

[jnp809]

@youngbandido It's hard to tell you which one to choose without reading your plays.  There's just no way to tell which aesthetic will work the best because the plays are read by such different readers across schools and sometimes even within schools.  You should send the play that you're the most confident in.  The one that's the most polished, that's had the most opportunities, might be a good way to choose between two plays if you're just as confident in each. 

Out of curiosity which schools are you applying to?

[las242]

Anyone applying to fall 2017 programs? Ran across this forum and wanted to see how applications are going. I have a few in but have about four more to get in by January. And then just playing the nervous, impatient waiting game.

 

Good luck to everyone applying! It's my first year giving the applications a shot, so we'll see how it goes.

 

Applying to Yale, Brown, UT Austin, Iowa, Hunter, NYU, UBC, and Ohio. 

[jnp809]

Hi @las242 My list is very similar to yours.  I'm applying to Yale, Brown, UT Austin, Michener, Iowa, Hunter, Ohio, Indiana, Brooklyn College, and UCSD

Good luck! I've been through this rodeo a few times so don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.

[CocoBeans]

Hello! Waiting nervously for replies from schools. Has anyone heard anything? I'm applying to Yale, Julliard, NYU and Columbia. Good luck everyone!

[greenchile]

Hey hey, folks. Here we go again. I applied to UT Austin, Juilliard, Brown, UCSD, Brooklyn College, and UNM. Ditched Yale after not loving it in my visit last year. I came super close with a few of these last year, so hopeful! But waiting with bated breath. 

[SeaLou]

Been a while...

 

Right there with you guys. Applied to UT, Michener, Yale, Catholic, Iowa, UCSD and finishing up Ohio and Southern Illinois (maybe). Received positive feedback from Yale last year and was a finalist at Indiana last year but they're doing invite only this year and the chair has been very upfront with what he's looking for this year, so maybe next year if it doesn't work out. It's a changing department - what can you do? Have had a great rapport with the chair, though, so much so he's a reference of mine now. Strange how it works out. 

As to whether, I've heard anything... no. Michener is going through rejections, sending out fiction ones first. Typically Michener in February, then the rest of the programs from what I have gathered  

All the best. 

Edited February 1, 2017 by SeaLou
Clarity

[las242]

Thanks, @jnp809! Good luck to you as well! And to everyone else who has joined in!

 

I'm glad all of us can be mutually nervous together in this waiting-game haha. I'm going to try my best to not think about my applications for most of February, but I doubt that will work. I had been sort of avoiding the forum until I got in my last application (which was Hunter). This is my first year applying so I'm trying not to get my hopes up, since I know how incredibly competitive these programs are. 

 

@SeaLou do you know when most other programs start sending out anything? 

[SeaLou]

@las242

i could give you my notification dates but of course it varies so I'm putting a link in here to the gradcafe's user reported statistics. It'll give you a good idea. Playwriting Notifications  

Will say UCLA is the worst with notifications. Didn't get my notification until May. Yale can also be bad. Sometimes their system goofs and you don't get an email. Helps to check that status page. That's how I found out last year. Same for Michener from what I understand. 

Also also also many departments will post their notification timelines on their website. 

 

All the best. 

[greenchile]

@las242 

Anecdotal timeline experience from applying last year:

UCSD: Naomi reached out to schedule our interview Feb 9th, visited for more interviews Feb 28th-29th, got told I was an alternate (their version of waitlist) on Apr 19th. 

UT/Michener (they seem to treat it like one program in terms of communication and interviews, with 4 slots, though I know the evaluation processes are slightly different): Kirk reached out to schedule our interview Feb 2nd, got told I was top of the waitlist Mar 15, agonizing month of maybe yes, maybe no, and then got news I didn't get a spot on Apr 13th. 

Yale: radio silence until status update notification, which told me I hadn't been accepted on Feb 29th.

Welllp. That's all pretty freaking soon here, isn't it? Shit. Cue the anxiety... :-o

Edited February 2, 2017 by greenchile

[CocoBeans]

Yay! Great to know that I'm not the only one nervously sitting on my hands.  Anyone else checking their email obsessively only to find yet another coupon? Or heart skipping a beat when an unrecognizable number calls only to find out it's a bogus free vacation in the Bahamas? Thanks for all the timeline tips @SeaLou and @greenchile! 

[jnp809]

Wow I feel like such an idiot having applied to Indiana.  I totally didn't see that it's invite only.  Wish I could get a refund on the fee and time I put into the application.

Thanks everyone for sharing your knowledge on notifications.  Didn't realize that schools have started contacting people so early in February (i.e. now!)

[SeaLou]

@jnp809

Reach out to Peter, the chair, and let him know the situation and see if maybe that fee can be waived for next year if you decide to apply again or ask for a refund or wait - I would imagine you'll get an email stating the situation. 

[SeaLou]

Michener is sending out interview requests apparently. Someone on MFA Draft on Facebook posted about it. So keep an eye out. And I'm trying to be an adult and rein in the saltiness as I live in Austin and don't want to move again. And it's a great program. Oh well. Best of luck. 

[GunningForGrad]

On 2/3/2017 at 11:27 PM, SeaLou said:

Michener is sending out interview requests apparently. Someone on MFA Draft on Facebook posted about it. So keep an eye out. And I'm trying to be an adult and rein in the saltiness as I live in Austin and don't want to move again. And it's a great program. Oh well. Best of luck. 

What's MFA Draft?

[SeaLou]

3 hours ago, GunningForGrad said:

What's MFA Draft?

MFA Draft is a Facebook group, a multi-disciplinary group for prospective MFA students, also home to MFA graduates. People share updates, samples, answer questions, etc. Not too many playwrights in there. 

[darbymilo]

Greetings! I see we're all just waiting nervously. Good luck to all!! I applied to Brooklyn College, NYU, and the New School.

[jnp809]

Hey @SeaLou thanks for the advice!  Do you know what genre the person who was contacted by Michener was in?  Is it totally foolish to hope that maybe they haven't gotten to the playwriting applicants yet?  Or that maybe they're contacting people in waves?

[SeaLou]

2 hours ago, jnp809 said:

Hey @SeaLou thanks for the advice!  Do you know what genre the person who was contacted by Michener was in?  Is it totally foolish to hope that maybe they haven't gotten to the playwriting applicants yet?  Or that maybe they're contacting people in waves?

So, they are doing waves for rejections and notifications. First round of fiction rejections went out a week and a half ago. However, in this case, the writer was a playwright. As for whether they stagger interviews or not... I don't know. This is my first year applying to Michener. I do know it seems rejections go out within the first two weeks of February from gradcafe history. 

[jnp809]

This is my third try at Michener (a little embarrassing to admit) and I was rejected on 2/16 last year and 2/19 the year before that.  So yeah, I guess I better brace myself for another rejection.  Thanks for the heads up.

[jnp809]

Small update: I e-mailed with Peter and since I had applied it November, it was before they changed the application policy. So they are still reviewing my application.  I think I will probably be rejected since they clearly have an idea in mind of who they will accept.

[SeaLou]

4 hours ago, jnp809 said:

Small update: I e-mailed with Peter and since I had applied it November, it was before they changed the application policy. So they are still reviewing my application.  I think I will probably be rejected since they clearly have an idea in mind of who they will accept.

You never know. Don't shut the door just yet. As for Michener, I don't think that's embarrassing. I'm applying to programs I applied to for two years straight and have been rejected two times from them. That's part of it some times. I have no idea what's going to happen in the next two months and neither do you. Really, my friend, who knows. 

[andrea907]

Wish I'd discovered this website before I finished applying. ?

I applied to playwriting/dramatic writing MFA programs at UT Austin, Yale, Brown, Rutgers, Columbia, SCAD, Northwestern, and UCSD. I also applied for the theatre MFA at Sarah Lawrence. 

I got an interview request for UT Austin about a week ago, and did my interview on Tuesday. They invited me to come and visit campus yesterday, so I'll be heading down there at the end of the month. 

 

I also got an interview/visit request from Sarah Lawrence yesterday, and decided to just go for it. I'm flying from Alaska to NYC to Austin and back over the course of about five days. 

[jnp809]

Hey @andrea907 congrats!  That's an exciting week you have ahead of you. Good luck and please let us know how it goes!

@las242 (or anyone else applying to Hunter) do you remember how you uploaded your script to the application system?  I am having the hardest time figuring out how/where to submit it.  Am I missing something really obvious?