Wednesday, August 30, 2006

FSU MFA Up Close

Adrift in Arkansas writes in. We're glad to hear that things are going well...

i'm one of the two posters who originally began this question-turned-tirade last spring with "what's going on with florida state?" in a direct correlation, i am very happy that this blog no longer allows anonymous comments.

i described my situation to tom looking for answers, because i had legitimate concerns and was not getting anything from florida state at the time. well, i moved to tallahassee anyway, to enroll in the somewhat-new MFA degree program. since i've arrived, all my concerns have been put to bed. i feel as though this is a fantastic place for me to be. on the first day of the above-mentioned summer training course, a faculty member profusely apologized to all the new students for the mix-ups in the office last spring. it had to do with a change of office staff and faculty--lots of changes going on here--and the mix-ups with incoming students actually resulted in some people getting asked to leave their positions in the english office (nobody was fired, just moved). this was very reassuring, because last spring was rough for me. to top if off, lots of jerks were showering insults on fsu and their faculty as comments to my question on this blog, while i was actually making arrangements to move.

well, opinions founded in ignorance and a notoriously egocentric interview have nothing on actual experience. i'm thrilled to be here, and i ask that anyone looking for information for florida state ignore some of the things said on comments here. they have a strong literary climate here, with many good things going on, and the other students in the english dept have treated me as one of their own from the day i arrived. i am very happy with where i've landed, even if it is an hour north of where hurricanes often touch land (tallahassee never really gets hurricane damage, i'm told).

i would have never looked into florida state, by the way, if it were not for tom's wonderful blog. i saw something on this site last fall which piqued my interest, then i looked at their website, read tom's book, and eventually added florida state to my list of applications. i've said it before, but thank you, tom.

--dustin, a.k.a. adrift in arkansas

3 comments:

Tom Kealey said...

I add new threads about FSU because I receive interesting and relevant emails about it. I try to get all emails up in one way or the other.

If you'd like to send me an interesting and relevant email about a program, I'll put it up on the blog.

If you'd like to troll on the Blog and whisper conspiracy theories, then you can do that too. It's a free country and Internet.

I don't have any connection to FSU.

dustin. said...

qfwqf:
there were many snap judgement, rude, durogatory comments made. i had nothing to do with any of them. i posted a question and watched the show from the stands. the next time, in fact, that i've posted anything on this site was yesterday, and the original thread was from march/april. at that time, two people had nearly identical questions about florida state. i'll assume that you mistakely took me for the other person.
in case you're not picking this up, what i'm saying is that i haven't posted anything negative towards any person or entity on this site, period.
but what i have seen every time i've posted on this site since sometime earlier this year is that one cannot post a comment anymore without someone else trying to talk trash, take apart your comment, and vent their own frustrations by attacking your words.
so many assumptions are being made around here. i'd like to convince you that many people in the literary community, who are not trash-talking web bloggers, respect the faculty at fsu. but the truth is that i don't care. you are not rude, qfwqf, and i do not wish to accuse you of being rude, and likewise, i hope you'll look back and realize that i've gone out of my way to show respect to other posters and to post positive remarks on this blog. i think this blog is a good thing and should remain positive, and it disheartens me to see some of the juvenile remarks, not only to my posts, but to everyone's.

Anonymous said...

A great story about Robert Olen Butler On the staff of the writing program: http://americandigest.org/mt-archives/006684.php#006684