In response to widespread distaste regarding the letter on BU's website:
A lot of you have commented about the unbelievable arrogance of the "welcome" letter from the program director on the Boston University site. I'm currently a senior undergraduate at Boston University, and I should tell you that, when it comes to the administration, arrogance is pretty much the standard operating procedure here. I'm not sure what it is, but for some reason, people working at Boston University seem to have some sense of entitlement that allows them to a) disparage you to your face and b) not really give a shit about the problems of the individual student, even if those problems are a result of the school's gross negligence of its own handbook.
HOWEVER.
In fairness, I should give BU it's proper due. I'm an English major, and I can say without hesitation that the faculty and staff in the English department are phenomenal in every facet one could hope for from a professor. This is especially relevant because the English department and MFA program work closely together, and I sincerely believe that honest, enjoyable people (as are present in the English department) attract other honest, enjoyable people. I should also note that the location of the MFA program specifically is nothing if not romantic. It sits on the third floor of a historic brownstone building on Bay State Rd, which has a view of the Charles River and also happens to be by far and away the nicest part of the BU campus.
Bottom line: I can see where all of you are coming from. The letter is borderline insufferable, and the guy who wrote it (whose name I guess I ought to keep from directly citing here) has a reputation for that kind of nonsense. If you come to BU the likelihood is that you will love your professors - but I cannot lie, I am certain you will abhor the administration.
Sorry this ran so long, just seemed worth saying in wake of all the "let's round up and hang the faculty from BU" chatter.
Also: in my sophomore year, I took the intro to creative writing class that is typically taught by BU MFA students, so if anyone has questions, send me an e-mail: sbhammer@bu.edu.
Thanks, Sean. As someone who wishes to remain in Boston, I was waffling about my BU application. I have a few hesitations about applying (1 year is mighty short), but the faculty looks absolutely incredible... Now, you've made me a lot more confident in the program.
Did anyone here apply to the U of Maryland? I'm having an issue with my application materials. According to the grad school, they never received my materials. However, looking at their website again, the instructions said to mail everything in a packet to the English Department. Did anyone else do that? And does your status for U of Maryland also say that your materials are incomplete? I contacted the creative writing department and I'm waiting to hear back. Just wanted to see if anyone else has had this problem?
A while back you made reference to "unbelievable stories" coming out of Hunter's acceptance process last year. Can you elaborate? Just FYI, someone on the Driftless House blog said they were accepted to Hunter's memoir program last week. A second person posted a cryptic message on Monday about being called to interview at Hunter. S(he) said something about being one of twelve finalists and about Hunter wanting a decision right away, but then they deleted their comment the next day. Thanks.
My UMass Amherst status stil hasn't changed from applied/reviewing your application. Anyone else still in UMass limbo? I think someone ere mentioned they'd notified all acceptances and had no waitlist, so what's the deal?
Yeah, I had the same problem. I kept getting emails saying my application was incomplete, and that my app couldn't be considered until I fixed that. I called the dept. [closed - blizzard] and then wrote, and here's an excerpt:
"Please ignore the automated emails about the ASF. Because we do not use the online system in the same way that other graduate programs at UMD use it (and because we prefer to receive the bulk of the app. materials by mail in hard copy), we do not update the information online. Basically, your status online will be forever incomplete."
Basically, unless you hear from the dept about missing materials, all your stuff is in.
Hope that helps. If not, let me know.
And good luck! UMD should be notifying next week according to Suburban Extasies.
I'm not a caller. After being a pest, and watching others be really huge pests, in a different application process for a specific organization, an application process which is turning out to have many parallels to this one, I know all I really have to do is wait and let time do its job and everything will come on its own. I'm trying to be less anxious in general and not do this time around what I did with the aforementioned application which was torture myself, but impatience is a failing of mine. Among the 5 schools I know have notified that I applied to and have heard nothing from, UMass is the only one with a status to check that, according to others, actually works, so it's getting the full brunt of my impatience.
That was rambly and possibly incoherent; I'm sorry.
Oh man that makes me feel so much better! There's nothing worse than waking up to an email from a grad admissions department telling you they have no knowledge of your giant packet that you sent over a month ago...
A while ago, I asked UMD (the creative writing folks, not the main grad office) about that very thing. I was assured that though they have all my materials, they won't be updating anything on the online system, since they print everything then work from hard copy. The materials status will apparently never be updated from incomplete, but they'll contact us if there's anything missing. (Not that I'm suggesting don't ask for confirmation; I'm neurotic enough that I'd probably email anyway to hear it for myself.)
@Nick McRae: Yay! I love it. Congratulations, friend.
So, I figure the more spots Nick McRae gets, the more places he'll have to turn down for secondary candidates like myself. Listen, Nick, keep the tally going.
I kid. I'm genuinely happy for you!! Your work is beautiful.
Hi all, just popping by with congrats to everyone who has heard good news — Nick, you're on a roll, man! — and encouragement for everyone else. I don't know about you guys, but when I look at my list of schools on TSE, a good half aren't set to notify until early- to mid-March. Repeat after me: We're just getting started!
You've all got at least two cheerleaders in my neck of the woods: Me, and my boyfriend, who now asks, "How's everyone holding up?" when I pop open my laptop in the mornings.
@Danielle Thanks for the encouragement. I am in the same boat--bad GPA, small school, etc. In fact, I worried over this so much, I didn't even think to worry about the quality of my writing, which I get to do now of course!
@Nick Many congratulations! You deserve it. I am so glad we are not applying to the same places. ;)
As for me, I applied to a small number of "Tortoise" schools, so I am in waiting hell. Glad to have such excellent company!
@Katie: I wish my boyfriend would respond to my blog obsession that way. He says, "Come on! Turn that shit off! You're going to give yourself a heart attack!"
Yeah thanks. I already called the Creative Writing Department and left a fairly lengthy voicemail clearly in the stage before you start screaming into a pillow. I've had a lot of issues with other programs "misplacing" things...ya know putting them under the wrong name, changing my birthday, indexing them wrong...so it's been a long journey...who else is ready for it to be over?
Same exact problem here. It's ridiculous how much easier these schools could make things for us (and their secretaries) by just telling us these things up front on their website.
Agreed! I guess it's just all part of the experience...but yes, U of MD, if you're reading this, I'd recommend putting something on your application page saying that since it's sent to the department directly, all those systematic emails can be ignore...because frankly it's just scary thinking your stuff is lost in the abyss somewhere. Other than that, we're all fans
If anyone is interested (there seem to be quite a few people anxious about their UMass status) I received a paper rejection notice in my mailbox from the graduate school. My status was already changed to “denied” online. I’m in poetry... maybe it is taking a little bit longer to process the fiction rejections or some such thing.
Yeah Nick! That's how you do. I've heard only great things from my friends who workshopped with Beth Ann at conferences. But now I'm staring at my phone angrily.
Tom Franklin-- sir-- you know I'd do you proud. We both have hailed, at one point or another, from southern Alabama. Sure, we have different aesthetics. You go for the rough and ready realism; I'm a bit of a pansy. But truly... we'd work well together! Workshops would be phenomenal! I'd bring tea and scones in everyday! Do you hear me? I would learn to make scones!
...I'm sure someone on this blog could teach me, right?
I have to second Trilbe on the University of Chicago. I spent a year there getting my MA, and it's pretty phenomenal. I miss Hyde Park, despite the scary-ass emails I'd get from campus security: "Don't walk under the Metra overpass at night. You'll get shot. Or raped. Or raped, then shot." And Suzanne Buffam and Chicu Reddy are awesome!
Song of the day - "Stay Positive," The Hold Steady. Woooooo!
And congrats to Nick! You're living the dream, man.
Wow, congrats Nick! That's the first Mississippi notification, isn't it? And kaybay, and everyone else, congrats. Sorry, also been staying away from the blog a bit to avoid artificial creation of nerves. (The whole refresh, refresh, recaffinate, refresh problem.) Very exciting!
I have to say, I really am surprised by the UNCW situation - and not because the self-interest of an institution would surprise me. I just can't figure out why UNCW would want to give its favorite candidates exploding offers. If UNCW likes someone's work enough to offer them funding, shouldn't it follow that they're willing to hold out for their top choice's decision??
I mean, my God, it's not like they're selling used cars - or if they are, ostensibly, who the 'buyer' is matters to them. Even if they did think great candidates were largely fungible, wouldn't they still want there to be a good mutual fit. Two weeks is really tight, especially if an admitted candidate wants to fly out to visit the school.
I'd recommend to UNCW that they urge admitted candidates to let them know as soon as possible if they are sure they will not accept UNCW's offer, but not give them an urgent deadline. Then they can follow up periodically in a non-pressured way, asking where the admitted candidate is in their decision-making process (to ensure they're notified in a timely fashion if a candidate has decided against UNCW).
Putting aside what the right or ethical thing to do is (for the sake of my point), it seems to me that this approach would actually be to UNCW's advantage because they'd get more of their top choice candidates (who have made the most educated decision possible and are excited and fully informed about the school). They'd also find out ASAP when a spot was going to be freed up, allowing them to move down their list as expeditiously as possible.
I'll give my alma mater a little boost: Northwestern and U Chicago are both great schools! I don't know how you could compare them academically.
U Chicago's Gothic revival architecture is beautiful and Hyde Park has the city's best bookstores, but U Chicago has a reputation (empirically true from my POV; I've dated two U Chicagoans) for being an anti-social, claustrophobic environment. Hyde Park doesn't help, since the L comes nowhere near it, and Washington Park to the West (down the charming Midway plaisance) is terrifying at night.
Hyde Park is great (the Point is one of my favorite places in the city), but the surrounding neighborhoods have a lot of (complex) problems.
Topic: Syracuse, Amherst, et al Rejections
Haven't received a Syracuse rejection email or a DENIED Amherst status.
Sure, U Chicago has the atomic chain reaction. And Northwestern? One of my screenwriting professors wrote Don't Tell Mom the Baby Sitter's Dead. Ya burnt!
I don't have a long track record, but I won a national contest last year (top 10 literary print mag, pub forthcoming -- fiction) and placed in two others. Regardless, I've been rejected by Wisconsin and Syracuse and likely Michigan and Iowa.
Which either means I suck and the editors at the magazines are wrong or it's a reviewed lottery.
@M. Swann, what you say is very true of the UChicago undergrads - many of the ones I encountered were little balls of fraying nerves: very intense, very smart, and very neurotic. That said, I met many pleasant, sociable people in my MA program and at the Divinity School, and the undergrads in the poetry workshops I attended seemed like nice, balanced people.
Hey guys, I hate to bring up the whole teaching thing again because I know that it was discussed, like, 20 mailbags ago. BUT, I know there are a lot of teachers out there (and I'm assuming some are high school English teachers), and I'm just kind of wondering what you think of your job, if there are certain things you love/hate about it (aside from dealing with the administration...it seems like that is a common complaint of almost all teachers), and any advice or comments you might have for someone thinking about choosing that as a career.
Sorry, I know that these are really broad questions (so feel free to just skip right on over my comment if you wish), but I am considering getting my teaching credential and am curious about teaching high school. I have always thought that I would choose elementary school if I ever did decide to teach, but lately high school has seemed slightly more appealing/intriguing to me. I'd love to hear from any of you teachers out there, but am specifically interested in hearing the thoughts of high school English teachers and elementary school teachers, as those are the main areas that I am considering.
@M. Swann: Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead????
Christina Applegate, coming-of-age, FASHION, teenage lies that somehow work to impress parents, bb guns, ugly children. What more could we ask for from the cinema, I ask you? I loved that shit.
just got my syracuse rejection. i have STILL not heard anything from wash u. they already sent out waitlist notifications, right? is anyone else still waiting on them?
Yeah, DTMTBD is a top-10 movie of all time. I've watched Christina Applegate's hideous fashion show at the end more times than I want to admit. And yeah, I got CHILLS when I found out my professor wrote it (to be 19 again!).
yeah, i watched Don't Tell Mom The Babysitter's Dead a month or so ago and i mean, it holds up. then i looked up the kid with the dreamy blue eyes because i always had a major crush on him as a tween. turns out he died in 2000 from an accidental drug overdose. way to bring down my mood, imdb.
@MFAguy - I saw your post a few pages back - Congrats on the VA Tech waitlist! I hope you make it in! Blacksburg would be a cool town to write in, and sounds like they have a great program.
so I'm sort of at my wits end, here. I applied to UNCW in fiction -- last week, one person heard s/he was accepted on Friday. BUT someone else reported that UNCW wasn't done with fiction decisions yet, and wouldn't be done until this week.
THEN there was mention yesterday of rolling admissions... ahhhh!!! So, if I haven't heard, should I assume that I'm likely not getting in, or would that be completely irrational/pessimistic? I want to call them, but their website asks for us to not call/email... and after yesterday's CGSR/UNCW debate (eeek!) I doubt they're worrying about the anxiety of a wee applicant such as myself. I'll worry about funding later (if I get in anywhere!!!)
Anyone have any insight? Any insider information? Anyone who didn't apply to UNCW willing to call? (I'll call one of yours!)
otherwise, I'll be here pouting silently in my sad little cubicle... forever...
Seeing as how I created somewhat of a debate on U of C vs. Northwestern, allow me to weigh in.
The only way to settle this is to look at the facts. And by facts I mean which mascot is better than the other. Wildcat Vs. Maroon. Over. Give me a break a maroon, really, U of C? That's just silly.
In all seriousness, though, I only said Northwestern is the best in Chicago (they do have a Chicago campus as well) with poetic license. I love U of C and I'd like to comment on the overall stuffyness of the school by saying that I was at a party there once where a good friend of mine walked around naked for most of the party, had someone fashion a toga for him out of computer paper, then set the toga on fire and danced.
Man, we've lost SO MANY* teen heartthrobs from the 80's and 90's. River Phoenix, Christopher Pettiet, Jonathan Brandis, Brad Renfro. Who am I leaving out?
beedeecee: I'm totally losing my shit. I've got my fingers crossed that the next month brings meaningful resolution for us. I'd like my mental stability back.
@m. swann: i know! trying to remember more, but failing miserably. a lot of them seem fairly under the radar.
@franny: yes, i really just need the end of march to get here so i can collect all of my rejections and resume my *normal* brand of crazy ... until this time next year. :)
i believe jonathan brandis committed suicide, if i'm not mistaken.
He hanged himself. Not the way I want to remember him. I'd prefer the images of him wheezing into his inhaler (Sidekicks), conversing with dolphins (Seaquest), and dressing up like a girl to win the girls' soccer league (Ladybugs).
Yeah, Brandis did commit suicide. I totally idolized him when he was in Sea Quest haha. And at one pt. I actually believed that Doogie Howser was a REAL doctor. Oh, to be young again : - ) [not that I'm old]
Noono: Yours is a good approach. I was just thinking "What can I do that's productive, that will bring progress to my work if I have to apply again next year?". I'm not sure. Read. Workshops? Keep up the hard work. Network more?
I write poetry, but also for the screen. I may end up throwing more of my weight into our current manuscript. It will undoubtedly feel good to do something that WILL affect change or outcome: I work hard, continue to workshop our script, and it will turn into something I'm proud of and something that can succeed regardless of an admissions committee's reaction to it.
@WT: please do not get me started on doogie howser. posters and pinups (from tiger beat, duh) of neil patrick harris all over my bedroom walls and door. i would call my friend and we'd sing the theme song together, and then spend the entire episode talking about how cute he was. i miss the 90s.
how many schools do you have left? try to stay positive!! (I really should practice what I preach...) Maybe you did deserve to be humbled a bit, but you also are probably being too hard on yourself. This process is really soul-crushing. Just because you aren't getting in anywhere (yet) does NOT mean you don't deserve to get in.... it's just the game we're playing. Don't forget that.
Welcome to purgatory. I've had a GNE since February 4th with no indication of any official news coming out of my school yet. Try to keep your wits about you (it's been almost impossible for me), and on the off chance it's from the same school I got mine from, hopefully we'll be seeing each other around this fall!
Anyone remember that show "Out of this world"? (about the half alien teenage girl who talked to her dad via a crystal by her bed and could freeze time when she touched her fingers). I used to think she was such a fox haha.
Oh, and I went to high school with Larisa Oleynick (Secret World of Alex Mack/ 10 Things I hate about You/ 3rd Rock from the Sun)
beedeecee! I love that you were in love with NPH. For me, it started with Macauley Culkin, but really escalated with Elijah Wood (Forever Young, anyone?). I'd write in my Lisa Frank diary about how I could chance run into him.
I recently saw Brad Renfro on an old episode of Law and Order (or one of those shows - I don't know the difference). His hair was receding! He was playing this revolting young 20-something who worked in security at the airport and watched his brother brutalize sex workers in his spare time. SO CREEPY. Oh! And his brother was Ethan Embry (circa Empire Records, Can't Hardly Wait) who was also puffy and receding. So gross.
I'm in fiction. I'm hesitant to reveal the school because I don't want to cause ripples of anxiety here or any problems for the school; I'm sorry I can't say more. I did not intend to tease, just to express a little of my own crazy that's busting out of the seams.
Dreux,
I totally thought of you and your GNE purgatory when I got mine! Hope you're not losing your mind.
Noono, nearly all your posts on this blog resonate with my experience applying this time around. I, too, thought I had a great shot at the schools on my list (all top six) but I'm slowly starting to realize that my optimism was somewhat naive, though I still stubbornly cling to the idea that I have talent and potential. I'm intrigued--do you want to exchange writing samples? scoobysnickerdoodle at gmail
Topenga was recently on the cover of a magazine. Her related article was about battling an eating disorder. Sweet, sweet Topenga. Growing up in the 80's and 90's did have its highlights.
Rather embarrassed to say this, but I wrote a fan letter to Larisa Oleynik as a kid. Had a terrible crush on her. Got a signed picture and little note, all the way back to Ireland. It's still in my drawer...accumulating geek chic I'd imagine.
I've got to commiserate with your anxiety. I went balls out too, and only applied to schools that were super awesome. My "safeties" were also exceptionally awesome (and have notified... others, not me.)
It's shitty to say, but I'm kind of resigned to the fact that I won't get into school. Ugh, that felt terrible to type out. And now I'm trying to figure out a Plan B. I talked to my chocolatier friend about it last night and he asked, "Well, what do you want to do?"
"The MFA. School. That's what I want to do."
"So, you're just gonna keep trying to avoid real life?"
"Fuck that. Writing is 'real life' too." I got indignant, obviously. "Whatever, dude, you make chocolate mustaches as your 'real life.'"
Then he asked me to join his chocolate army as my Plan B. Also, reading that Vice story about MFAs was insane. It used to cost $10 to apply to Iowa? Oh, how times have changed.
Incredible. We should all be so lucky in life to have a cocktail conversation topic like this: "I was in one fuzzy background shot of Ladybugs, believe it or not."
I just found out via an email that I've been accepted to Montana! (Hi, Emmas!) I'm stunned and so happy. I know they're still figuring out financial aid/TA positions, so I definitely don't think they're done notifying, for those who have applied.
I wrote a letter to CBS because I wanted to be on "The Nanny." Of all the shows on TV, that was the one I knew was going to propel me to stardom. I received a very nice response on official letterhead suggesting I get an agent. Total fake-out letter - I was sure it contained my contract.
Now, that I think about it, this MFA process is exactly the same.
OHMYGOSH. Just catching up. I was totally in the Jonathan Brandis fanclub and probably still have a letter he sent out to his fans talking about SeaQuest before it came out (there were hand-drawn submarines on it). I watched Ladybugs more times than I care to admit.
My other teen heartthrob that I don't think anyone's mentioned? Shane McDermott. He was on the very short-lived Swans Crossing, a teen soap opera. And THEN he was in Airborne (the rollerblading movie) with Seth Green
Just googled him. He now sells real estate in Galveston...?
Have you seen the Seth Green freak out video? He apparently gets mugged in a studio parking lot and then starts yelling at a 6 foot plus security guard and flips over a table. I sort of wanted him to turn into a Pomeranian in Buffy instead of a full sized werewolf. I'm actually catching up on Angel now (which I think is a way better show). It's weird watching David Boreanaz as the vampire with soul (bring on the funk) and then see him on Bones (which is addicting in its own right)
Is it me or have things been pretty slow the past day or two? It's only taking me a minute or two to get caught up with the blog.
Also, to whoever was saying they didn't get their WUSTL rejection yet, I'd just email them. Last year, they totally forgot to send mine :- (
I teach high school English in Arizona. I activated the link to my email on my profile, and I'll leave it active for about 24 hours. Email me, and I'll tell you everything you want to know about my experiences in teaching high school English.
I think it's probably pretty wise not to disclose which schools sent you GNEs, especially if that school hasn't been the source of much official news yet. If Jasmine's email is anything like mine, it's very informal and preliminary. It would be a cruel thing to send out if the person wasn't going to be admitted, and it's very flattering, but nonetheless it doesn't seem the like sort of thing intended for public dissemination.
David Boreanaz was much more attractive back in the day. Or maybe it was because I was 14. Maybe this is how kids today feel about pat robertson or whoever.
True about Angel. I guess it's a bit darker - sort of like how DS9 was darker for the Star Trek franchise than TNG or how Saved by the Bell: The College Years could deal with other issues that the original couldn't b/c the characters hadn't matured enough yet (yea, I love Joss Whedon and I'm a Star Trek and BSG fan)
I found David Boreanaz's incredibly lacking acting skillz before he got his own show got in the way of his attractiveness. Also, during the course of Angel, he (and other Buffyverse men) got tubbier as all the women on Buffy got more skeletal.
Now he's back to being pretty fit and his acting's better (it got better through the duration of Angel), so it's a better package in general.
He's not the top of my list for Buffyverse men though. A little too shaped like a refrigerator for me. Wesley's the love of my life.
I love David Boreanaz, and def. think Angel was better. I think he was most attractive when he was significantly younger (Buffy) and now (Bones). Also, I heart Bones. And really want Angela and Hodgins to get back together.
wow, airborne. thank you for reminding me about that one. thought my college roommmate and i were the only people on the planet who watched, and loved that movie.
omg! i almost forgot about johnathan brandis. i used to swoon over that kid.
and what about johnathan jackson in camp nowhere? tell me i wasn't the only girl writing hearts with our names in it.
there is an infamous story in my family. my single mom of three needed to buy a car and had finally gathered enough money to put a down payment on one; however, i was mad because i thought that money should've been used to send me on a cruise with JTT.
Also I think opening the Buffy can of worms here has just subjected everyone to a flurry of off-topic comments that blatantly show my geekhood and Buffy devotion and vast, vast show knowledge. I sincerely apologize to the majority of you who simply don't care.
I get the feeling that he had his frontal slope shaved off and is looking a lot less neanderthally in Bones.
Also, shout out to "Small Wonder" because who doesn't want to be a robot girl with a periscope neck and the ability to read a book just by flipping through it. Dang.
Buffy is the better show overall than Angel, but there are very few things in existence that can rival the final season of Angel. In particular, the final run beginning with A Hole in the World. Joss knew the secret of good TV - put your characters through hell. And DEAR GOD did that season do that.
Twin Peaks anyone? Sherilyn Fenn? Sean Young? They dropped off like whoa. And now Kyle Maclachlan's doing Desperate Housewives? (pun...well, yeah, intended) Sad times...sad, sad times.
I wanted to answer the question someone asked about teaching English at the high school level earlier in the mailbag, and do so anecdotally:
As I've been waiting for a definitive answer from my GNE school, or from some positive news from any other school to apply to, I've been teaching English, which I do for a living.
Then, my car broke down. I drive an old sports car, so parts are hard to come by and it has been in the shop for a couple weeks now, making it very difficult for me to get to work regularly. And you would not believe how much I miss it. I didn't realize it before, but it was my students/job that were largely responsible for keeping me sane and it's been much more difficult to avoid getting really caught up in the MFA stuff without that to turn to. So it's obviously an important part of my life and a job I love.
That being said, it all depends on the school you work for, whether the administration is supportive of the teachers, and whether you are cut out for teaching. More than almost any other profession, I believe that you're either born an educator, or you're not. A seasoned, talented educator is better than an inexperienced one, but I've seen very few people come into the field with no natural knack for it and somehow develop an ability over time.
@franny: macauley! he didn't grow up like i expected but i kind of respect him more for that. indie cred and whatnot.
@amanda: swans crossing. wow. i know i watched it but don't remember a thing about it. also, one of my best friends in elementary school had a huge crush on wil wheaton and i used to tease her incessantly. we just emailed about it last week, in fact.
ok, i'm just going to put this out there: did anyone watch MMC? and if you were a fan, i probably don't have to explain this, but that's the (new) mickey mouse club.
The price of admission for Porsche ownership is definitely the occasional pain-in-the-ass electrical problem, but in this case it's aggravated by the fact that I just moved to a new town, so I had to find a new mechanic. And the one I used this time has done a really terrible job of getting things done promptly. I won't be using them again, but in the meantime I have to tough it out. Such is the risk you take when you go looking for a new mechanic, especially if you drive a German car.
Courtney, I'M SORRY. I bolded the word spoiler but it didn't show up enough! I'm sorrrryyy. Don't worry, I didn't say anything about any of the biggest secrets.
@woon I tell most people to just skip season 1. With the exception of a few episodes in the beginning of the second season, it really isn't required. The show didn't really find its legs until Spike showed up at the beginning of Season 2. That's when it got GOOD.
I took a shower and managed to rein in the beast that is my love of Buffy. Now nobody mention it again, or I'll get more excited than I do when I get a GNE.
I'm even considering a Better Business Bureau complaint against this particular shop. My mechanic (the only guy in the shop capable of working on my car) left the country for two weeks, and when he got back was shocked to find that the owner hadn't given me back my car to drive while he was gone. I was out my car two weeks while it was just sitting there. On top of that they didn't give me any estimates before doing work or ordering parts, and so forth.
Porsche ownership is an experience of itself, and believe me, when the wrong part breaks, it sucks. You have to get the part through an authorized parts dealer that has to match it with the serial number of the defective component, and if the part is back-ordered, it can take ages. But stuff like failing to notify me of my mechanic's availability and failing to give me an estimate before doing work are just inexcusable. This is probably the worst mechanic experience I've ever had (and for a Porsche owner, that's really saying something) and once they no longer have my car to hold hostage, I'll probably do whatever I can to besmirch the shop's name.
Re. Lost. I really liked the first three seasons and the flash forward concept in Season 4. However, the content of Season 4 left me feeling empty. Season 5 was blah. And I'm getting disappointed in Season 6.
Ack! Could we possibly have a rule against posting tv spoilers (especially LOST)?? It's a little difficult to avoid them when I'm skimming every message for any notification updates...
(Not trying in the least to be a bitch here, I swear. If I'm the only person who cares about these things, I'll happily shut up and just hang out on Driftless.)
@R.D. Charleston -- Cheer up. Depending on your age and circumstance, you can do this again in a couple of years. There's really no deadline for the MFA. If you're in your 20s, I'd say you've got a lifetime of good writing ahead of you. If you're in your 60s, I'd say, damn, forget about the MFA and just write. Good luck.
I really don't think that my spoiler was anything serious and I put a pretty fair warning up but I am deleting that post. Sorry to anybody I ruined stuff for. :(
@ Woon-- thanks, I'm young and have time to write, but I just spent so much of my money applying to programs; considering i will continue to write no matter what, I'd say the money I spent is the real bummer right now.
Don't feel bad! You definitely did put up a fair warning...I think it was someone else who wrote a response to you that included something about Claire, and I had to tear my eyes away in fear. I'm just really hardcore about LOST and I haven't been able to watch ANY of season 6 yet and it's killing me! :(
Well, Beemers are going to shit the bed just as often as Porsches. They're no more reliable in their old age, and Porsches are no less reliable when they're new.
The difference between a BMW and a Porsche, within the same price points, is in equipment vs. performance. Porsches are woefully underequipped for their price points, while BMWs have a lot of luxury options. BMWs also ride smooth and quiet, while Porsches can be noisy cars and are really low to the ground, so you're going to feel all the bumps.
But with very few exceptions, BMWs don't feel like or drive like sports cars. And with very few exceptions, almost all Porsches do. Compared to BMWs, Porsches take off like rockets, steer like go-karts, etc.
My Porsche is a blast to drive, but an enormous pain to own. It's a rich man's car, and I'm not a rich man. I would tell anyone considering a Porsche (especially an older or used one, like mine) to either be ready for some accompanying headaches or to buy an old beater for 1000 dollars or less to drive when the Porsche is in the shop.
My next car probably will not be a Porsche, but mine has at least 150,000 more miles left on the engine and I'll drive it until that goes, headaches and all, and will just try to enjoy the good parts of it.
I've done 6-10 hour roadtrips in the Porsche and the time just flies because it's a fun car to drive. But god forbid I ever broke down in the middle of one of those, because I'd imagine trying to find someone to fix it outside of a major metro area would be a real exercise in futility.
Don't think of the money as a waste! Think of it as an investment in a dream. I read somewhere that it's not where you get in that matters in terms of your success in life, it's where you apply--what you aspire to. Just keep writing and keep your head up.
I'm putting in a vote for Buffy and Spike. And I have a really long, thought out justification for that and it's just not appropriate for a blog and I seriously need to shut up about it already.
But yeah, Wesley and Fred/Illyria is pretty awesome. Though by the end there, I just started calling Angel the torture Wes hour.
Thanks, hope you enjoy the mix! Like I said before, I have some serious reservations about BU's program, but the fact that it's literally within walking distance of where I'm living now made it irresistible!
Also, @Sean Thanks for the reassurance about BU's program! I'm trying to get in a more positive mindset about it, since I've already applied now.
I just saw 2007 Persuasion on PBS and Captain Wentworth is definitely a welcome distraction from MFA rejection. Ooh la la.
@Jasmine & others - BUFFY! Have you read the graphic novels? I need to catch up. I love Buffy, Spike, and Anya. Still sad that SMG has not found any good roles since.
LOST!! Part of why Lost is awesome is because Buffy writers are involved. '90s flashback - I still see Jack as Charlie on Party of Five.
smiling raindrops, I'm sorryss! I am loving season 6 so far and I think you will too! get watching! The espidoses are on Hulu and there are still lottttttsss of surprised for you!
I really need to build LOST back into my schedule. It's so intense for me it's practically a process of its own. The main thing holding me back is that I can barely remember Season 5 so I wanted to marathon that before starting on the latest episodes...
so a question...I got an email on Feb. 13 saying I was waitlisted for an MA program (Creative Writing concentration) and I was in fact the FIRST person on the waitlist. Yay! It was a very nice email and he said if I had any questions or wanted to talk to call or write. I replied a few days later asking about how many people they were accepting along with a funding question. I have yet to receive a response. It's been over a week now...not sure if I should write back? Call? See what happens?
4 official rejections. 5 assumed rejections. 1 waitlist. Nothing from Texas State...yet.
also the teaching question: I am a high school Chemistry/Physical science teacher. I am having an awful year in terms of administration and pushing standardized test scores down our throat. I live in Florida where my B school's grade dropped to a D. We have been dealing with a bunch of GARBAGE. Besides that, I like my job (sometimes?). I wouldn't be able to teach anything lower than high school because I feel you can actually talk to the students, have real conversations, and they can appreciate the sarcasm I throw their way. Although apparently you're not supposed to be sarcastic to students, it makes them feel bad. Ooops.... ;)
email or call as much as you want. Just be nice and humble about it, and apologize if you're bugging them during a busy time. These people know that this process is crazy making and they extended the invitation to call.
If you call/email like 4 or 5 times and there's no response, you might want to give it a rest, but you're not there yet.
@dreux that makes sense. I'm not a car guy, but I can appreciate people who have strong preferences. I have uptime and being able to fit in it (which at 6'4 isn't always easy) as my primary needs in a car.
I will admit, though, that I totally pictured you as David Duchovney on Californication with your unwashsed Porsche covered in dings and missing a headlight.
Lady Gaga versus Beyonce. Discuss amongst yourselves.
Also: I'm still waiting on 11 programs, 9 of which I am no longer interested in and would like to receive a refund (via direct deposit, preferably) of the application fees.
I wouldn't be able to teach if I couldn't be sarcastic now and then. I teach English to 4th through 7th graders, and (from what I've seen) the ability to react well to sarcasm starts in 6th grade. I totally agree with you about the conversation thing. This has been a great learning experience for me, as I originally thought I couldn't deal with younger kids at all.
Now I know I can deal with them, but I'd still rather be teaching undergrads. Sometimes you just need to be able to say "shit" or "damnit" (and other such) in class. And I'm not always a great self-censor.
did you report your acceptance to driftless house? i think one of the main points of that site is to report first acceptances. and not letting people know what school it is might cause MORE anxiety than revealing it. maybe? yes? no?
"Telephone" is a gem. I love songs about dancing. I also like songs about cell phones (answering them, not answering them, and especially hanging up on someone). "Telephone" is the best of both worlds--a song about dancing and not answering one's cell phone. I mean, hell. Who can top that?
If I had one, I'd report it to Chris Leslie-Hynan via email.
But what I have definitely doesn't qualify as an acceptance. If it did, I'd be a much happier guy. Also, I'm just one of many people on the blog harboring a GNE from an unnamed school.
@ cb and the Emmas - I did my undergrad (in creative writing) at Montana and absolutely loved it. I didn't apply for the MFA only because I wanted a different experience. I've taken classes with most of the profs, and if you want to talk about specifics or Missoula in general I'd be happy to share what I know. Drop me a line: kendra.shaw (at) gmail.com
@pencore I think the answer to any question about any school or any notifications is simply, "We don't really know." I've resigned myself to having absolutely no idea. This takes a bit of the stress off. :)
God, I love today. I'm not freaking out at all; I'm just doubled over laughing.
@amanda: I knew I could count on my other MFA BFF to chime in on the 90's crushes (beedeecee, you should join Amanda and me at the Denver AWP in April).
After all these 80's/90's flashbacks, I won't bring up My Two Dads (or the girl's truck bed). I won't.
I'm still in UMass limbo with the "applied" status... and pretending that this means something.
I've also decided to come up with a good thing about each rejection I may receive. So far, the only definitive one is Syracuse. So, good thing about getting rejected from Syracuse: I won't have to take the Essay Seminar and write that major third-year essay. That kind of sounds like a drag. When I still held out hope for Syracuse, I said, well, for their awesome program and funding package I'd suck it up and write the damn essay. But now I won't have to! Yay?
I'd look into your local school district's volunteer program and spend some time in your area's schools to get a realistic idea of how it works there (or in whichever area you'd be teaching after getting certified). That would also allow you to talk to teachers and get a good idea of what to expect. Teaching isn't for everyone, and it can be maddening- but also hilarious, fulfilling, and magical.
In other news, I can't believe I missed the majority of the 80's/90's reminiscing. I was obsessed with Lisa Frank, TGIF, and Devon Sawa. Also, I preferred 16 magazine to TigerBeat. Once, I wrote them a letter because they said that Brandy was going to star in Sister Act 2, but I knew it was Lauryn Hill. Those idiots.
@franny: i'm supposed to visit LA in april, but denver sounds so much nicer. tempted ...
well, if you didn't mention My Two Dads, i totally didn't have a crush on the long-haired dad at the time. (geez, i have outed almost all of my crazy-embarrassing 90s crushes today.)
@FWD: no, you are certainly not the only one. i found a huge stack of old Sassy issues a couple of years ago (including the one with kurt cobain/courtney love on the cover) at my mom's house. couldn't find them last year. i'm too afraid to ask if she's found them yet.
Personally, I'm so glad I didn't get into Michigan. Ann Arbor is way too cold. And they're way too crazy about football. And two of the USA ice dancer olympians are there. Geez, thank GOD I'm not going THERE.
I need to vent right now. I just saw, on Facebook, a bunch of my classmates talking about how terrible some girl's story is. There are a bunch of them, on a public forum, discussing how exactly they are going to try to make this girl cry. One of them said that if he were to be a T.A. he would email everybody in the class and tell them not to workshop it.
I probably don't even know this girl, but it makes me so angry. At least three of these people have been applying for TAships across the country and I know that at least one of them got in. I can't believe that somebody with so little tact could possibly be in the position of teaching students.
More 80s/90s nostalgia: The Baby-Sitters' Club, long out of print, has been revived. Claudia Kishii still has "almond-shaped eyes" and is still the most fashionable.
Which reminds me, there's a blog devoted to all the outfits Claudia wore in the series, titled (appropriately) What Claudia Wore.
Sorry I'm so late in responding. I don't follow this blog as closely as I did in the beginning, for sanity reasons. ;)
But anyway, it was Rodney Jones that I spoke to (who, by the way, any admitted poets will be incredibly lucky to study with--but that goes for all the faculty).
@ Alyssa: Don't worry about venting. That is AWFUL and disgusting and really, really sad. What bastards. People like that should NOT be teachers (speaking from direct experience with exactly those kinds of teachers).
that is so extremely horrifying and disappointing.
vent away girl. i don't blame you. i'm glad i don't know them. i'm sure, though, that we all can dig into our memories and pull out someone similar to them.
I ranted on my own facebook page about it, but then deleted it, because that's too passive agressive for my taste.
I was once in a class with one of them and she tries to make a girl cry and the rest of the class defended her.
I do understand not liking a story and venting to your friends. But there is a time and a place, and the internet is not that place. And trying to hurt your classmates, instead of genuinely trying to help them be better writers is gross.
Has anybody else ever seen that sort of behavior in workshop classes? There always seem to be those people who act personally offended by the quality of other people's writing.
I'm going to express a different kind of outrage and encourage you to temper your own disbelief.
What's shocking here is that these people would post this in public, in a place that this girl could (ostensibly) read it. Totally inappropriate, and if I were you I would publicly shit on them for it. Not to us, but directly to them, in front of their peers.
But what's not shocking is that future creative writing teachers can be mean-spirited toward their students (or in this case toward their fellow students). I've been through enough bad workshops and seminars to know that there are a truckload of professors and teachers out there who could give a flying frog about anything besides their paycheck. And there are just as many who care about their job, but approach it in a really misguided and egotistical way. This is news to no one.
Almost all of these people, however, exercise the very minimal common sense necessary to avoid saying the wrongheaded things that they think out loud, especially to the person those thoughts are about. So I say you compose yourself and in a very cool, collected way, bring it up in the workshop and out them to everyone else in the workshop.
m.swann: Holy Crap. I love the Claudia blog! I remember, as a girl, eventually just skipping over the 3 or 4 pages that physically described each of the babysitters. (See? My editing instincts were kicking in, even in grade school!) I do recall feeling slightly uncomfortable each time she described Jessi in this hesitant, diminutive 'yes she's black, but all the babysitters don't mind and she's even great with kids!' sort of way. Cringe!
Don't even get me STARTED on the BSC. I was obsessed, and still have all my old books. I also read all of the Baby Sitter's Little Sister series, though I felt like a nerd for doing so. (Fourth graders were, like, SO beneath me.) In fact, Ann M. Martin did a signing at my local book store! I fantasized for weeks about what I would say to her, and exactly how I would communicate that we should be BFFs and that I loved her books in a way that no one else understood...but when the time came to meet her, I hid behind my mother and didn't say a word. She signed two of my books while good ol' mom told Ann how much I loved the BSC. I also loved the terrible, terrible show on the Disney channel.
Aaaaand now I'm going to go read "What Claudia Wore" for hours instead of doing my laundry.
I once had workshop in which a guy wrote horrible, scatching comments on every single person's stories. He wrote on one story of mine that he felt insulted when he finished reading it. And the majority of the time (we discovered, after comparing notes,) he told people their stories had nothing salvagable, and his advice was simply to abandon the pieces. In class he would rant about other students' "lack of clarity" when none of us could even begin to understand what his own stories were supposed to be about -- he purposely made things mysterious and convoluted as if the lack of readability in his pieces were proof he was smarter than the rest of us. Suffice it to say everyone hated him, and the only way we knew how to deal with his comments was to laugh at them.
2,428 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 1801 – 2000 of 2428 Newer› Newest»@Trilbe
I just wanted to note how pleasant and supportive you are. You are clearly deserving of great poetry kharma.
In response to widespread distaste regarding the letter on BU's website:
A lot of you have commented about the unbelievable arrogance of the "welcome" letter from the program director on the Boston University site. I'm currently a senior undergraduate at Boston University, and I should tell you that, when it comes to the administration, arrogance is pretty much the standard operating procedure here. I'm not sure what it is, but for some reason, people working at Boston University seem to have some sense of entitlement that allows them to a) disparage you to your face and b) not really give a shit about the problems of the individual student, even if those problems are a result of the school's gross negligence of its own handbook.
HOWEVER.
In fairness, I should give BU it's proper due. I'm an English major, and I can say without hesitation that the faculty and staff in the English department are phenomenal in every facet one could hope for from a professor. This is especially relevant because the English department and MFA program work closely together, and I sincerely believe that honest, enjoyable people (as are present in the English department) attract other honest, enjoyable people. I should also note that the location of the MFA program specifically is nothing if not romantic. It sits on the third floor of a historic brownstone building on Bay State Rd, which has a view of the Charles River and also happens to be by far and away the nicest part of the BU campus.
Bottom line: I can see where all of you are coming from. The letter is borderline insufferable, and the guy who wrote it (whose name I guess I ought to keep from directly citing here) has a reputation for that kind of nonsense. If you come to BU the likelihood is that you will love your professors - but I cannot lie, I am certain you will abhor the administration.
Sorry this ran so long, just seemed worth saying in wake of all the "let's round up and hang the faculty from BU" chatter.
Also: in my sophomore year, I took the intro to creative writing class that is typically taught by BU MFA students, so if anyone has questions, send me an e-mail: sbhammer@bu.edu.
Thanks, Sean. As someone who wishes to remain in Boston, I was waffling about my BU application. I have a few hesitations about applying (1 year is mighty short), but the faculty looks absolutely incredible... Now, you've made me a lot more confident in the program.
Did anyone here apply to the U of Maryland? I'm having an issue with my application materials. According to the grad school, they never received my materials. However, looking at their website again, the instructions said to mail everything in a packet to the English Department. Did anyone else do that? And does your status for U of Maryland also say that your materials are incomplete? I contacted the creative writing department and I'm waiting to hear back. Just wanted to see if anyone else has had this problem?
Seth:
A while back you made reference to "unbelievable stories" coming out of Hunter's acceptance process last year. Can you elaborate?
Just FYI, someone on the Driftless House blog said they were accepted to Hunter's memoir program last week. A second person posted a cryptic message on Monday about being called to interview at Hunter. S(he) said something about being one of twelve finalists and about Hunter wanting a decision right away, but then they deleted their comment the next day. Thanks.
My UMass Amherst status stil hasn't changed from applied/reviewing your application. Anyone else still in UMass limbo? I think someone ere mentioned they'd notified all acceptances and had no waitlist, so what's the deal?
Holy typoes, Batman.
@Jasmine
I'm in UMass limbo as well. I tried calling them, but after a few rings, it goes to voicemail.
@Miss Parker,
re: U of Md
Yeah, I had the same problem. I kept getting emails saying my application was incomplete, and that my app couldn't be considered until I fixed that. I called the dept. [closed - blizzard] and then wrote, and here's an excerpt:
"Please ignore the automated emails about the ASF. Because we do not use the online system in the same way that other graduate programs at UMD use it (and because we prefer to receive the bulk of the app. materials by mail in hard copy), we do not update the information online. Basically, your status online will be forever incomplete."
Basically, unless you hear from the dept about missing materials, all your stuff is in.
Hope that helps. If not, let me know.
And good luck! UMD should be notifying next week according to Suburban Extasies.
Mila,
I'm not a caller. After being a pest, and watching others be really huge pests, in a different application process for a specific organization, an application process which is turning out to have many parallels to this one, I know all I really have to do is wait and let time do its job and everything will come on its own. I'm trying to be less anxious in general and not do this time around what I did with the aforementioned application which was torture myself, but impatience is a failing of mine. Among the 5 schools I know have notified that I applied to and have heard nothing from, UMass is the only one with a status to check that, according to others, actually works, so it's getting the full brunt of my impatience.
That was rambly and possibly incoherent; I'm sorry.
Syracuse: rejeeeeeeeeected. Even though I knew it was coming, still suffering from mildly paralyzing self-doubt and anxiety. What gives, brain?
@Jeremy
Oh man that makes me feel so much better! There's nothing worse than waking up to an email from a grad admissions department telling you they have no knowledge of your giant packet that you sent over a month ago...
Thanks again! And good luck to you as well!
Miss Parker,
A while ago, I asked UMD (the creative writing folks, not the main grad office) about that very thing. I was assured that though they have all my materials, they won't be updating anything on the online system, since they print everything then work from hard copy. The materials status will apparently never be updated from incomplete, but they'll contact us if there's anything missing. (Not that I'm suggesting don't ask for confirmation; I'm neurotic enough that I'd probably email anyway to hear it for myself.)
-an entirely different Emma
Sorry for the repeat info -- this is what I get for forgetting my password from disuse!
@Nick McRae: Yay! I love it. Congratulations, friend.
So, I figure the more spots Nick McRae gets, the more places he'll have to turn down for secondary candidates like myself. Listen, Nick, keep the tally going.
I kid. I'm genuinely happy for you!! Your work is beautiful.
AND congratulations to both Emmas. Those are both excellent programs!
Hi all, just popping by with congrats to everyone who has heard good news — Nick, you're on a roll, man! — and encouragement for everyone else. I don't know about you guys, but when I look at my list of schools on TSE, a good half aren't set to notify until early- to mid-March. Repeat after me: We're just getting started!
You've all got at least two cheerleaders in my neck of the woods: Me, and my boyfriend, who now asks, "How's everyone holding up?" when I pop open my laptop in the mornings.
@Danielle Thanks for the encouragement. I am in the same boat--bad GPA, small school, etc. In fact, I worried over this so much, I didn't even think to worry about the quality of my writing, which I get to do now of course!
@Nick Many congratulations! You deserve it. I am so glad we are not applying to the same places. ;)
As for me, I applied to a small number of "Tortoise" schools, so I am in waiting hell. Glad to have such excellent company!
@Katie: I wish my boyfriend would respond to my blog obsession that way. He says, "Come on! Turn that shit off! You're going to give yourself a heart attack!"
@els
Yeah thanks. I already called the Creative Writing Department and left a fairly lengthy voicemail clearly in the stage before you start screaming into a pillow. I've had a lot of issues with other programs "misplacing" things...ya know putting them under the wrong name, changing my birthday, indexing them wrong...so it's been a long journey...who else is ready for it to be over?
@ Miss Parker, Jeremy, els
Same exact problem here. It's ridiculous how much easier these schools could make things for us (and their secretaries) by just telling us these things up front on their website.
@Tracy:
Agreed! I guess it's just all part of the experience...but yes, U of MD, if you're reading this, I'd recommend putting something on your application page saying that since it's sent to the department directly, all those systematic emails can be ignore...because frankly it's just scary thinking your stuff is lost in the abyss somewhere. Other than that, we're all fans
If anyone is interested (there seem to be quite a few people anxious about their UMass status) I received a paper rejection notice in my mailbox from the graduate school. My status was already changed to “denied” online. I’m in poetry... maybe it is taking a little bit longer to process the fiction rejections or some such thing.
Best,
Aaron
Seth,
Am I mistaken, or is the New School no longer on the CGS Resolution? They were in the past, no?
All this leading to the following question: they can now legally request and demand a deposit and signature before April 15th?
Many thanks!
Yeah Nick! That's how you do. I've heard only great things from my friends who workshopped with Beth Ann at conferences. But now I'm staring at my phone angrily.
Tom Franklin-- sir-- you know I'd do you proud. We both have hailed, at one point or another, from southern Alabama. Sure, we have different aesthetics. You go for the rough and ready realism; I'm a bit of a pansy. But truly... we'd work well together! Workshops would be phenomenal! I'd bring tea and scones in everyday! Do you hear me? I would learn to make scones!
...I'm sure someone on this blog could teach me, right?
I have to second Trilbe on the University of Chicago. I spent a year there getting my MA, and it's pretty phenomenal. I miss Hyde Park, despite the scary-ass emails I'd get from campus security: "Don't walk under the Metra overpass at night. You'll get shot. Or raped. Or raped, then shot." And Suzanne Buffam and Chicu Reddy are awesome!
Song of the day - "Stay Positive," The Hold Steady. Woooooo!
And congrats to Nick! You're living the dream, man.
Wow, congrats Nick! That's the first Mississippi notification, isn't it? And kaybay, and everyone else, congrats. Sorry, also been staying away from the blog a bit to avoid artificial creation of nerves. (The whole refresh, refresh, recaffinate, refresh problem.) Very exciting!
I have to say, I really am surprised by the UNCW situation - and not because the self-interest of an institution would surprise me. I just can't figure out why UNCW would want to give its favorite candidates exploding offers. If UNCW likes someone's work enough to offer them funding, shouldn't it follow that they're willing to hold out for their top choice's decision??
I mean, my God, it's not like they're selling used cars - or if they are, ostensibly, who the 'buyer' is matters to them. Even if they did think great candidates were largely fungible, wouldn't they still want there to be a good mutual fit. Two weeks is really tight, especially if an admitted candidate wants to fly out to visit the school.
I'd recommend to UNCW that they urge admitted candidates to let them know as soon as possible if they are sure they will not accept UNCW's offer, but not give them an urgent deadline. Then they can follow up periodically in a non-pressured way, asking where the admitted candidate is in their decision-making process (to ensure they're notified in a timely fashion if a candidate has decided against UNCW).
Putting aside what the right or ethical thing to do is (for the sake of my point), it seems to me that this approach would actually be to UNCW's advantage because they'd get more of their top choice candidates (who have made the most educated decision possible and are excited and fully informed about the school). They'd also find out ASAP when a spot was going to be freed up, allowing them to move down their list as expeditiously as possible.
Are there other people out there that have received neither an offer from Syracuse nor the courteous email rejection?
By posting this, I am assuring that I will get that email within the next hour. Like the phone ringing as soon as you sit on the toilet.
Topic: Northwestern vs. the University of Chicago
I'll give my alma mater a little boost: Northwestern and U Chicago are both great schools! I don't know how you could compare them academically.
U Chicago's Gothic revival architecture is beautiful and Hyde Park has the city's best bookstores, but U Chicago has a reputation (empirically true from my POV; I've dated two U Chicagoans) for being an anti-social, claustrophobic environment. Hyde Park doesn't help, since the L comes nowhere near it, and Washington Park to the West (down the charming Midway plaisance) is terrifying at night.
Hyde Park is great (the Point is one of my favorite places in the city), but the surrounding neighborhoods have a lot of (complex) problems.
Topic: Syracuse, Amherst, et al Rejections
Haven't received a Syracuse rejection email or a DENIED Amherst status.
Re: Syracuse rejections
They've been sending them out in batches for some odd reason (maybe as they're processed?).
Acceptances and waitlists have gone out, so unfortunately, it just seems a matter of time.
Northwestern vs. U Chicago ADDENDUM
Sure, U Chicago has the atomic chain reaction. And Northwestern? One of my screenwriting professors wrote Don't Tell Mom the Baby Sitter's Dead. Ya burnt!
Re: Publication history
I don't have a long track record, but I won a national contest last year (top 10 literary print mag, pub forthcoming -- fiction) and placed in two others. Regardless, I've been rejected by Wisconsin and Syracuse and likely Michigan and Iowa.
Which either means I suck and the editors at the magazines are wrong or it's a reviewed lottery.
In either case, publication history doesn't matter or doesn't have a chance to.
@M. Swann, what you say is very true of the UChicago undergrads - many of the ones I encountered were little balls of fraying nerves: very intense, very smart, and very neurotic. That said, I met many pleasant, sociable people in my MA program and at the Divinity School, and the undergrads in the poetry workshops I attended seemed like nice, balanced people.
Teaching High School English
Hey guys,
I hate to bring up the whole teaching thing again because I know that it was discussed, like, 20 mailbags ago. BUT, I know there are a lot of teachers out there (and I'm assuming some are high school English teachers), and I'm just kind of wondering what you think of your job, if there are certain things you love/hate about it (aside from dealing with the administration...it seems like that is a common complaint of almost all teachers), and any advice or comments you might have for someone thinking about choosing that as a career.
Sorry, I know that these are really broad questions (so feel free to just skip right on over my comment if you wish), but I am considering getting my teaching credential and am curious about teaching high school. I have always thought that I would choose elementary school if I ever did decide to teach, but lately high school has seemed slightly more appealing/intriguing to me. I'd love to hear from any of you teachers out there, but am specifically interested in hearing the thoughts of high school English teachers and elementary school teachers, as those are the main areas that I am considering.
Thanks so much!
Sarah
@M. Swann: Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead????
Christina Applegate, coming-of-age, FASHION, teenage lies that somehow work to impress parents, bb guns, ugly children. What more could we ask for from the cinema, I ask you? I loved that shit.
@Chris
That sucks, but on the bright side sounds like you've got a good pub. Where can we see your work soon?
just got my syracuse rejection. i have STILL not heard anything from wash u. they already sent out waitlist notifications, right? is anyone else still waiting on them?
Yeah, DTMTBD is a top-10 movie of all time. I've watched Christina Applegate's hideous fashion show at the end more times than I want to admit. And yeah, I got CHILLS when I found out my professor wrote it (to be 19 again!).
yeah, i watched Don't Tell Mom The Babysitter's Dead a month or so ago and i mean, it holds up. then i looked up the kid with the dreamy blue eyes because i always had a major crush on him as a tween. turns out he died in 2000 from an accidental drug overdose. way to bring down my mood, imdb.
@MFAguy - I saw your post a few pages back - Congrats on the VA Tech waitlist! I hope you make it in! Blacksburg would be a cool town to write in, and sounds like they have a great program.
Thanks Red, I keeping my fingers crossed!
hey guys.
so I'm sort of at my wits end, here. I applied to UNCW in fiction -- last week, one person heard s/he was accepted on Friday. BUT someone else reported that UNCW wasn't done with fiction decisions yet, and wouldn't be done until this week.
THEN there was mention yesterday of rolling admissions... ahhhh!!! So, if I haven't heard, should I assume that I'm likely not getting in, or would that be completely irrational/pessimistic? I want to call them, but their website asks for us to not call/email... and after yesterday's CGSR/UNCW debate (eeek!) I doubt they're worrying about the anxiety of a wee applicant such as myself. I'll worry about funding later (if I get in anywhere!!!)
Anyone have any insight? Any insider information? Anyone who didn't apply to UNCW willing to call? (I'll call one of yours!)
otherwise, I'll be here pouting silently in my sad little cubicle... forever...
beedeecee: I knew I liked you.
I just got a GNE and it's simultaneously causing insanity and joy.
Seeing as how I created somewhat of a debate on U of C vs. Northwestern, allow me to weigh in.
The only way to settle this is to look at the facts. And by facts I mean which mascot is better than the other. Wildcat Vs. Maroon. Over. Give me a break a maroon, really, U of C? That's just silly.
In all seriousness, though, I only said Northwestern is the best in Chicago (they do have a Chicago campus as well) with poetic license. I love U of C and I'd like to comment on the overall stuffyness of the school by saying that I was at a party there once where a good friend of mine walked around naked for most of the party, had someone fashion a toga for him out of computer paper, then set the toga on fire and danced.
Jasmine: That's exciting. Try to hone in on the joy portion of the endorphin overdose.
franny + beedeecee = MFA BFFs
and i am officially losing it.
Man, we've lost SO MANY* teen heartthrobs from the 80's and 90's. River Phoenix, Christopher Pettiet, Jonathan Brandis, Brad Renfro. Who am I leaving out?
*Not that many, really, but EMOTIONALLY many
beedeecee: I'm totally losing my shit. I've got my fingers crossed that the next month brings meaningful resolution for us. I'd like my mental stability back.
M. Swann: Emotionally we're bankrupt. When Seaquest ended, part of all of us died (may Jonathan Brandis rest in peace).
See, I'm not sure I knew about that one. How did he croak??
@m. swann: i know! trying to remember more, but failing miserably. a lot of them seem fairly under the radar.
@franny: yes, i really just need the end of march to get here so i can collect all of my rejections and resume my *normal* brand of crazy ... until this time next year. :)
i believe jonathan brandis committed suicide, if i'm not mistaken.
@M. Swann -- I've never heard of Christopher Pettiet, Jonathan Brandis, and Brad Renfro. Was I living in a cave for the past 20 years?
Franny,
He hanged himself. Not the way I want to remember him. I'd prefer the images of him wheezing into his inhaler (Sidekicks), conversing with dolphins (Seaquest), and dressing up like a girl to win the girls' soccer league (Ladybugs).
@Beedee
Yeah, Brandis did commit suicide. I totally idolized him when he was in Sea Quest haha. And at one pt. I actually believed that Doogie Howser was a REAL doctor. Oh, to be young again : - ) [not that I'm old]
Ohhh, Jonathan Brandis. How I loved you when I was watching Neverending Story II, worst sequel of all time.
@ Woon
Maybe it's because you're a guy?
Also, save for Brandis, I dunno who the other dudes are either.
(I'm a lady, btw.)
Noono: Yours is a good approach. I was just thinking "What can I do that's productive, that will bring progress to my work if I have to apply again next year?". I'm not sure. Read. Workshops? Keep up the hard work. Network more?
I write poetry, but also for the screen. I may end up throwing more of my weight into our current manuscript. It will undoubtedly feel good to do something that WILL affect change or outcome: I work hard, continue to workshop our script, and it will turn into something I'm proud of and something that can succeed regardless of an admissions committee's reaction to it.
@WT: please do not get me started on doogie howser. posters and pinups (from tiger beat, duh) of neil patrick harris all over my bedroom walls and door. i would call my friend and we'd sing the theme song together, and then spend the entire episode talking about how cute he was. i miss the 90s.
@ Noono
how many schools do you have left? try to stay positive!! (I really should practice what I preach...) Maybe you did deserve to be humbled a bit, but you also are probably being too hard on yourself. This process is really soul-crushing. Just because you aren't getting in anywhere (yet) does NOT mean you don't deserve to get in.... it's just the game we're playing. Don't forget that.
@Jasmine
Congrats on the good news email! Can I ask where from/what genre?
Jasmine,
Welcome to purgatory. I've had a GNE since February 4th with no indication of any official news coming out of my school yet. Try to keep your wits about you (it's been almost impossible for me), and on the off chance it's from the same school I got mine from, hopefully we'll be seeing each other around this fall!
Woon,
I feel like a white-bearded sifu at the top of a mountain, waiting to teach you. You've got a lot to learn.
I'd begin with Ladybugs (Jonathan Brandis, Rodney Dangerfield, and Jackée [yes, Jackée]), which, like a lot of other not-very-good movies released more than a decade ago, is available entirely on youtube:
http://tinyurl.com/yfe3gbp
Anyone remember that show "Out of this world"? (about the half alien teenage girl who talked to her dad via a crystal by her bed and could freeze time when she touched her fingers). I used to think she was such a fox haha.
Oh, and I went to high school with Larisa Oleynick (Secret World of Alex Mack/ 10 Things I hate about You/ 3rd Rock from the Sun)
AHHHHHHH!
beedeecee! I love that you were in love with NPH. For me, it started with Macauley Culkin, but really escalated with Elijah Wood (Forever Young, anyone?). I'd write in my Lisa Frank diary about how I could chance run into him.
I recently saw Brad Renfro on an old episode of Law and Order (or one of those shows - I don't know the difference). His hair was receding! He was playing this revolting young 20-something who worked in security at the airport and watched his brother brutalize sex workers in his spare time. SO CREEPY. Oh! And his brother was Ethan Embry (circa Empire Records, Can't Hardly Wait) who was also puffy and receding. So gross.
@WT: Yes!! I used to do the finger gesture (and the Bewitched nose twitch) hoping it would happen.
Also, I wanted to be Larisa Oleynik. Bottom line.
Whynotbecause,
I'm in fiction. I'm hesitant to reveal the school because I don't want to cause ripples of anxiety here or any problems for the school; I'm sorry I can't say more. I did not intend to tease, just to express a little of my own crazy that's busting out of the seams.
Dreux,
I totally thought of you and your GNE purgatory when I got mine! Hope you're not losing your mind.
Noono, nearly all your posts on this blog resonate with my experience applying this time around. I, too, thought I had a great shot at the schools on my list (all top six) but I'm slowly starting to realize that my optimism was somewhat naive, though I still stubbornly cling to the idea that I have talent and potential. I'm intrigued--do you want to exchange writing samples? scoobysnickerdoodle at gmail
Franny,
Let us not forget Topenga (Danielle Fishel)! Oh, Topenga *sigh*
WT
I love Topanga! And Sean.
Topenga was recently on the cover of a magazine. Her related article was about battling an eating disorder. Sweet, sweet Topenga. Growing up in the 80's and 90's did have its highlights.
WT reminiscing about his TV girlfriends is cracking me the hell up!
But on the Boy Meets World front I think I was one of a million girls who had a major thing for Shawn.
M. Swann: My brother's friends were extras in Ladybugs. It was filmed here in Colorful Colorado. Woon, do yourself a favor and listen to the advice.
Also, Brad Renfro in The Client. Those were better times.
lol Jasmine, great minds...
Rather embarrassed to say this, but I wrote a fan letter to Larisa Oleynik as a kid. Had a terrible crush on her. Got a signed picture and little note, all the way back to Ireland. It's still in my drawer...accumulating geek chic I'd imagine.
I know I'm late, but congratulations, Nick! Way to go!
@ Noono
I've got to commiserate with your anxiety. I went balls out too, and only applied to schools that were super awesome. My "safeties" were also exceptionally awesome (and have notified... others, not me.)
It's shitty to say, but I'm kind of resigned to the fact that I won't get into school. Ugh, that felt terrible to type out. And now I'm trying to figure out a Plan B. I talked to my chocolatier friend about it last night and he asked, "Well, what do you want to do?"
"The MFA. School. That's what I want to do."
"So, you're just gonna keep trying to avoid real life?"
"Fuck that. Writing is 'real life' too." I got indignant, obviously. "Whatever, dude, you make chocolate mustaches as your 'real life.'"
Then he asked me to join his chocolate army as my Plan B. Also, reading that Vice story about MFAs was insane. It used to cost $10 to apply to Iowa? Oh, how times have changed.
WreckingLight
I wrote a letter to Seth Green, whom I still love. He sent me a postcard back with a doodle and everything.
@M Swan
I love Brad Renfro! I've loved him ever since Tom & Huck. Pitter patter goes my 11 year old heart.
I'm surprised River Phoenix never made it to James Dean status... he totally deserves it.
Franny,
Incredible. We should all be so lucky in life to have a cocktail conversation topic like this: "I was in one fuzzy background shot of Ladybugs, believe it or not."
I just found out via an email that I've been accepted to Montana! (Hi, Emmas!) I'm stunned and so happy. I know they're still figuring out financial aid/TA positions, so I definitely don't think they're done notifying, for those who have applied.
Best of luck to everyone!
Congratulations to CB and the Emmas! (You could start a band?!)Wonderful news!!!
I wrote a letter to CBS because I wanted to be on "The Nanny." Of all the shows on TV, that was the one I knew was going to propel me to stardom. I received a very nice response on official letterhead suggesting I get an agent. Total fake-out letter - I was sure it contained my contract.
Now, that I think about it, this MFA process is exactly the same.
Coughdrop,
Shawn is clearly the hottest of all TGIF boys.
@ WT & Franny & beedeecee & M.Swann:
OHMYGOSH. Just catching up. I was totally in the Jonathan Brandis fanclub and probably still have a letter he sent out to his fans talking about SeaQuest before it came out (there were hand-drawn submarines on it). I watched Ladybugs more times than I care to admit.
My other teen heartthrob that I don't think anyone's mentioned? Shane McDermott. He was on the very short-lived Swans Crossing, a teen soap opera. And THEN he was in Airborne (the rollerblading movie) with Seth Green
Just googled him. He now sells real estate in Galveston...?
I was just thinking about how much I miss Boy Meets World. Anyone else love Jack from that show? Oh, the Lawrence brothers!!
Jasmine,
Have you seen the Seth Green freak out video? He apparently gets mugged in a studio parking lot and then starts yelling at a 6 foot plus security guard and flips over a table. I sort of wanted him to turn into a Pomeranian in Buffy instead of a full sized werewolf. I'm actually catching up on Angel now (which I think is a way better show). It's weird watching David Boreanaz as the vampire with soul (bring on the funk) and then see him on Bones (which is addicting in its own right)
Is it me or have things been pretty slow the past day or two? It's only taking me a minute or two to get caught up with the blog.
Also, to whoever was saying they didn't get their WUSTL rejection yet, I'd just email them. Last year, they totally forgot to send mine :- (
Congrats CB!
So today I am staying PERFECTLY CALM about the whole Montana thing. Yep.
Let's talk some more about Boy Meets World. :P
@Sarah
I teach high school English in Arizona. I activated the link to my email on my profile, and I'll leave it active for about 24 hours. Email me, and I'll tell you everything you want to know about my experiences in teaching high school English.
WT
Obsessive Buffy and Angel fan with encyclopedic knowledge over here. I just thought Oz should be ginger.
I'm guiding my friend through Buffy right now. We're about to watch Lovers' Walk.
And Angel isn't better, it's just different.
On the Angel subject...Does anyone else think David Boreanaz is much more attractive nowadays than he was back then? I love him on Bones.
I think it's probably pretty wise not to disclose which schools sent you GNEs, especially if that school hasn't been the source of much official news yet. If Jasmine's email is anything like mine, it's very informal and preliminary. It would be a cruel thing to send out if the person wasn't going to be admitted, and it's very flattering, but nonetheless it doesn't seem the like sort of thing intended for public dissemination.
If a blog was a real thing you had to peel open to write in, this blog would be a Lisa Frank Trapper Keeper. Lots of love.
omg Buffy and boys meets world and montana oh my!
Congrats @ CB!
nerves for me!
David Boreanaz was much more attractive back in the day. Or maybe it was because I was 14. Maybe this is how kids today feel about pat robertson or whoever.
(obviously I mean robert pattinson)
Jasmine,
True about Angel. I guess it's a bit darker - sort of like how DS9 was darker for the Star Trek franchise than TNG or how Saved by the Bell: The College Years could deal with other issues that the original couldn't b/c the characters hadn't matured enough yet (yea, I love Joss Whedon and I'm a Star Trek and BSG fan)
Chrissy, I can shamefully say that David Boreanaz is the ONLY reason I watch Bones (because it sure as hell isn't the writing or good acting).
And Ashley I am thinking good thoughts for us re: Montana! Although if another Emma gets in I'm calling it a conspiracy.
Chrissy,
I found David Boreanaz's incredibly lacking acting skillz before he got his own show got in the way of his attractiveness. Also, during the course of Angel, he (and other Buffyverse men) got tubbier as all the women on Buffy got more skeletal.
Now he's back to being pretty fit and his acting's better (it got better through the duration of Angel), so it's a better package in general.
He's not the top of my list for Buffyverse men though. A little too shaped like a refrigerator for me. Wesley's the love of my life.
@ Chrissy & WT:
I love David Boreanaz, and def. think Angel was better. I think he was most attractive when he was significantly younger (Buffy) and now (Bones). Also, I heart Bones. And really want Angela and Hodgins to get back together.
@amanda.
wow, airborne. thank you for reminding me about that one. thought my college roommmate and i were the only people on the planet who watched, and loved that movie.
Coughdrop,
We've got this one.
omg! i almost forgot about johnathan brandis. i used to swoon over that kid.
and what about johnathan jackson in camp nowhere? tell me i wasn't the only girl writing hearts with our names in it.
there is an infamous story in my family. my single mom of three needed to buy a car and had finally gathered enough money to put a down payment on one; however, i was mad because i thought that money should've been used to send me on a cruise with JTT.
yes, i know. the memory is beyond shameful.
Also I think opening the Buffy can of worms here has just subjected everyone to a flurry of off-topic comments that blatantly show my geekhood and Buffy devotion and vast, vast show knowledge. I sincerely apologize to the majority of you who simply don't care.
Later as I became a bit older and the show pushed me to do so I started to really like James Marsters.
Ashley Brooke
Um, Spike is only not the love of my life because he's Buffy's and I can't have him.
James Marsters goes without even saying, man.
re: Boreanz
I get the feeling that he had his frontal slope shaved off and is looking a lot less neanderthally in Bones.
Also, shout out to "Small Wonder" because who doesn't want to be a robot girl with a periscope neck and the ability to read a book just by flipping through it. Dang.
I think if I had been, like, an American studies major, I would have written my thesis on Buffy.
@ greg: Definitely not the only one! ;)
Also, what about Wil Wheaton? I had a huge crush on him on Star Trek: TNG. I had a real thing for the scrawny guys back on my early teen years.
Go Gerard Butler!
Or not..lol
Buffy is the better show overall than Angel, but there are very few things in existence that can rival the final season of Angel. In particular, the final run beginning with A Hole in the World. Joss knew the secret of good TV - put your characters through hell. And DEAR GOD did that season do that.
@amanda
If Hodgins and Angela don't get back together, I will be very angry at the world.
Haha.
Congrats Montana people!
I'm thinking of emailing them to let them know they're more than welcome to call me Emma if that's what it takes.
Twin Peaks anyone? Sherilyn Fenn? Sean Young? They dropped off like whoa. And now Kyle Maclachlan's doing Desperate Housewives? (pun...well, yeah, intended) Sad times...sad, sad times.
I wanted to answer the question someone asked about teaching English at the high school level earlier in the mailbag, and do so anecdotally:
As I've been waiting for a definitive answer from my GNE school, or from some positive news from any other school to apply to, I've been teaching English, which I do for a living.
Then, my car broke down. I drive an old sports car, so parts are hard to come by and it has been in the shop for a couple weeks now, making it very difficult for me to get to work regularly. And you would not believe how much I miss it. I didn't realize it before, but it was my students/job that were largely responsible for keeping me sane and it's been much more difficult to avoid getting really caught up in the MFA stuff without that to turn to. So it's obviously an important part of my life and a job I love.
That being said, it all depends on the school you work for, whether the administration is supportive of the teachers, and whether you are cut out for teaching. More than almost any other profession, I believe that you're either born an educator, or you're not. A seasoned, talented educator is better than an inexperienced one, but I've seen very few people come into the field with no natural knack for it and somehow develop an ability over time.
YES TWIN PEAKS
and YES LOST
Ashley, look at this: http://i47.tinypic.com/2ziwpkj.jpg
That picture is my new favorite thing ever.
@Dreux - it's time to ditch the sports car. You're getting older and you should be driving more reliable sedans.
@ Dreux: How long have you been teaching?
congrats, cb!
@franny: macauley! he didn't grow up like i expected but i kind of respect him more for that. indie cred and whatnot.
@amanda: swans crossing. wow. i know i watched it but don't remember a thing about it. also, one of my best friends in elementary school had a huge crush on wil wheaton and i used to tease her incessantly. we just emailed about it last week, in fact.
ok, i'm just going to put this out there: did anyone watch MMC? and if you were a fan, i probably don't have to explain this, but that's the (new) mickey mouse club.
@ Ashley
OH NOOO!! I couldn't stop my eyes from reading the spoiler! Come on NetFlix! I'm only halfway through Season 5. Claire's alive!?!? No--don't tell me!!
Woon,
The price of admission for Porsche ownership is definitely the occasional pain-in-the-ass electrical problem, but in this case it's aggravated by the fact that I just moved to a new town, so I had to find a new mechanic. And the one I used this time has done a really terrible job of getting things done promptly. I won't be using them again, but in the meantime I have to tough it out. Such is the risk you take when you go looking for a new mechanic, especially if you drive a German car.
Amanda,
On and off for a few years now, full-time for a couple.
Just to add to the Buffy discussion, I find it unwatchable. I use the present tense "find" because I'm watching it on DVD now. Season 1. Ugh.
Courtney,
I'M SORRY. I bolded the word spoiler but it didn't show up enough! I'm sorrrryyy. Don't worry, I didn't say anything about any of the biggest secrets.
@woon I tell most people to just skip season 1. With the exception of a few episodes in the beginning of the second season, it really isn't required. The show didn't really find its legs until Spike showed up at the beginning of Season 2. That's when it got GOOD.
I took a shower and managed to rein in the beast that is my love of Buffy. Now nobody mention it again, or I'll get more excited than I do when I get a GNE.
I'm even considering a Better Business Bureau complaint against this particular shop. My mechanic (the only guy in the shop capable of working on my car) left the country for two weeks, and when he got back was shocked to find that the owner hadn't given me back my car to drive while he was gone. I was out my car two weeks while it was just sitting there. On top of that they didn't give me any estimates before doing work or ordering parts, and so forth.
Porsche ownership is an experience of itself, and believe me, when the wrong part breaks, it sucks. You have to get the part through an authorized parts dealer that has to match it with the serial number of the defective component, and if the part is back-ordered, it can take ages. But stuff like failing to notify me of my mechanic's availability and failing to give me an estimate before doing work are just inexcusable. This is probably the worst mechanic experience I've ever had (and for a Porsche owner, that's really saying something) and once they no longer have my car to hold hostage, I'll probably do whatever I can to besmirch the shop's name.
Re. Lost. I really liked the first three seasons and the flash forward concept in Season 4. However, the content of Season 4 left me feeling empty. Season 5 was blah. And I'm getting disappointed in Season 6.
Rejected from all 12 schools. Thank you to UW Madison for doing it so early at the beginning of Feb.
@Dreux So, what IS the benefit of Porsche ownership that a comparable car like BMW couldn't offer?
Ack! Could we possibly have a rule against posting tv spoilers (especially LOST)?? It's a little difficult to avoid them when I'm skimming every message for any notification updates...
(Not trying in the least to be a bitch here, I swear. If I'm the only person who cares about these things, I'll happily shut up and just hang out on Driftless.)
@R.D. Charleston -- Cheer up. Depending on your age and circumstance, you can do this again in a couple of years. There's really no deadline for the MFA. If you're in your 20s, I'd say you've got a lifetime of good writing ahead of you. If you're in your 60s, I'd say, damn, forget about the MFA and just write. Good luck.
I really don't think that my spoiler was anything serious and I put a pretty fair warning up but I am deleting that post. Sorry to anybody I ruined stuff for. :(
@ Woon-- thanks, I'm young and have time to write, but I just spent so much of my money applying to programs; considering i will continue to write no matter what, I'd say the money I spent is the real bummer right now.
Ashley,
Don't feel bad! You definitely did put up a fair warning...I think it was someone else who wrote a response to you that included something about Claire, and I had to tear my eyes away in fear. I'm just really hardcore about LOST and I haven't been able to watch ANY of season 6 yet and it's killing me! :(
@SamStod,
Well, Beemers are going to shit the bed just as often as Porsches. They're no more reliable in their old age, and Porsches are no less reliable when they're new.
The difference between a BMW and a Porsche, within the same price points, is in equipment vs. performance. Porsches are woefully underequipped for their price points, while BMWs have a lot of luxury options. BMWs also ride smooth and quiet, while Porsches can be noisy cars and are really low to the ground, so you're going to feel all the bumps.
But with very few exceptions, BMWs don't feel like or drive like sports cars. And with very few exceptions, almost all Porsches do. Compared to BMWs, Porsches take off like rockets, steer like go-karts, etc.
My Porsche is a blast to drive, but an enormous pain to own. It's a rich man's car, and I'm not a rich man. I would tell anyone considering a Porsche (especially an older or used one, like mine) to either be ready for some accompanying headaches or to buy an old beater for 1000 dollars or less to drive when the Porsche is in the shop.
My next car probably will not be a Porsche, but mine has at least 150,000 more miles left on the engine and I'll drive it until that goes, headaches and all, and will just try to enjoy the good parts of it.
I've done 6-10 hour roadtrips in the Porsche and the time just flies because it's a fun car to drive. But god forbid I ever broke down in the middle of one of those, because I'd imagine trying to find someone to fix it outside of a major metro area would be a real exercise in futility.
@ Hilary,
I'm in the middle of Chicu's "Notes For Visitors" right now and it's absolutely blowing my mind. What a baller!
Also, if you haven't read the chapbook he did with Dan Beachy-Quick, "Mobius Crowns," you have to as soon as humanly possible.
@ R. D. Charleston
Don't think of the money as a waste! Think of it as an investment in a dream. I read somewhere that it's not where you get in that matters in terms of your success in life, it's where you apply--what you aspire to. Just keep writing and keep your head up.
@Jasmine
Wesley and Amy Acker in Angel season 5 FTW, definitely. Nothing else in the whole Whedonverse compares.
@SamStod,
This video review will give you an idea of what the car I drive is like:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1rCLkyG-F0
Nathaniel,
I'm putting in a vote for Buffy and Spike. And I have a really long, thought out justification for that and it's just not appropriate for a blog and I seriously need to shut up about it already.
But yeah, Wesley and Fred/Illyria is pretty awesome. Though by the end there, I just started calling Angel the torture Wes hour.
And now I'm shutting up about Buffy, I swear.
@Frogs (from a while ago)
Thanks, hope you enjoy the mix!
Like I said before, I have some serious reservations about BU's program, but the fact that it's literally within walking distance of where I'm living now made it irresistible!
Also, @Sean
Thanks for the reassurance about BU's program! I'm trying to get in a more positive mindset about it, since I've already applied now.
@Jasmine
I would also throw in a vote for Anya...
Okay, shutting up about Buffy now too.
Fan of Buffy, Lost, and Jane Austen here.
@Woon - Catching up - Clueless Emma is the best.
I just saw 2007 Persuasion on PBS and Captain Wentworth is definitely a welcome distraction from MFA rejection. Ooh la la.
@Jasmine & others - BUFFY! Have you read the graphic novels? I need to catch up. I love Buffy, Spike, and Anya. Still sad that SMG has not found any good roles since.
LOST!! Part of why Lost is awesome is because Buffy writers are involved. '90s flashback - I still see Jack as Charlie on Party of Five.
smiling raindrops,
I'm sorryss! I am loving season 6 so far and I think you will too! get watching! The espidoses are on Hulu and there are still lottttttsss of surprised for you!
I really need to build LOST back into my schedule. It's so intense for me it's practically a process of its own. The main thing holding me back is that I can barely remember Season 5 so I wanted to marathon that before starting on the latest episodes...
so a question...I got an email on Feb. 13 saying I was waitlisted for an MA program (Creative Writing concentration) and I was in fact the FIRST person on the waitlist. Yay! It was a very nice email and he said if I had any questions or wanted to talk to call or write. I replied a few days later asking about how many people they were accepting along with a funding question. I have yet to receive a response. It's been over a week now...not sure if I should write back? Call? See what happens?
4 official rejections. 5 assumed rejections. 1 waitlist. Nothing from Texas State...yet.
also the teaching question: I am a high school Chemistry/Physical science teacher. I am having an awful year in terms of administration and pushing standardized test scores down our throat. I live in Florida where my B school's grade dropped to a D. We have been dealing with a bunch of GARBAGE. Besides that, I like my job (sometimes?). I wouldn't be able to teach anything lower than high school because I feel you can actually talk to the students, have real conversations, and they can appreciate the sarcasm I throw their way. Although apparently you're not supposed to be sarcastic to students, it makes them feel bad. Ooops.... ;)
No worries, Ashley, my dear!!
Melissa,
email or call as much as you want. Just be nice and humble about it, and apologize if you're bugging them during a busy time. These people know that this process is crazy making and they extended the invitation to call.
If you call/email like 4 or 5 times and there's no response, you might want to give it a rest, but you're not there yet.
@dreux that makes sense. I'm not a car guy, but I can appreciate people who have strong preferences. I have uptime and being able to fit in it (which at 6'4 isn't always easy) as my primary needs in a car.
I will admit, though, that I totally pictured you as David Duchovney on Californication with your unwashsed Porsche covered in dings and missing a headlight.
LOL, SamStod. My Porsche is in pretty good shape, and I'm not a sex addict, but I guess that's not the absolute worst image someone could have of me.
Maybe 10 years from now? I'll keep you updated.
Angel's final season was brilliant, and it finished so perfectly I was *almost* not sad it ended, if only for that moment.
Lady Gaga versus Beyonce. Discuss amongst yourselves.
Also: I'm still waiting on 11 programs, 9 of which I am no longer interested in and would like to receive a refund (via direct deposit, preferably) of the application fees.
@klairkwilty Is that a real question? Gaga f/ Beyonce. Song is at least 300 times better (this is a scientific measurement, not an estimation).
@ Melissa:
I wouldn't be able to teach if I couldn't be sarcastic now and then. I teach English to 4th through 7th graders, and (from what I've seen) the ability to react well to sarcasm starts in 6th grade. I totally agree with you about the conversation thing. This has been a great learning experience for me, as I originally thought I couldn't deal with younger kids at all.
Now I know I can deal with them, but I'd still rather be teaching undergrads. Sometimes you just need to be able to say "shit" or "damnit" (and other such) in class. And I'm not always a great self-censor.
dreux,
did you report your acceptance to driftless house? i think one of the main points of that site is to report first acceptances. and not letting people know what school it is might cause MORE anxiety than revealing it. maybe? yes? no?
"Telephone" is a gem. I love songs about dancing. I also like songs about cell phones (answering them, not answering them, and especially hanging up on someone). "Telephone" is the best of both worlds--a song about dancing and not answering one's cell phone. I mean, hell. Who can top that?
@ Jasmine
Perfectly understandable (re: GNE disclosure). Didn't mean to intrude, just a glutton for information these days...
I think it's in poor taste to email an acceptance. It's much more exciting to receive a phone call. Email is so impersonal.
Though acceptances of any kind are nice.
Cecil,
If I had one, I'd report it to Chris Leslie-Hynan via email.
But what I have definitely doesn't qualify as an acceptance. If it did, I'd be a much happier guy. Also, I'm just one of many people on the blog harboring a GNE from an unnamed school.
@ cb and the Emmas - I did my undergrad (in creative writing) at Montana and absolutely loved it. I didn't apply for the MFA only because I wanted a different experience. I've taken classes with most of the profs, and if you want to talk about specifics or Missoula in general I'd be happy to share what I know. Drop me a line: kendra.shaw (at) gmail.com
So... we're all still in the dark about the Iowa situation?
Dave's Killer Bread of Bob's Red Mill?
But I jest. No, srsly. Are they dunz with notifications?
I was born in 1987 yayyyy
@pencore
I think the answer to any question about any school or any notifications is simply, "We don't really know." I've resigned myself to having absolutely no idea. This takes a bit of the stress off. :)
God, I love today. I'm not freaking out at all; I'm just doubled over laughing.
@amanda: I knew I could count on my other MFA BFF to chime in on the 90's crushes (beedeecee, you should join Amanda and me at the Denver AWP in April).
After all these 80's/90's flashbacks, I won't bring up My Two Dads (or the girl's truck bed). I won't.
@Brad - I know, he's fantastic! And a great teacher, too. Very thoughtful. I will get on that chapbook, stat. Sounds amazing.
You should also look into Suzanne Buffam's "Past Imperfect." Not my precise cup of tea, but she's very, very good. And, again, a wonderful teacher.
I'm still in UMass limbo with the "applied" status... and pretending that this means something.
I've also decided to come up with a good thing about each rejection I may receive. So far, the only definitive one is Syracuse. So, good thing about getting rejected from Syracuse: I won't have to take the Essay Seminar and write that major third-year essay. That kind of sounds like a drag. When I still held out hope for Syracuse, I said, well, for their awesome program and funding package I'd suck it up and write the damn essay. But now I won't have to! Yay?
@ Sarah
I'd look into your local school district's volunteer program and spend some time in your area's schools to get a realistic idea of how it works there (or in whichever area you'd be teaching after getting certified). That would also allow you to talk to teachers and get a good idea of what to expect. Teaching isn't for everyone, and it can be maddening- but also hilarious, fulfilling, and magical.
In other news, I can't believe I missed the majority of the 80's/90's reminiscing. I was obsessed with Lisa Frank, TGIF, and Devon Sawa. Also, I preferred 16 magazine to TigerBeat. Once, I wrote them a letter because they said that Brandy was going to star in Sister Act 2, but I knew it was Lauryn Hill. Those idiots.
Also, whoever mentioned Camp Nowhere, I love you.
@franny: i'm supposed to visit LA in april, but denver sounds so much nicer. tempted ...
well, if you didn't mention My Two Dads, i totally didn't have a crush on the long-haired dad at the time. (geez, i have outed almost all of my crazy-embarrassing 90s crushes today.)
As long as we're reminiscing about the 80s/90s and magazines, please tell me I'm not the only one still traumatized by the folding of Sassy.
@FWD: no, you are certainly not the only one. i found a huge stack of old Sassy issues a couple of years ago (including the one with kurt cobain/courtney love on the cover) at my mom's house. couldn't find them last year. i'm too afraid to ask if she's found them yet.
@ Laura T
Personally, I'm so glad I didn't get into Michigan. Ann Arbor is way too cold. And they're way too crazy about football. And two of the USA ice dancer olympians are there. Geez, thank GOD I'm not going THERE.
(cue my silent weeping)
I need to vent right now. I just saw, on Facebook, a bunch of my classmates talking about how terrible some girl's story is. There are a bunch of them, on a public forum, discussing how exactly they are going to try to make this girl cry. One of them said that if he were to be a T.A. he would email everybody in the class and tell them not to workshop it.
I probably don't even know this girl, but it makes me so angry. At least three of these people have been applying for TAships across the country and I know that at least one of them got in. I can't believe that somebody with so little tact could possibly be in the position of teaching students.
Ugh, sorry, I needed to vent.
More 80s/90s nostalgia: The Baby-Sitters' Club, long out of print, has been revived. Claudia Kishii still has "almond-shaped eyes" and is still the most fashionable.
Which reminds me, there's a blog devoted to all the outfits Claudia wore in the series, titled (appropriately) What Claudia Wore.
http://whatclaudiawore.blogspot.com/
@Kitty in a Cathouse
Sorry I'm so late in responding. I don't follow this blog as closely as I did in the beginning, for sanity reasons. ;)
But anyway, it was Rodney Jones that I spoke to (who, by the way, any admitted poets will be incredibly lucky to study with--but that goes for all the faculty).
@ digapony
YAYYY YOU LOVED CAMP NOWHERE TOO!!! <3
@ Alyssa: Don't worry about venting. That is AWFUL and disgusting and really, really sad. What bastards. People like that should NOT be teachers (speaking from direct experience with exactly those kinds of teachers).
@Alyssa,
WOW. That is borderline harassment. You could anonymously e-mail their professor or someone at the school. That isn't right AT ALL.
@ amanda
that is so extremely horrifying and disappointing.
vent away girl. i don't blame you. i'm glad i don't know them. i'm sure, though, that we all can dig into our memories and pull out someone similar to them.
hopes and cheers to never becoming like that!
@the montana emma's and friends
are any of you in for poetry? or only fiction?
I ranted on my own facebook page about it, but then deleted it, because that's too passive agressive for my taste.
I was once in a class with one of them and she tries to make a girl cry and the rest of the class defended her.
I do understand not liking a story and venting to your friends. But there is a time and a place, and the internet is not that place. And trying to hurt your classmates, instead of genuinely trying to help them be better writers is gross.
Has anybody else ever seen that sort of behavior in workshop classes? There always seem to be those people who act personally offended by the quality of other people's writing.
Alyssa,
I'm going to express a different kind of outrage and encourage you to temper your own disbelief.
What's shocking here is that these people would post this in public, in a place that this girl could (ostensibly) read it. Totally inappropriate, and if I were you I would publicly shit on them for it. Not to us, but directly to them, in front of their peers.
But what's not shocking is that future creative writing teachers can be mean-spirited toward their students (or in this case toward their fellow students). I've been through enough bad workshops and seminars to know that there are a truckload of professors and teachers out there who could give a flying frog about anything besides their paycheck. And there are just as many who care about their job, but approach it in a really misguided and egotistical way. This is news to no one.
Almost all of these people, however, exercise the very minimal common sense necessary to avoid saying the wrongheaded things that they think out loud, especially to the person those thoughts are about. So I say you compose yourself and in a very cool, collected way, bring it up in the workshop and out them to everyone else in the workshop.
@ Mike
I'm fiction, and I think the others are too, but not sure!
m.swann: Holy Crap. I love the Claudia blog! I remember, as a girl, eventually just skipping over the 3 or 4 pages that physically described each of the babysitters. (See? My editing instincts were kicking in, even in grade school!) I do recall feeling slightly uncomfortable each time she described Jessi in this hesitant, diminutive 'yes she's black, but all the babysitters don't mind and she's even great with kids!' sort of way. Cringe!
@ M.Swann
Don't even get me STARTED on the BSC. I was obsessed, and still have all my old books. I also read all of the Baby Sitter's Little Sister series, though I felt like a nerd for doing so. (Fourth graders were, like, SO beneath me.) In fact, Ann M. Martin did a signing at my local book store! I fantasized for weeks about what I would say to her, and exactly how I would communicate that we should be BFFs and that I loved her books in a way that no one else understood...but when the time came to meet her, I hid behind my mother and didn't say a word. She signed two of my books while good ol' mom told Ann how much I loved the BSC. I also loved the terrible, terrible show on the Disney channel.
Aaaaand now I'm going to go read "What Claudia Wore" for hours instead of doing my laundry.
@cb
that's a (very mild) relief, thanks.
re: horrible workshop behavior
I once had workshop in which a guy wrote horrible, scatching comments on every single person's stories. He wrote on one story of mine that he felt insulted when he finished reading it. And the majority of the time (we discovered, after comparing notes,) he told people their stories had nothing salvagable, and his advice was simply to abandon the pieces. In class he would rant about other students' "lack of clarity" when none of us could even begin to understand what his own stories were supposed to be about -- he purposely made things mysterious and convoluted as if the lack of readability in his pieces were proof he was smarter than the rest of us. Suffice it to say everyone hated him, and the only way we knew how to deal with his comments was to laugh at them.
(Excuse my typos!)
I also have to add that I was too young to comprehend thinly-veiled (or not-so-thinly veiled) racism. And Claudia and Stacey were the coolest.
@ smiling
Your typos just made your comment wholly unreadable. I'm so upset with you for making me go through that.
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