I agree with many of your classic author choices. Hemingway (but more The Sun Also Rises and less A Farewell to Arms), Fitzgerald, Faulkner, Flannery O'Connor (probably my favorite). I'd add Willa Cather, Sinclair Lewis, Ralph Ellison and Robert Penn Warren. There are certain obvious common threads.
I'd also add Thomas Pynchon, David Foster Wallace and Jonathan Safran Foer as more contemporary picks.
John Irving? I don't know. So many intellectuals I know LOVE him. I like primarily depressing or absurd stories, but he just never stuck with me.
@Brad, I get your point. I've applied only to funded programs, so it's a non-issue for me. Still, I so value the opportunity to participate in a cohort, so in some vulnerable moments I wonder if it wouldn't be my worst mistake to apply to underfunded programs with less selectivity/smaller applicant pools JUST TO GET THE CHANCE TO ATTEND.
For example, were money not an issue, I'd apply to Mills and St. Mary's (I love Brenda Hillman and Graham Foust).
I hadn't sent them an email asking about the status of my application. They just sent me an email saying they had good news. The thing is, he said my application is still under review, so it's not an official acceptance. From the sounds of it, they haven't made any decisions at all. I'm sorry to have worried you, and I certainly wish you the best of luck!
Anyone else noticed some MFA programs/graduate schools require your thesis to be available online? Some places have opt out arrangements like VCU, but others like NC State there is no choice. It's a little worrying!
Seth, thanks for answering my question/s. It makes a lot of sense. I had wondered myself what you had stated as, sort of, the solution to the dilemma: schools like Arizona simply cut out the spots that are currently unfunded.
It seems that this new motto, to refuse to take on (substantial) debt for an MFA, may prove to be the most revolutionary idea in the whole bucket. If applicants stop applying to places like Columbia, Columbia will change eventually to fit what we as applicants demand.
However, as you stated previously, there is a systemic resistance to these kinds of changes, because as the programs get smaller so do the faculties, administrations, etc. Columbia relishes their current setup because it benefits them, even if that benefit is at the expense of its students.
And it is no coincidence, Seth, that many of your critics throughout the last year or so (especially) are employed by Columbia, The New School, and the like. Your blog and its contents pose a direct threat to the status quo and the people benefitting from it, no matter how unfair things may be to the young writers themselves.
It's more than simply assuming that their disagreement is the result of their program being ranked worse than they think it should be; it's the underlying fact that, in order for these programs to survive, they will HAVE to change, against their will/s, and some of these departments will have to trim in order to fit the new landscape, which means jobs will be lost in the process.
Granted, you have many critics with valid concerns and zero ties whatsoever to these programs. But I think of someone like David Lehman, for example. He probably won't lose his job any time soon, but you see my point.
What you're doing and have been doing is vitally important to us, as applicants, and not all that different from what, say, a public defender, would do. ; ) And though you may not continue your blog, in all its scope, forever.. things will continue to change. Let's make sure that the change is in favor of the applicants and young writers themselves, and that these bloated, unfunded programs become what we need them to be precisely because we made them so.
ugh - somehow GMU *still* (two attempts in) doesn't have an official copy of my primary transcript; so I don't think my application has even been *sent* from the grad school to the MFA program. woe ...
There's an article today in the Providence Journal about record applications at Brown this year (graduate and undergraduate). Nothing specific about the MFA program, but I thought some Brown applicants might like to read it anyway:
@Laura T, Re. Brown -- I'm sure Emma Watson's presence at the campus has something to do with all those application numbers. They're all roughly the same age, those Harry Potter minions. And of course, Brown is a good Ivy name.
Back in the late 1980s, law school applications went up because of a little show called "LA Law."
In the 2000s, there were more people trying to enter the field of forensic science via chemistry and biology. Why? The CSI shows.
I'm sure the day someone invents the time machine or the transporter, physics applications will jump all across the country.
@Woon - I gather you were joking about Emma Watson, but it's so hard to tell in a forum like this. If memory serves, there wasn't any great spike in applications when Natalie Portman decided to attend Harvard nor Brooke Shields Princeton. :D
On the waiting front, I missed a call from upstate New York while walking the dog this morning. I checked the voicemail, hoping it was Syracuse finally seeing the light, but it was just some corporate attorney I had called on Friday. Oh, Syracuse, why don't you love me? ;)
Haha, I wouldn't be surprised. I live in Rhode Island and some friends in Providence have seen Emma Watson around (luckily they're not crazed HP fans who would swarm her for an autograph). When she enrolled, there was a huge article announcing it in the local paper! And since not much exciting news usually happens in little RI other than "unemployment hits 13%," it caused kind of a stir...
I don't think Natalie Portman or Brooke Shields were part of anything as hugely popular as Harry Potter at the time of their enrollment to those schools lol You can bet a good number of those applying are at least hoping they'll see Emma Watson there (and maybe become BFFs with her so they can tell all their other friends who they don't like as much b/c they aren't famous haha).
I really, really really really really doubt that more than 15-25 people would apply to Brown just because of Emma Watson. They are all guys who think if they prove they know enough about harry potter she will sleep with them. This is my scientific guess.
In all seriousness, the article mentions the largest spike being due to an increase in foreign applicants, which may have occurred for any number of reasons. But yeah, Emma Watson's enrollment definitely brought attention to Brown. People were probably wondering "Why not Harvard or Yale?" and starting to look into Brown more seriously to see what was so special about it. So she may have had a more indirect, less fan-based effect on the increase, if any.
George Mason says they don't have ANY of my stuff on their application status thing (including "2 letters of recommendation," which is odd, considering they were submitted online). Does anyone else have this problem? I'm going to call them later today, but I thought I'd ask here first.
Mike: George Mason's online system is new. It said my materials were missing for weeks after they were received. I would call, but they'll probably just tell you to wait for them to call you if anything is actually missing.
I guess that means I should stop trying to perfect my petronas charm. It's Leviosa not Leviosaaah!
But in all seriousness, I think Brown (for undergrads anyway) is attractive compared to some other ivies in that is behaves more like a small liberal arts college but still has the luster of an ivy. The curriculum is set up in such a way that encourages interdisciplinary thinking and allows students to focus on what they are interested (i.e "no" core curriculum). A few of my friends transferred there from the likes of Yale and Princeton b/c they felt the school was more culturally diverse. So, Emma Watson aside, there's the above.
speaking of brown, someone from prov, RI googled 'brandi wells author' and found my blog. Of course, it's probably just a student. Gotta have dreams though.
@ Jennifer -- Right now, the barrage of questions may overwhelm you, so I'll just wait till I have a better idea of what I'm looking at to send over an email. I definitely appreciate the offer, and I will certainly take you up on it soon enough!
Just had to share that I really, really need to get a life, because when I read WT's post above, my first thought was, "That's not how you spell patronus!"
Good lord.
(@WT, this is by no means a snippy correction of your spelling - really, who gives a shit? - but merely a sad comment on my own priorities in attempts to amuse myself, and possibly others.)
I've been lurking around here for a few weeks, but the anxiety has just gotten too much to not comment! I got an email from Wisconsin a couple of weeks ago telling me that they would send out decisions by February 12. So soon, and yet, so far! (also, the 'by' is killing me! I would rather they just said 'on'!)
DigAPony, I think we're both sad. After laughing at WT's comment, I noticed the spelling too. And then I was like, "And what does a patronus charm have to do with levitation anyway?" Again, Wandering Tree, we're being silly - I actually had a laugh at my Orwellian surveillance of Harry Potter scriptures.
@ Asheley - not to start an already played out thread, but I have never read a Harry Potter book either. I have noticed HP movies playing in the background sometimes, but I have never felt compelled to actually watch one, and I think I only saw some fragments (people racing brooms in a circle or something).
I lived and died Lloyd Alexander's Prydain Chronicles as a kid, along with other sci-fi/fantasy stuff my wife describes as "the anti-game." (As in, "he got game.") So you think I'd be a prime demo. But nah. No thanks. Never gave it a thought.
Been off for a while. Just checking in. And, as far as the whole people google searching applicants thing goes, here is a fun little anecdote:
When you google my name, you get some links to stuff I've written or shows I've been in or whatnot (and Facebook, I'm sure), and you also get a bunch of different articles and statements in legalize concerning a dude with my name who apparently has moved from somewhere up north down to TN (where I live) and is on parole for a bunch of heinous sexual predator type convictions.
So...hey, internet searchers: I'm not that dude. Just saying.
Both Vanderbilt and Hunter still indicate online that my GRE and transcripts haven't been received (I sent them in November). Is anyone else having that problem? I e-mailed both schools a couple weeks ago but haven't heard back.
Meanwhile, hang in there, everybody! (I'm barely hanging in myself. This is so hard!) And congrats to everyone who has gotten good news already.
Thanx, crats. Your curse (thank you, HP wiki) transformed me into an MFA applicant stricken with debilitating anxiety as well as a right wrist deformed from obsessively clicking "refresh" on the MFA blog. And to think that, before this magical coup, I was a CEO about to receive a bonus as large as it was undeserved. Quite a fall, and all from some whimsy I had dismissed as the province of lazy school children and lonesome cat ladies...
Yikes, Brandi! That's a harsh thing to say about a stranger who may have been murdered. Based on my google search she is also pretty average looking! Don't h8 too much, I'm sure nobody will suspect she is you. The r&b singer, on the other hand...
Same thing with my apps at UVA and Vanderbilt. I think someone said in the last mailbag that this is normal for Vanderbilt. I too emailed both after resending everything and haven't received a reply, so I'm guessing it's nothing to worry about.
If you google my name, you get a folk singer, a high school golf champion and an award-winning trampolinist! They are going to think I'm incredibly talented.
There's also a snarky British girl with my name on Twitter.
when you google my name, you get an australian who teaches scuba, a welsh woman who teaches scuba, or a jazz musician. i'm none of the three, but it's awesome others with my name are leading cool lives. :-)
on HP: I fully admit to having read the books & having seen each film so far in the movie theatres. And I enjoyed it all.
It's also a great tool for getting little 'uns to read. :-)
all i get when i google myself is, well, me. which is not great, considering the results include what i consider a rather unflattering picture of me on my company's website, and some boring articles written years ago. blech.
@koru: re: getting the young'ns to read - agreed. i have heard from most everyone that the books are quite well-written, which makes me respect the series even if i'm not interested in reading it. also, i'm a huge fan of YA fiction and like when YA books have crossover appeal for adults.
My Google results are pretty tepid. A few reviews of records bands I've been in put out that mention me by name, some forum banter that ends up including my name because one of those bands gets mentioned or someone knows me personally. That's really about it. And unless folks at these programs are punk rockers, I seriously doubt they want to expose their eardrums to the bands I played in long enough to get a sense of them, haha.
Jamie, I really liked your write-up of 'Ran', man! It was too good and meaty to be immediately deluged by non-Kurosawa related comments. Those people and their MFA's...I haven't actually seen it myself for a long time but know exactly what you mean about its weird staginess, and the dreamlike and bare landscape. A pretentious comparison with 'King Lear' that struck me was Edgar tricking Gloucester into thinking he's committing suicide when actually he's just falling off a tiny ledge - I think Kurosawa, in his own way, beautifully echoes that ability to draw out huge feelings from characters inhabiting spaces & landscapes that seem so empty. The characters look so stark and formal too (to the modern viewer), so when their drama explodes it's incredibly powerful. I'll never forget the final scene - the colour, the cliff.
Your comment was excellent, though, man! i feel it should be given more sustained attention but I haven't seen 'Ran' for so long I can't do that - i'll have to rewatch it soon. And let everyone else get back to non-tangential whatever they were talking about. MFA's or something.
if you can't afford another ticket at the film forum, by the way, you can find the whole thing on youtube ;)
Hey, everyone. I'm not sure if this question has been asked before, so I'm sorry if it sounds repetitive. I got started on my MFA applications a little too late, and missed the deadlines for the schools I wanted to apply to. Are there any programs that begin in the Spring? Thanks guys!
ps. i love chatting with everyone here but am also disappearing for a while - im far calmer about this whole shenanigan when i'm not subscribing to MFA blog posts! Good luck everyone - I'll be thinking about you (but hopefully not too much).
Ashley, If you're looking for funding, you should wait for 2010. I know Texas State accepts some students for the spring, but I think if you want to compete for funding you would have to wait a semester.
@beeceedee (and not to prolong the HP debate! :p ) one of the GREAT things about those books and kids is that JK Rowling brings in topics for adults to discuss with kids ... bullies, friendship, honesty and lying, adults telling kids to keep 'secrets', etc ... lots of teaching moments to let the kids know how you, as a parent or someday-parent, set your values and they books are loose enough you can agree/disagree easily while still talking to your kiddos.
And the plots and characters make the kids want to read, so hey, winners all around! :-)
@ koru - I found myself reading a Terminator novelization on the web the other day. Then another day, I was reading Cameron's original "Avatar" treatment (he DEFINITELY would not get into an MFA program, if it's any consolation) - almost all 150 pages of it.
Point: my not feeling the HP is no claim of literary pedigree.
It's okay, Brandi, when you google my name you get a girl who went to the same undergrad that I did and is now a journalist. She makes my name look good. Also lots of myspace profiles of people about my age. You have to add my middle name or know where to look to actually find the right me.
I don't know how I forgot Penn Warren. The first time I read 'Blackberry Winter' I had to take a good week to think it over and come to terms with it. It shook me.
@Jamie, I'm not meaning to disparage those who don't like HP ... I'm just saying there are some good uses for HP, and it IS children/young adult fiction, anyway ...
Plus, in the immortal words of Winnie the Pooh, I myself "am a a bear of very little brain" and I liked HP! :p
Do your search logs give you the ip address on that google search? You could just go plug it in to the Whois on arin.net, to see if it's a ip block owned by Brown.
@ Eli - thanks for the response. I went alone to the film, so that was sort of my chance to go off on it.
Enjoy your hiatus. It's probably the healthy thing to do, but my whole neurological reward system has convinced me that if I just click this mouse on refresh enough, I will eventually get the satisfaction I am craving, and I can't seem to think much beyond that. There, this click should do the trick...
I also find it helps to pre-emptively accept my 7 out of 7 rejections by pretending this blog was somewhere cool on the interwebs i hung out for a while, talked about Grind Time, the Wire, cats and Kurosawa with some wicked people, and that was that.
Thanks, Ashley Brooke. I hoped to be able to defer my undergrad loans a little longer by getting into a spring program, but you're right - funding is super important.
The google results for my first and last name are semi-accurate, although you also get results from some southern politician. But when you google my first, middle, and last name, a rather embarrassing / totally non-academic poem shows up in the results. Haha! I'm probably doomed to rejection if MFA programs see the words "G-Unit" in one of my poems. Oh well.
I am trying to financially model my potential MFA time. Today, for example, I determined that, based on my experience, my living expenses in NYC (excluding tuition) would be about 23K per year. I was pretty generous on this figure and could probably get it lower. But generous also = realistic, IMO.
Anyone else doing anything like this? I'm willing to spend a little money on this MFA (NOT Columbia type money), so I'm liking the CUNY schools as an in-stater.
I'm also trying to determine how much I should shoot for, income-wise. And this info will come in handy if a school should offer me partial funding - what's my minimum?
Then, for other fully funded schools (Cornell, Iowa, Hopkins, Brown, Michener, UVa), I wonder if/how many students borrow on top of their stipends. Living on that kind of money takes considerable discipline, after all. I want to see how far their funding goes in Ithaca, Providence, etc.
Anyone else crunching the numbers on their potential MFAs?
Vanderbilt hasn't updated my transcripts or LOR's in close to six weeks. Every time I've called I get an answering machine, and no one responds to my e-mails. I'm just hoping that they're neglecting their application status updates because they're too busy reading manuscripts to care.
I noticed a lot of my schools said they would make decisions "between Feb. 15th and April 15th," and that I could contact the department with questions on my application's status. I was originally under the impression that I was supposed to just wait until I heard from them, but is it considered better etiquette (ie, showing interest) to contact schools after the 15th and ask about one's application status? I'd love any advice on what is considered "pushy" and what is considered "interested."
Jamie, I'm not worried about living on a diet. In my final undergraduate year living in Ithaca, NY (2007), I got a Masters in living on a strict budget. I was an RA, so I had an on-campus pad for almost-free. But I was also an Int'l student - if I wanted a job outside of the RA gig (i.e., a gig that paid actual money), it had to be an on-campus job, and I couldn't go over 10hrs/week. To sum up: I didn't have to pay rent, but I wasn't on a meal-plan, and I could only earn $70/week to cover food, bills, miscellaneous fees, etc. But it worked. Made up my budget; got some cooking stuff donated to me by the fam and cooked strategically (cooked on certain nights; had left-overs on others). My grocery bill came to $80+/fortnight. But, believe me, when you're cooking for yourself, that takes care of a lot. I never went hungry or anything - I had enough food, in fact, to often have a friend or two eat with me. With the rest of my money I took care of phone bills, books, the occasional pizza and, ever so rarely, a night out on the town. Growing up poor in a third-world country, though, one learns to live without too much.
Megan, I was wondering the same thing this morning. I haven't even logged in since I finished submitting. I wondered if this would be seen as a lack of interest.
You can feel free to follow up about your application status, but your choice to do so (or not to do so) will not in any way influence how favorably they view your application.
@ Cratty - That's an impressive budget you kept to. I luckily did not grow up poor, but in writing I have selected a non-lucrative path for myself, and so must learn more about living very efficiently (to put a slight euphemism on it). While publishing doesn't pay megabucks, and I am fairly frugal, it has kept me at a middle-class comfort level in NYC. If I stay here, giving that up will be necessary and difficult.
Umm, I didn't apply to Michener, but I saw this on TSE: Decisions for UT AUSTIN are now available on-line at the ut direct website. Check the blue highlighted area under status check. I was not admitted for fiction. If you're denied, it should say the following:
"Your application has been given careful consideration by the committee on Graduate Studies. On the basis of their recommendation, your application has been denied."
Just got a Brooklyn College Fake-out in the mail. Bahaha I'm sure if anyone had been in the mail area with me just now and seen my face seize up the way it did when I saw the logo on that letter, they would've been slightly concerned...
Yeah, I saw the Michener post over on TSE. I checked my status, I couldn't find anything though. Maybe I wasn't at the right page. The only pertinent page I could find was the one that lists materials that have been recorded as received. Over that, there's still the little note that says your application has been forwarded to blah blah blah and is under review.
Hmmm, for Michener my application status still says the same thing it's said all along: "We have received all credentials required to process your application. Your file has been forwarded to the Graduate Committee for review."
Maybe they haven't updated it yet since I'm towards the end of the alphabet? Isn't it awfully early for there to be any Michener activity?
Maslo-I got that letter yesterday. It's such a cold letter because its a simple envelop so immediately you think rejection. Then you open it and the first five words are: "We are pleased to inform you," so then you're like ACCEPTED?! "that your application has been forwarded over to the department of your choice for review."
I should have reported it when I got it, could have saved you the double shock.
"We've received all the items needed to review your application for admission."
The data entry tech is probably on a smoke break, and will put up the rejection message for me shortly. Maybe I should do a screen grab so I can relive all the good times...
@Raine - I thought it was early too. Maybe they updated the first round of rejections? I don't know. I didn't even apply there, but after seeing that it really feels like the season has begun, haha
Sorry Ryan, getting rejected from Michener really doesn't mean that your writing is "bad." I mean, doesn't everybody get rejected from UT? It sure feels like it! You don't want to melt in Texas anyway, it's soooo hot there!
Also, I played the Google game and nothing about the real me came up, but I did find a MySpace profile with this display name:
"Sexi Curves and Highway eyes!!!!"
The profile pic is a busty lady in a jacuzzi, and the song currently assaulting my ears is called "Shawty is Da Shit!" I really, sincerely hope people think this is me. I mean, this girl obviously has an exciting life. And Highway eyes, whatever those are.
Well it looks like I got rejected by UT Austin too. Disappointing, but not nearly as disappointing as Digapony's discovery. I really thought I was the only one with highway eyes. I'm devastated.
No worries, 4mai. My freak-out only lasted for maybe 15-20 seconds (which included staring at the envelope, ripping it open, and reading those first few lines frantically), so it's cool :)
Oh, my google search is quite interesting. Apparently, someone with my name was molested by some nuns somewhere up North. Good to know. Another person makes video game something or others, another died recently, and one's an elementary school teacher. One woman is a renowned geneticist or something. Yeah, giving the name some cred! I didn't know there were so many people with my name :D
@ DigAPony - LOL. Yeah, I can get weird about Harry Potter sometimes. I ain't ashamed to say it - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was the first book I ever seriously read . . . and that was like, 8 yrs ago, so I think I was 17. I don't mind, tho - we all start somewhere (however [relatively] late).
So I think "highway eyes" is pretty great, no lies. It makes me think of being strung-out on the road, or of this new song I've found: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siqgF-6sJKE
Sorry to hear about the UT applicants that didn't get in. I know it's no consolation, but they get so many applications that, essentially, no one gets in.
If no one gets in, does that mean UT has ghost writers?
Man, you step away from the computer for a good five minutes and things start to heat up!
I was in no way prepared for MIchener to begin making decisions this early...my page still says "We have received all credentials required to process your application," but God knows I'll be reloading it for the rest of the day. No rest for the wicked...
also, by the way, on your ut-austin michener status page, are the statement of purpose and writing sample fields orange rather than blue? mine are orange and say "needed." i was just hoping this meant that they wouldn't be registered on that website but rather would be received separately by the creative writing department. thanks.
Yes, I first read All the King's Men in a course called Politics and Literature and he blew my mind. Come to think of it, I think I also read It Could Happen Here (Sinclair Lewis) in that same class. Robert Penn Warren's essays are also very special. He has such beautiful diction.
Sorry about UT, friends. I ended up not applying to Michener and just thought to myself "Good job saving that $70". So, on whom did UT settle, I wonder??
My phone is still so far up my ass, I'm at risk of an abscess.
@Ashley - I appreciate you trying to cheer me up but I'm pretty sure they're singing about sexi curves' highway eyes in that song. It's okay, I'm over it.
[slowly takes off cowboy hat, boots... puts them in box marked "UT Austin Outfit"... plays youtube video of Highway Eyes again... googles himself... crying]
Sorry for all the Michener folks who got rejected today. Like everyone else has said, they get sooooo many apps that it's incredibly difficult to get in there (especially for fiction, I think).
Even though rejections absolutely suck, as I've said in other posts, I think an early rejection is at least a little bit less stressful than just waiting, waiting, waiting (and not hearing anything).
I have a completely random question for all of you writers out there...
I find that whenever I write first-person narratives, I ALWAYS (without exception) choose to write as a male. Obviously if it is essential to my story that the narrator is a woman, then fine, I will write as a woman, but whenever I am starting out a story and the sex of the narrator is undecided/neutral, I always go with the male perspective. And it's not like a make a conscious decision to use a male narrator...I will just start writing and realize later on that (once again) I have made my narrator a man. Does that make sense?
Anyways, I guess I am wondering what other people do...Do any of you tend to stick exclusively (or mainly) to either male or female narrators, or I am just weird? :)
That's is a very interesting thing that you just said. I was thinking about my own stories, and while I write a lot about women, I mainly write about them in the 3rd person. I did write one story in the 1st person, and lo and behold, it was a male narrator... hmmmmm... I'm going to contemplate some psychological or sociological explanation for this and I'll get back to you. :)
I usually write from a female narrator's point of view, but not always. I'd say 80% of the time that I write first person my narrator is female. To me, it is more natural.
Sorry to everybody who got the bad news from UT, I imagine that they're only started to sort through their millions of applications and are just crossing off anything that doesn't make the shortlist right away. Read: almost everyone.
I checked my account at Texas. It says at the bottom:
"An official confirmation of our admission decision will be mailed to your permanent address."
It says nothing about acceptance or rejection. A part of me clings to hope, the other believes rejection is inevitable.
Do you go through days when you think you stink? Just last week, I reread my writing samples and I thought they were brilliant. The decisions made, the rhythm, the usage of certain words. And today, I think they're just crap. Sometimes, I mutter to myself, "Who do you think you're kidding?"
I think our particular discipline makes it doubly difficult - the self-doubt, that is.
I said something about this on here the other day. I feel like f*cking Sybil. One moment, you (the universal you) think "I'm one of a kind" and the next, you think "I'm a dime a dozen". It's so bizarre.
I do the same thing. Sometimes things from my writing sample pop into my head, and I think, "Fuck yeah, that is really good, or at least good enough to get an acceptance or two. This is happening, woot!" Then other times I feel like such a flipping amateur it's embarrassing, even just to myself.
Re: narrator gender
I write in both, though I guess female more than male. I enjoy male narrators a little more, I think, and two of my favorite things I've written have had male narrators. It's a fun challenge. I am also paranoid about sounding too cheesy writing from a female perspective, so it's much more difficult for me.
The whole thing reminds me of a particular scene from Dumb and Dumber.
Lloyd: What are my chances? Mary: Not good. Lloyd: You mean, not good like one out of a hundred? Mary: I'd say more like one out of a million. Lloyd: So you're telling me there's a chance!...
Why do some UT applicant's status says simply at the bottom (like mine do):
"An official confirmation of our admission decision will be mailed to your permanent address."
While others say at the top of the status check page (which mine doesn't):
"Your application has been given careful consideration by the committee on Graduate Studies. On the basis of their recommendation, your application has been denied."
I always had a really hard time writing from the male perspective. I grew up with sisters, I went to an all girls high school: I just couldn't get into the mindset.
Then I got married. ;-)
I submitted with my application what I thought was my strongest male-driven story (although it is in third person). It's about a troubled oral surgeon and some hot anesthetized lovemakin'. It's super creepy and made my sister cry. So that's a good thing, right?
It has always said "An official confirmation of our admission decision will be mailed to your permanent address." at the bottom after I completed my app.
accepted at university of wyoming for fiction. got the call while at the grocery store and was jumping around like an idiot in the produce dept. so excited!!
UT--Denied. I'll admit, I'm a little sad. Good thing I already had the wine open. It didn't help that I received a lit mag rejection snail mail today, as well. But---Relax Cool Red is yummy. Case you wondered.
And by the way guys, it did say that an official notice will be mailed to your permanent address prior to today. But if you're not denied, perhaps you've made it to the second round?
re: gender narration, i have only written from a male perspective in the third person, and only once. it's actually something i've been thinking about lately. i don't believe i'd have a problem, as i spend the better part of my day with a bunch of dudes in corporate america and have worked with a majority of men since my first job at age 16. i just seem to gravitate toward the female perspective, but i look forward to getting out of my comfort zone with future stories. most of my guy friends say i think more like a dude anyway, so ...
also, sorry about the michener rejections, guys. it's monday, so here's hoping the worst is behind us this week.
Congratulations to the recent Wyoming and Syracuse acceptees! Man, I grow jealous by the day.
Re. Texas Michener -- Mine doesn't say anything about a rejection. I guess I'm still alive, however long that lasts. (I was going to start my next sentence with "For..." and then I remembered how much I hated reading those sentences in Virginia Woolf novels.)
Ha! Ruth, that's funny, it made me think of a couple of awesomely bad movies that I watch. Has anyone hear heard of or seen The Room or The Troll II??? Oh my God, hilarious. Also, any movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger's favorite little buddy, Franco Columbo is pure gold. Honestly, anyone who needs a good cheer up after a solid rejection NEEDS to watch any of those. At least nobody on this blog writes THAT bad.
@Emily, I applied about a week before the deadline, is that what you mean? Someone else also brought up the point that they might be notifying alphabetically (my last name begins with D).
Yes! Troll II is where it's at. And as for The Room, have you seen the Rifftrax version of it? I don't know if anything could successfully raise spirits after a rejection, but if anyone can do it, it's Tommy Wiseau.
No, Ruth, but that was funny. Why does he say "oh hi"??? Here's one of my favorite scenes from Double Cross on Costa's Island. It may appear to be a scene from a porn, but is in fact not, haha. Just watch the whole clip...
My UT status is the same, but I'm not getting too excited, as I applied in poetry, and it appears that everyone here who got a rejection is in fiction?
To me, that says they might just not have gotten to my genre yet, as far as data entry goes.
Another UT fiction reject here. Maybe they are going alphabetically (my last name starts with a "B").
Ugh. I know UT is ultraselective, but I have this horrible, sinking feeling that I'm not going to get in anywhere.
My sister-in-law said (jokingly) that TX was the only place she'd visit us out of the locations I was applying. So her hopes of an exciting vacation are now dashed too.
I typically write from a 1st person male perspective. But I've done a few stories from limited female perspective. I've found it challenging in a good way. 3rd person in general baffles my mind though.
(I am a male by the way)
Can us Syracuse applicants assume that we didn't get in if we haven't received a "yes" yet like the others?
I'm going to pep talk you people because I'm grading tests right now and I really want something other than the bad vibes on this blog to distract me from my work and cause me to procrastinate.
Getting rejected from the most selective school in the country has no bearing on the quality of your writing. One of my stories was rejected from Virginia Quarterly the other day and I kind of shrugged, like yeah, wasn't going to get published there anyway. I hate to say this, but UT is one of those schools that practically everyone gets rejected from. Others (schools I have also applied to) are Cornell, Iowa, Virginia, and Brown. Vanderbilt is going to be another one this year. Sorry y'all, don't get your hopes up.
I'm not trying to demean anyone's emotions or feelings, please feel however you want to feel. BUT, try to see the big picture here. Try to stay positive. Try to find something POSITIVE in your writing instead of dwelling on the negative. Stop thinking that getting rejected, especially from schools like Texas, is meaningful in any way.
I hate rejections. I have never been published, I have yet to be accepted to any of my programs. I've been rejected from one school and possibly rejected at another (Syracuse). But try to move beyond each rejection. It just wasn't right. It's over, keep chugging.
Love you all, thank you for the brief distraction.
At times like these, I like to turn to textsfromlastnight for solace:
(310): so how do you plan on seducing my econ TA? (818): by telling him that he has a large supply and that i demand it...in my mouth. it shows him that i'm slutty and that i pay attention in econ
@everyone who applied to UT and is getting bad news, or no news that may anxiously unfortunately transform into bad news, i like Rosie's comment from above:
Poop on them!
(not to bring it back to the poop.....)
@c.wink C O N G R A T S ! ! ! looks like the wyoming fiction mystery is getting solved...
@Adam. There was a UT poetry rejection at TSE blog. I don't know what there process is. My last name begins with K, I applied for poetry, and my status is still the same.... who knows what's going on.
I've done some rough calculations for living expenses. I only applied to funded programs (except for one which is half funded - ND) and think I could definitely make it on a stipend. Ideally, I'd like to find something on or off campus to supplement the stipend - nothing major (i.e. 10 hrs a week or something).
---
RE: Narration/Gender
Lately, I've been writing from mostly a male perspective but most of my early stories had female (often lesbian) protagonists and/or narrators.
Ugh, I shall take a look at my UT status now . . .
I actually have to classmates from undergrad that are in the program now. Incredibly lucky devils. I wonder if the program is rejecting as they review or if they already know who is in and are just sending in notifications in waves now? Hmm.
Kaybay, thanks for your pep talk. I think we all have to remember that a rejection really has no bearing on our writing. Even a rejection from a journal like VQR has no bearing on a person's writing. Writers can only get better and what was once thought unattainable has a way of getting closer to ones grasp. Fight the machine.
Yeah, WT, I'm looking into getting a little 10 hr/week thing too outside of TAing. The thing is, I'm determined to pay off my undergraduate loans (plural), so that's where most of any stipend bling would go. Logic be damned; this rent and food thing will work somehow.
2,238 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 400 of 2238 Newer› Newest»Question:
How do most programs notify you if you've been rejected???
--via email?
--via snail-mail?
--via online app status?
@Dreux
I agree with many of your classic author choices. Hemingway (but more The Sun Also Rises and less A Farewell to Arms), Fitzgerald, Faulkner, Flannery O'Connor (probably my favorite). I'd add Willa Cather, Sinclair Lewis, Ralph Ellison and Robert Penn Warren. There are certain obvious common threads.
I'd also add Thomas Pynchon, David Foster Wallace and Jonathan Safran Foer as more contemporary picks.
John Irving? I don't know. So many intellectuals I know LOVE him. I like primarily depressing or absurd stories, but he just never stuck with me.
@Brad, I get your point. I've applied only to funded programs, so it's a non-issue for me. Still, I so value the opportunity to participate in a cohort, so in some vulnerable moments I wonder if it wouldn't be my worst mistake to apply to underfunded programs with less selectivity/smaller applicant pools JUST TO GET THE CHANCE TO ATTEND.
For example, were money not an issue, I'd apply to Mills and St. Mary's (I love Brenda Hillman and Graham Foust).
Alas, money is an issue. Case closed.
@old poet
most of them will be snail mail. i got one or two emails last year though.
Some places you will be able to check online, like UNH.
@ laura
I hadn't sent them an email asking about the status of my application. They just sent me an email saying they had good news. The thing is, he said my application is still under review, so it's not an official acceptance. From the sounds of it, they haven't made any decisions at all. I'm sorry to have worried you, and I certainly wish you the best of luck!
@ Black Water- still sounds pretty exciting! Let us know how it works out, so we can all congratulate you then. :)
Anyone else noticed some MFA programs/graduate schools require your thesis to be available online? Some places have opt out arrangements like VCU, but others like NC State there is no choice. It's a little worrying!
Old Poet-
I received my rejection from UBC via email.
Seth, thanks for answering my question/s. It makes a lot of sense. I had wondered myself what you had stated as, sort of, the solution to the dilemma: schools like Arizona simply cut out the spots that are currently unfunded.
It seems that this new motto, to refuse to take on (substantial) debt for an MFA, may prove to be the most revolutionary idea in the whole bucket. If applicants stop applying to places like Columbia, Columbia will change eventually to fit what we as applicants demand.
However, as you stated previously, there is a systemic resistance to these kinds of changes, because as the programs get smaller so do the faculties, administrations, etc. Columbia relishes their current setup because it benefits them, even if that benefit is at the expense of its students.
And it is no coincidence, Seth, that many of your critics throughout the last year or so (especially) are employed by Columbia, The New School, and the like. Your blog and its contents pose a direct threat to the status quo and the people benefitting from it, no matter how unfair things may be to the young writers themselves.
It's more than simply assuming that their disagreement is the result of their program being ranked worse than they think it should be; it's the underlying fact that, in order for these programs to survive, they will HAVE to change, against their will/s, and some of these departments will have to trim in order to fit the new landscape, which means jobs will be lost in the process.
Granted, you have many critics with valid concerns and zero ties whatsoever to these programs. But I think of someone like David Lehman, for example. He probably won't lose his job any time soon, but you see my point.
What you're doing and have been doing is vitally important to us, as applicants, and not all that different from what, say, a public defender, would do. ; ) And though you may not continue your blog, in all its scope, forever.. things will continue to change. Let's make sure that the change is in favor of the applicants and young writers themselves, and that these bloated, unfunded programs become what we need them to be precisely because we made them so.
Black Water -- My email is on my profile if you have questions about George Mason.
@Jessie - Congratulations!!! Syracuse is such an awesome choice to have!
ugh - somehow GMU *still* (two attempts in) doesn't have an official copy of my primary transcript; so I don't think my application has even been *sent* from the grad school to the MFA program. woe ...
@Seth - I've just sent you a PM, via P&W! I thought that, maybe, not everybody in the world wants to be a part of this discussion...
Trilbe,
Wrote you back.
S.
I am OFFICIALLY freaking out, this week!
subscribing.
GOD i hope i hear this week from somewhere...
There's an article today in the Providence Journal about record applications at Brown this year (graduate and undergraduate). Nothing specific about the MFA program, but I thought some Brown applicants might like to read it anyway:
Interest in Brown hits record high
The good news is that they mention "increased financial support for graduate students."
ahhh, the start of a new week...let the acceptances roll on in!! :D
@Laura T, Re. Brown -- I'm sure Emma Watson's presence at the campus has something to do with all those application numbers. They're all roughly the same age, those Harry Potter minions. And of course, Brown is a good Ivy name.
Back in the late 1980s, law school applications went up because of a little show called "LA Law."
In the 2000s, there were more people trying to enter the field of forensic science via chemistry and biology. Why? The CSI shows.
I'm sure the day someone invents the time machine or the transporter, physics applications will jump all across the country.
Has anyone heard from Wyoming regarding their fiction application? I read on TSE that they've accepted for poetry and nonfiction.
@Andrew
No word on fiction from Wyoming as far as any of us know! But, right there with you! I'm pretty twitchy today. I hope we hear something...
@Woon - I gather you were joking about Emma Watson, but it's so hard to tell in a forum like this. If memory serves, there wasn't any great spike in applications when Natalie Portman decided to attend Harvard nor Brooke Shields Princeton. :D
On the waiting front, I missed a call from upstate New York while walking the dog this morning. I checked the voicemail, hoping it was Syracuse finally seeing the light, but it was just some corporate attorney I had called on Friday. Oh, Syracuse, why don't you love me? ;)
Cheers!
@ Woon,
Haha, I wouldn't be surprised. I live in Rhode Island and some friends in Providence have seen Emma Watson around (luckily they're not crazed HP fans who would swarm her for an autograph). When she enrolled, there was a huge article announcing it in the local paper! And since not much exciting news usually happens in little RI other than "unemployment hits 13%," it caused kind of a stir...
Frankish,
I don't think Natalie Portman or Brooke Shields were part of anything as hugely popular as Harry Potter at the time of their enrollment to those schools lol You can bet a good number of those applying are at least hoping they'll see Emma Watson there (and maybe become BFFs with her so they can tell all their other friends who they don't like as much b/c they aren't famous haha).
I really, really really really really doubt that more than 15-25 people would apply to Brown just because of Emma Watson. They are all guys who think if they prove they know enough about harry potter she will sleep with them. This is my scientific guess.
In all seriousness, the article mentions the largest spike being due to an increase in foreign applicants, which may have occurred for any number of reasons. But yeah, Emma Watson's enrollment definitely brought attention to Brown. People were probably wondering "Why not Harvard or Yale?" and starting to look into Brown more seriously to see what was so special about it. So she may have had a more indirect, less fan-based effect on the increase, if any.
George Mason says they don't have ANY of my stuff on their application status thing (including "2 letters of recommendation," which is odd, considering they were submitted online). Does anyone else have this problem? I'm going to call them later today, but I thought I'd ask here first.
Mike: George Mason's online system is new. It said my materials were missing for weeks after they were received. I would call, but they'll probably just tell you to wait for them to call you if anything is actually missing.
@laura
Thanks, that's reassuring.
Ashley,
re:
I guess that means I should stop trying to perfect my petronas charm. It's Leviosa not Leviosaaah!
But in all seriousness, I think Brown (for undergrads anyway) is attractive compared to some other ivies in that is behaves more like a small liberal arts college but still has the luster of an ivy. The curriculum is set up in such a way that encourages interdisciplinary thinking and allows students to focus on what they are interested (i.e "no" core curriculum). A few of my friends transferred there from the likes of Yale and Princeton b/c they felt the school was more culturally diverse. So, Emma Watson aside, there's the above.
speaking of brown, someone from prov, RI googled 'brandi wells author' and found my blog. Of course, it's probably just a student. Gotta have dreams though.
For those of you about to call GMU, the campus is shut down thanks to the crazy amount of snow we've had so I doubt anyone will be there.
My, it's quiet in here!
@ Jennifer -- Right now, the barrage of questions may overwhelm you, so I'll just wait till I have a better idea of what I'm looking at to send over an email. I definitely appreciate the offer, and I will certainly take you up on it soon enough!
@Brandi
How are you able to check that someone from providence googled you? Teach me the ways of this mysterious internet.
@emily
just google 'clicky' and select the first result. you can use it to monitor a particular site or blog.
Just had to share that I really, really need to get a life, because when I read WT's post above, my first thought was, "That's not how you spell patronus!"
Good lord.
(@WT, this is by no means a snippy correction of your spelling - really, who gives a shit? - but merely a sad comment on my own priorities in attempts to amuse myself, and possibly others.)
Wyoming, why you makin' us fiction writers crazy? Not Cool, man, not cool.
So it looks like there have been two Syracuse acceptances posted on TSE.
I've been lurking around here for a few weeks, but the anxiety has just gotten too much to not comment! I got an email from Wisconsin a couple of weeks ago telling me that they would send out decisions by February 12. So soon, and yet, so far!
(also, the 'by' is killing me! I would rather they just said 'on'!)
...for fiction.
DigAPony, I think we're both sad. After laughing at WT's comment, I noticed the spelling too. And then I was like, "And what does a patronus charm have to do with levitation anyway?"
Again, Wandering Tree, we're being silly - I actually had a laugh at my Orwellian surveillance of Harry Potter scriptures.
@Scout,
couldn't agree more! I am a fiction applicant to Wisconsin, and I have a feeling this is going to be a very long week...
Cratty and Digapony,
Well played. Perhaps I was invoking the charm of a fortune 500 corporation? ; - )
Am I the only person ever who has never read or seen anything Harry Potter?
Congratulations Jessie for Syracuse!
@Ashley: You are no longer that person, are you? You now know where Emma Watson is studying. However, you still may not know who Emma Watson is.
@Ashley: You are no longer that person, are you? You now know where Emma Watson is studying. However, you still may not know who Emma Watson is.
@ Asheley - not to start an already played out thread, but I have never read a Harry Potter book either. I have noticed HP movies playing in the background sometimes, but I have never felt compelled to actually watch one, and I think I only saw some fragments (people racing brooms in a circle or something).
I lived and died Lloyd Alexander's Prydain Chronicles as a kid, along with other sci-fi/fantasy stuff my wife describes as "the anti-game." (As in, "he got game.") So you think I'd be a prime demo. But nah. No thanks. Never gave it a thought.
I'm sending you a cruciatus by post, Jamie. All wrapped up in good fun, of course.
Been off for a while. Just checking in. And, as far as the whole people google searching applicants thing goes, here is a fun little anecdote:
When you google my name, you get some links to stuff I've written or shows I've been in or whatnot (and Facebook, I'm sure), and you also get a bunch of different articles and statements in legalize concerning a dude with my name who apparently has moved from somewhere up north down to TN (where I live) and is on parole for a bunch of heinous sexual predator type convictions.
So...hey, internet searchers: I'm not that dude. Just saying.
never read or seen anything harry potter over here, either.
If you google my name you also get an r&b singer and a very ugly girl from texas who was kidnapped.
Both Vanderbilt and Hunter still indicate online that my GRE and transcripts haven't been received (I sent them in November). Is anyone else having that problem? I e-mailed both schools a couple weeks ago but haven't heard back.
Meanwhile, hang in there, everybody! (I'm barely hanging in myself. This is so hard!) And congrats to everyone who has gotten good news already.
Thanx, crats. Your curse (thank you, HP wiki) transformed me into an MFA applicant stricken with debilitating anxiety as well as a right wrist deformed from obsessively clicking "refresh" on the MFA blog. And to think that, before this magical coup, I was a CEO about to receive a bonus as large as it was undeserved. Quite a fall, and all from some whimsy I had dismissed as the province of lazy school children and lonesome cat ladies...
Annnnddd Lucas steps in to show us the very limited usefulness of Googling someone to look into their history, haha.
Yikes, Brandi! That's a harsh thing to say about a stranger who may have been murdered. Based on my google search she is also pretty average looking! Don't h8 too much, I'm sure nobody will suspect she is you. The r&b singer, on the other hand...
@phillywriter
Same thing with my apps at UVA and Vanderbilt. I think someone said in the last mailbag that this is normal for Vanderbilt. I too emailed both after resending everything and haven't received a reply, so I'm guessing it's nothing to worry about.
If you google my name, you get a folk singer, a high school golf champion and an award-winning trampolinist! They are going to think I'm incredibly talented.
There's also a snarky British girl with my name on Twitter.
I feel nauseous this week.
when you google my name, you get an australian who teaches scuba, a welsh woman who teaches scuba, or a jazz musician. i'm none of the three, but it's awesome others with my name are leading cool lives. :-)
on HP: I fully admit to having read the books & having seen each film so far in the movie theatres. And I enjoyed it all.
It's also a great tool for getting little 'uns to read. :-)
all i get when i google myself is, well, me. which is not great, considering the results include what i consider a rather unflattering picture of me on my company's website, and some boring articles written years ago. blech.
If they google me, they will find out that I accidentally got myself cast in a cable docum-drama one time. Oops.
@koru: re: getting the young'ns to read - agreed. i have heard from most everyone that the books are quite well-written, which makes me respect the series even if i'm not interested in reading it. also, i'm a huge fan of YA fiction and like when YA books have crossover appeal for adults.
My Google results are pretty tepid. A few reviews of records bands I've been in put out that mention me by name, some forum banter that ends up including my name because one of those bands gets mentioned or someone knows me personally. That's really about it. And unless folks at these programs are punk rockers, I seriously doubt they want to expose their eardrums to the bands I played in long enough to get a sense of them, haha.
Jamie, I really liked your write-up of 'Ran', man! It was too good and meaty to be immediately deluged by non-Kurosawa related comments. Those people and their MFA's...I haven't actually seen it myself for a long time but know exactly what you mean about its weird staginess, and the dreamlike and bare landscape. A pretentious comparison with 'King Lear' that struck me was Edgar tricking Gloucester into thinking he's committing suicide when actually he's just falling off a tiny ledge - I think Kurosawa, in his own way, beautifully echoes that ability to draw out huge feelings from characters inhabiting spaces & landscapes that seem so empty. The characters look so stark and formal too (to the modern viewer), so when their drama explodes it's incredibly powerful. I'll never forget the final scene - the colour, the cliff.
Your comment was excellent, though, man! i feel it should be given more sustained attention but I haven't seen 'Ran' for so long I can't do that - i'll have to rewatch it soon. And let everyone else get back to non-tangential whatever they were talking about. MFA's or something.
if you can't afford another ticket at the film forum, by the way, you can find the whole thing on youtube ;)
Hey, everyone. I'm not sure if this question has been asked before, so I'm sorry if it sounds repetitive. I got started on my MFA applications a little too late, and missed the deadlines for the schools I wanted to apply to. Are there any programs that begin in the Spring? Thanks guys!
@ashley brooke
didn't mean to be offensive. perhaps i have some google jealousy.
ps. i love chatting with everyone here but am also disappearing for a while - im far calmer about this whole shenanigan when i'm not subscribing to MFA blog posts! Good luck everyone - I'll be thinking about you (but hopefully not too much).
Ashley,
If you're looking for funding, you should wait for 2010. I know Texas State accepts some students for the spring, but I think if you want to compete for funding you would have to wait a semester.
@beeceedee (and not to prolong the HP debate! :p ) one of the GREAT things about those books and kids is that JK Rowling brings in topics for adults to discuss with kids ... bullies, friendship, honesty and lying, adults telling kids to keep 'secrets', etc ... lots of teaching moments to let the kids know how you, as a parent or someday-parent, set your values and they books are loose enough you can agree/disagree easily while still talking to your kiddos.
And the plots and characters make the kids want to read, so hey, winners all around! :-)
'k ... nuff of that!
@ koru - I found myself reading a Terminator novelization on the web the other day. Then another day, I was reading Cameron's original "Avatar" treatment (he DEFINITELY would not get into an MFA program, if it's any consolation) - almost all 150 pages of it.
Point: my not feeling the HP is no claim of literary pedigree.
It's okay, Brandi, when you google my name you get a girl who went to the same undergrad that I did and is now a journalist. She makes my name look good. Also lots of myspace profiles of people about my age. You have to add my middle name or know where to look to actually find the right me.
Franny,
I don't know how I forgot Penn Warren. The first time I read 'Blackberry Winter' I had to take a good week to think it over and come to terms with it. It shook me.
@Jamie, I'm not meaning to disparage those who don't like HP ... I'm just saying there are some good uses for HP, and it IS children/young adult fiction, anyway ...
Plus, in the immortal words of Winnie the Pooh, I myself "am a a bear of very little brain" and I liked HP! :p
@Brandi Wells,
Do your search logs give you the ip address on that google search? You could just go plug it in to the Whois on arin.net, to see if it's a ip block owned by Brown.
@ Eli - thanks for the response. I went alone to the film, so that was sort of my chance to go off on it.
Enjoy your hiatus. It's probably the healthy thing to do, but my whole neurological reward system has convinced me that if I just click this mouse on refresh enough, I will eventually get the satisfaction I am craving, and I can't seem to think much beyond that. There, this click should do the trick...
JAMIE-
A HOW MANY PAGE TREATMENT?
All you need is one:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/04/avatar-pocahontas-in-spac_n_410538.html
x
I also find it helps to pre-emptively accept my 7 out of 7 rejections by pretending this blog was somewhere cool on the interwebs i hung out for a while, talked about Grind Time, the Wire, cats and Kurosawa with some wicked people, and that was that.
Ah, sweet, sweet resignation.
Thanks, Ashley Brooke. I hoped to be able to defer my undergrad loans a little longer by getting into a spring program, but you're right - funding is super important.
thanks animalistic
it says comcast cable, but that's all it really says.
hopes dashed i guess?
The google results for my first and last name are semi-accurate, although you also get results from some southern politician. But when you google my first, middle, and last name, a rather embarrassing / totally non-academic poem shows up in the results. Haha! I'm probably doomed to rejection if MFA programs see the words "G-Unit" in one of my poems. Oh well.
Nah, both stories in my fiction sample were actually titled 'G-Unit.' We'll be fine.
Whenever I google myself I usually wear something nice and put on some soft music, maybe light a candle. I've never really been into quick searches.
Here's something that's somewhat relevant:
I am trying to financially model my potential MFA time. Today, for example, I determined that, based on my experience, my living expenses in NYC (excluding tuition) would be about 23K per year. I was pretty generous on this figure and could probably get it lower. But generous also = realistic, IMO.
Anyone else doing anything like this? I'm willing to spend a little money on this MFA (NOT Columbia type money), so I'm liking the CUNY schools as an in-stater.
I'm also trying to determine how much I should shoot for, income-wise. And this info will come in handy if a school should offer me partial funding - what's my minimum?
Then, for other fully funded schools (Cornell, Iowa, Hopkins, Brown, Michener, UVa), I wonder if/how many students borrow on top of their stipends. Living on that kind of money takes considerable discipline, after all. I want to see how far their funding goes in Ithaca, Providence, etc.
Anyone else crunching the numbers on their potential MFAs?
@phillywriter
Vanderbilt hasn't updated my transcripts or LOR's in close to six weeks. Every time I've called I get an answering machine, and no one responds to my e-mails. I'm just hoping that they're neglecting their application status updates because they're too busy reading manuscripts to care.
Hi all,
I noticed a lot of my schools said they would make decisions "between Feb. 15th and April 15th," and that I could contact the department with questions on my application's status. I was originally under the impression that I was supposed to just wait until I heard from them, but is it considered better etiquette (ie, showing interest) to contact schools after the 15th and ask about one's application status? I'd love any advice on what is considered "pushy" and what is considered "interested."
Thanks.
Jamie, I'm not worried about living on a diet. In my final undergraduate year living in Ithaca, NY (2007), I got a Masters in living on a strict budget. I was an RA, so I had an on-campus pad for almost-free. But I was also an Int'l student - if I wanted a job outside of the RA gig (i.e., a gig that paid actual money), it had to be an on-campus job, and I couldn't go over 10hrs/week. To sum up: I didn't have to pay rent, but I wasn't on a meal-plan, and I could only earn $70/week to cover food, bills, miscellaneous fees, etc. But it worked. Made up my budget; got some cooking stuff donated to me by the fam and cooked strategically (cooked on certain nights; had left-overs on others). My grocery bill came to $80+/fortnight. But, believe me, when you're cooking for yourself, that takes care of a lot. I never went hungry or anything - I had enough food, in fact, to often have a friend or two eat with me. With the rest of my money I took care of phone bills, books, the occasional pizza and, ever so rarely, a night out on the town. Growing up poor in a third-world country, though, one learns to live without too much.
Megan, I was wondering the same thing this morning. I haven't even logged in since I finished submitting. I wondered if this would be seen as a lack of interest.
A. Astur A., I almost peed :-D
Animalistic, 0111100101101111011101010010000001110010011011110110001101101011
You can feel free to follow up about your application status, but your choice to do so (or not to do so) will not in any way influence how favorably they view your application.
@ Cratty - That's an impressive budget you kept to. I luckily did not grow up poor, but in writing I have selected a non-lucrative path for myself, and so must learn more about living very efficiently (to put a slight euphemism on it). While publishing doesn't pay megabucks, and I am fairly frugal, it has kept me at a middle-class comfort level in NYC. If I stay here, giving that up will be necessary and difficult.
01101000 01110101 01100111 01110011
@jamie
what up? I work in NYC publishing too.
Budgeting in NYC definitely requires a lot of self-control.
The Matrix speaketh...
Living in NY at all requires a certain amount of financial masochism.
@duchess - We, too, are legion!
Umm, I didn't apply to Michener, but I saw this on TSE: Decisions for UT AUSTIN are now available on-line at the ut direct website. Check the blue highlighted area under status check. I was not admitted for fiction. If you're denied, it should say the following:
"Your application has been given careful consideration by the committee on Graduate Studies. On the basis of their recommendation, your application has been denied."
Just got a Brooklyn College Fake-out in the mail. Bahaha I'm sure if anyone had been in the mail area with me just now and seen my face seize up the way it did when I saw the logo on that letter, they would've been slightly concerned...
"What's wrong?"
"I just got a letter from a school I applied to."
"What's it say?"
*shrug*
"Uhhh... oookayyy..."
@ kaybay - What the freak! That's nuts. Also my little blue thingy doesn't say rejected (doesn't say anything else either).
Under what comment section on TSE was this post? I'd like to know exactly what blue thingy to look at.
Yeah, I saw the Michener post over on TSE. I checked my status, I couldn't find anything though. Maybe I wasn't at the right page. The only pertinent page I could find was the one that lists materials that have been recorded as received. Over that, there's still the little note that says your application has been forwarded to blah blah blah and is under review.
Hmmm, for Michener my application status still says the same thing it's said all along: "We have received all credentials required to process your application. Your file has been forwarded to the Graduate Committee for review."
Maybe they haven't updated it yet since I'm towards the end of the alphabet? Isn't it awfully early for there to be any Michener activity?
Maslo-I got that letter yesterday. It's such a cold letter because its a simple envelop so immediately you think rejection. Then you open it and the first five words are: "We are pleased to inform you," so then you're like ACCEPTED?! "that your application has been forwarded over to the department of your choice for review."
I should have reported it when I got it, could have saved you the double shock.
@ Cratty:
I will now work the following phrase into my everyday oeuvre:
"Orwellian surveillance of Harry Potter scriptures."
Brilliant.
@ kaybay - never mind, I saw the post.
Everybody, here's what my blue thingy said:
"We've received all the items needed to review your application for admission."
The data entry tech is probably on a smoke break, and will put up the rejection message for me shortly. Maybe I should do a screen grab so I can relive all the good times...
@Raine - I thought it was early too. Maybe they updated the first round of rejections? I don't know. I didn't even apply there, but after seeing that it really feels like the season has begun, haha
@jamie - it was on the response times page
I can confirm the UT-Austin rejection for fiction. Just saw my own a few minutes ago.
So it goes...
Mine's not updated either. I'd be hopeful, except it looks like most people's page still says the same thing.
Conclusion: It means nothing!
Back to rocking back and forth.
Sorry Ryan, getting rejected from Michener really doesn't mean that your writing is "bad." I mean, doesn't everybody get rejected from UT? It sure feels like it! You don't want to melt in Texas anyway, it's soooo hot there!
Also, I played the Google game and nothing about the real me came up, but I did find a MySpace profile with this display name:
"Sexi Curves and Highway eyes!!!!"
The profile pic is a busty lady in a jacuzzi, and the song currently assaulting my ears is called "Shawty is Da Shit!" I really, sincerely hope people think this is me. I mean, this girl obviously has an exciting life. And Highway eyes, whatever those are.
another rejection here. blah.
Well it looks like I got rejected by UT Austin too. Disappointing, but not nearly as disappointing as Digapony's discovery. I really thought I was the only one with highway eyes. I'm devastated.
No worries, 4mai. My freak-out only lasted for maybe 15-20 seconds (which included staring at the envelope, ripping it open, and reading those first few lines frantically), so it's cool :)
Oh, my google search is quite interesting. Apparently, someone with my name was molested by some nuns somewhere up North. Good to know. Another person makes video game something or others, another died recently, and one's an elementary school teacher. One woman is a renowned geneticist or something. Yeah, giving the name some cred! I didn't know there were so many people with my name :D
@ Ryan - that sucks! sorry, brother. I'm sure I'll soon be joining you, just as soon as the temp gets off their rec break and updates the system.
@ DigAPony - LOL.
Yeah, I can get weird about Harry Potter sometimes. I ain't ashamed to say it - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was the first book I ever seriously read . . . and that was like, 8 yrs ago, so I think I was 17. I don't mind, tho - we all start somewhere (however [relatively] late).
So I think "highway eyes" is pretty great, no lies. It makes me think of being strung-out on the road, or of this new song I've found:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siqgF-6sJKE
@Ashley Brooke - You're just making me feel worse
Sorry to hear about the UT applicants that didn't get in. I know it's no consolation, but they get so many applications that, essentially, no one gets in.
If no one gets in, does that mean UT has ghost writers?
:P
Cheers!
The song is about you, though.
how is everyone finding out about their michener rejections? on the online status page? have all rejections been in fiction so far?
Man, you step away from the computer for a good five minutes and things start to heat up!
I was in no way prepared for MIchener to begin making decisions this early...my page still says "We have received all credentials required to process your application," but God knows I'll be reloading it for the rest of the day. No rest for the wicked...
also, by the way, on your ut-austin michener status page, are the statement of purpose and writing sample fields orange rather than blue? mine are orange and say "needed." i was just hoping this meant that they wouldn't be registered on that website but rather would be received separately by the creative writing department. thanks.
Another UT rejection. :(
I applied to UTA in play writing. My status is still: We've received all the items needed to review your application for admission.
It's silly to think that the theater department and the CW department would release info at the same time but had to check.
Is anyone out there applying to play writing programs?
Oh man, everyone is making me laugh today.
Sorry to the Michener people who didn't get accepted. Something greater will come along, and we're all here for you in the meantime.
@ Cratty - Where are you from, if you don't mind sharing? If not, that's cool. Just curious.
So the rest of my afternoon will be spent refreshing the Michener site. Fun times.
And seventyhorse, I would contact them since on mine it says "was received on 12/xx" for my writing sample and everything else
@Dreux
Yes, I first read All the King's Men in a course called Politics and Literature and he blew my mind. Come to think of it, I think I also read It Could Happen Here (Sinclair Lewis) in that same class. Robert Penn Warren's essays are also very special. He has such beautiful diction.
Sorry about UT, friends. I ended up not applying to Michener and just thought to myself "Good job saving that $70". So, on whom did UT settle, I wonder??
My phone is still so far up my ass, I'm at risk of an abscess.
@Ashley - I appreciate you trying to cheer me up but I'm pretty sure they're singing about sexi curves' highway eyes in that song. It's okay, I'm over it.
[slowly takes off cowboy hat, boots... puts them in box marked "UT Austin Outfit"... plays youtube video of Highway Eyes again... googles himself... crying]
Sorry for all the Michener folks who got rejected today. Like everyone else has said, they get sooooo many apps that it's incredibly difficult to get in there (especially for fiction, I think).
Even though rejections absolutely suck, as I've said in other posts, I think an early rejection is at least a little bit less stressful than just waiting, waiting, waiting (and not hearing anything).
...and of course that video clip is from SXSW...
subscribing.
I have a completely random question for all of you writers out there...
I find that whenever I write first-person narratives, I ALWAYS (without exception) choose to write as a male. Obviously if it is essential to my story that the narrator is a woman, then fine, I will write as a woman, but whenever I am starting out a story and the sex of the narrator is undecided/neutral, I always go with the male perspective. And it's not like a make a conscious decision to use a male narrator...I will just start writing and realize later on that (once again) I have made my narrator a man. Does that make sense?
Anyways, I guess I am wondering what other people do...Do any of you tend to stick exclusively (or mainly) to either male or female narrators, or I am just weird? :)
That's is a very interesting thing that you just said. I was thinking about my own stories, and while I write a lot about women, I mainly write about them in the 3rd person. I did write one story in the 1st person, and lo and behold, it was a male narrator... hmmmmm... I'm going to contemplate some psychological or sociological explanation for this and I'll get back to you. :)
I usually write from a female narrator's point of view, but not always. I'd say 80% of the time that I write first person my narrator is female. To me, it is more natural.
Sorry to everybody who got the bad news from UT, I imagine that they're only started to sort through their millions of applications and are just crossing off anything that doesn't make the shortlist right away. Read: almost everyone.
I checked my account at Texas. It says at the bottom:
"An official confirmation of our admission decision will be mailed to your permanent address."
It says nothing about acceptance or rejection. A part of me clings to hope, the other believes rejection is inevitable.
Do you go through days when you think you stink? Just last week, I reread my writing samples and I thought they were brilliant. The decisions made, the rhythm, the usage of certain words. And today, I think they're just crap. Sometimes, I mutter to myself, "Who do you think you're kidding?"
I used to write women more often, nowadays it's almost always men. I try not to think too hard about it. I'm sure it'll fluctuate over time.
@Woon
I think our particular discipline makes it doubly difficult - the self-doubt, that is.
I said something about this on here the other day. I feel like f*cking Sybil. One moment, you (the universal you) think "I'm one of a kind" and the next, you think "I'm a dime a dozen". It's so bizarre.
Chin up!
@ Woon
I do the same thing. Sometimes things from my writing sample pop into my head, and I think, "Fuck yeah, that is really good, or at least good enough to get an acceptance or two. This is happening, woot!" Then other times I feel like such a flipping amateur it's embarrassing, even just to myself.
Re: narrator gender
I write in both, though I guess female more than male. I enjoy male narrators a little more, I think, and two of my favorite things I've written have had male narrators. It's a fun challenge. I am also paranoid about sounding too cheesy writing from a female perspective, so it's much more difficult for me.
Wisconsin is going to notify this week!!! Will they email acceptances and rejections out on the same day? Has anyone heard anything?
Sarah, I'm giving up and just blaming society. It's always their fault ;)
I blame it all on Harold Bloom....
@Franny
The whole thing reminds me of a particular scene from Dumb and Dumber.
Lloyd: What are my chances?
Mary: Not good.
Lloyd: You mean, not good like one out of a hundred?
Mary: I'd say more like one out of a million.
Lloyd: So you're telling me there's a chance!...
@kaybay:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKIaS0lh-uo
^_^
Why do some UT applicant's status says simply at the bottom (like mine do):
"An official confirmation of our admission decision will be mailed to your permanent address."
While others say at the top of the status check page (which mine doesn't):
"Your application has been given careful consideration by the committee on Graduate Studies. On the basis of their recommendation, your application has been denied."
Another Texas reject, right here! They rejected me last year, too. Oh well, poop on them.
:(
@Woon:
Because some people's apps have been rejected already, and some people's haven't. If your application has a blue highlighted section that reads
"We have received all credentials required to process your application. Your file has been forwarded to the Graduate Committee for review."
Then you're still in the running. (It's located near the top, right below your personal info.)
@Woon
The bottom of my page for Austin says the same; memory fails me if it said this before today.
I always had a really hard time writing from the male perspective. I grew up with sisters, I went to an all girls high school: I just couldn't get into the mindset.
Then I got married. ;-)
I submitted with my application what I thought was my strongest male-driven story (although it is in third person). It's about a troubled oral surgeon and some hot anesthetized lovemakin'.
It's super creepy and made my sister cry. So that's a good thing, right?
re: UTA app
It has always said "An official confirmation of our admission decision will be mailed to your permanent address." at the bottom after I completed my app.
accepted at university of wyoming for fiction. got the call while at the grocery store and was jumping around like an idiot in the produce dept. so excited!!
UT--Denied. I'll admit, I'm a little sad. Good thing I already had the wine open. It didn't help that I received a lit mag rejection snail mail today, as well. But---Relax Cool Red is yummy. Case you wondered.
Congrats, wink!
Tin foil hats back on sale for Wyoming applicants.
And by the way guys, it did say that an official notice will be mailed to your permanent address prior to today. But if you're not denied, perhaps you've made it to the second round?
Congrats C. Wink!
congrats, c. wink! awesome news.
re: gender narration, i have only written from a male perspective in the third person, and only once. it's actually something i've been thinking about lately. i don't believe i'd have a problem, as i spend the better part of my day with a bunch of dudes in corporate america and have worked with a majority of men since my first job at age 16. i just seem to gravitate toward the female perspective, but i look forward to getting out of my comfort zone with future stories. most of my guy friends say i think more like a dude anyway, so ...
also, sorry about the michener rejections, guys. it's monday, so here's hoping the worst is behind us this week.
Congratulations to the recent Wyoming and Syracuse acceptees! Man, I grow jealous by the day.
Re. Texas Michener -- Mine doesn't say anything about a rejection. I guess I'm still alive, however long that lasts. (I was going to start my next sentence with "For..." and then I remembered how much I hated reading those sentences in Virginia Woolf novels.)
Those of you with UT denials today (I'm sorry...it's inevitable for us all), when did you apply if you don't mind sharing...?
Ha! Ruth, that's funny, it made me think of a couple of awesomely bad movies that I watch. Has anyone hear heard of or seen The Room or The Troll II??? Oh my God, hilarious. Also, any movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger's favorite little buddy, Franco Columbo is pure gold. Honestly, anyone who needs a good cheer up after a solid rejection NEEDS to watch any of those. At least nobody on this blog writes THAT bad.
c wink! Oh man, congratulations!
Congrats c wink!
I must have refreshed this page 200 times today... February already seems too long. Good luck everyone!
@Emily, I applied about a week before the deadline, is that what you mean? Someone else also brought up the point that they might be notifying alphabetically (my last name begins with D).
it's too early to cry right?
c.wink,
Congrats, though I'm a bit jealous!
@Courtney--it is too early to cry. But, I still want to. It's just been a wicked Monday. And we have the rest of the week to come.
I believe Penn State, Purdue, Illinois, Cornell, and Vanderbilt (and of course, Wisconsin) notify this week or next, if history is any indication.
Kaybay,
Yes! Troll II is where it's at. And as for The Room, have you seen the Rifftrax version of it? I don't know if anything could successfully raise spirits after a rejection, but if anyone can do it, it's Tommy Wiseau.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mMyV2YQgAA
Congrats, c.wink!
Just waiting around for lottery results...
Aren't some schools running pretty late historically? UNCG comes to mind. Doesn't it usually notify around now?
@Courtney--
I've definitely already cried today.
UNCW too!
No, Ruth, but that was funny. Why does he say "oh hi"??? Here's one of my favorite scenes from Double Cross on Costa's Island. It may appear to be a scene from a porn, but is in fact not, haha. Just watch the whole clip...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjVX3kn3-tQ
Yes, this is from a REAL movie!!
so far have not been rejected my austin... gaaaaaaa! I wasn't expecting to hear anything for a few weeks at least.
My UT status is the same, but I'm not getting too excited, as I applied in poetry, and it appears that everyone here who got a rejection is in fiction?
To me, that says they might just not have gotten to my genre yet, as far as data entry goes.
@Adam,
I was rejected from UT today via their website and I applied in poetry. No news is good news?!
All this Michener talk has left me no choice but to pour a gin and tonic.
Another UT fiction reject here. Maybe they are going alphabetically (my last name starts with a "B").
Ugh. I know UT is ultraselective, but I have this horrible, sinking feeling that I'm not going to get in anywhere.
My sister-in-law said (jokingly) that TX was the only place she'd visit us out of the locations I was applying. So her hopes of an exciting vacation are now dashed too.
Has anyone gotten a Michener rejection who has a last name in the last half of the alphabet????
Don't tell me they are going alphabetically lol... my last name starts with a 'p' and I don't want to spend the day pressing refresh.
@kaybay--WOW. Now I know for sure that bad movie clips are the cure for app season woes...
also awesome: Rifftrax does TWILIGHT:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpT8l94CKcs
re: narrator gender.
I typically write from a 1st person male perspective. But I've done a few stories from limited female perspective. I've found it challenging in a good way. 3rd person in general baffles my mind though.
(I am a male by the way)
Can us Syracuse applicants assume that we didn't get in if we haven't received a "yes" yet like the others?
I'm going to pep talk you people because I'm grading tests right now and I really want something other than the bad vibes on this blog to distract me from my work and cause me to procrastinate.
Getting rejected from the most selective school in the country has no bearing on the quality of your writing. One of my stories was rejected from Virginia Quarterly the other day and I kind of shrugged, like yeah, wasn't going to get published there anyway. I hate to say this, but UT is one of those schools that practically everyone gets rejected from. Others (schools I have also applied to) are Cornell, Iowa, Virginia, and Brown. Vanderbilt is going to be another one this year. Sorry y'all, don't get your hopes up.
I'm not trying to demean anyone's emotions or feelings, please feel however you want to feel. BUT, try to see the big picture here. Try to stay positive. Try to find something POSITIVE in your writing instead of dwelling on the negative. Stop thinking that getting rejected, especially from schools like Texas, is meaningful in any way.
I hate rejections. I have never been published, I have yet to be accepted to any of my programs. I've been rejected from one school and possibly rejected at another (Syracuse). But try to move beyond each rejection. It just wasn't right. It's over, keep chugging.
Love you all, thank you for the brief distraction.
Kaybay is right.
And in this crazy, crazy world, only one thing is for certain: Jack Bauer is going to kick some ass.
Time for some 24 relief.
Good luck to all-
Emily
FML
At times like these, I like to turn to textsfromlastnight for solace:
(310): so how do you plan on seducing my econ TA?
(818): by telling him that he has a large supply and that i demand it...in my mouth. it shows him that i'm slutty and that i pay attention in econ
I bet his/her parents are proud....
:P
Is this the first season of 24 that has katee sackhoff from battlestar?
Ruth - ha ha :)
@ frankish, THAT is the funniest thing I've read on this blog in days!
@everyone who applied to UT and is getting bad news, or no news that may anxiously unfortunately transform into bad news, i like Rosie's comment from above:
Poop on them!
(not to bring it back to the poop.....)
@c.wink C O N G R A T S ! ! ! looks like the wyoming fiction mystery is getting solved...
@Abbie: I guess! My last name starts with "A" also, so...ah f&$# it. We don't know anything.
Best of luck, Abbie, and everyone else!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ik2YF05iX2w
@Adam. There was a UT poetry rejection at TSE blog. I don't know what there process is. My last name begins with K, I applied for poetry, and my status is still the same.... who knows what's going on.
@Jamie,
I've done some rough calculations for living expenses. I only applied to funded programs (except for one which is half funded - ND) and think I could definitely make it on a stipend. Ideally, I'd like to find something on or off campus to supplement the stipend - nothing major (i.e. 10 hrs a week or something).
---
RE: Narration/Gender
Lately, I've been writing from mostly a male perspective but most of my early stories had female (often lesbian) protagonists and/or narrators.
Ugh, I shall take a look at my UT status now . . .
I actually have to classmates from undergrad that are in the program now. Incredibly lucky devils. I wonder if the program is rejecting as they review or if they already know who is in and are just sending in notifications in waves now? Hmm.
Kaybay, thanks for your pep talk. I think we all have to remember that a rejection really has no bearing on our writing. Even a rejection from a journal like VQR has no bearing on a person's writing. Writers can only get better and what was once thought unattainable has a way of getting closer to ones grasp. Fight the machine.
re: UT
Looks like I'll have to wait until they get to the last half of the alphabet.
I didn't apply to UT, but it seems like someone should've cued the Jaws music before releasing the shark.
I know Farrah and the mood here just went to the shitter :(
Yeah, WT, I'm looking into getting a little 10 hr/week thing too outside of TAing. The thing is, I'm determined to pay off my undergraduate loans (plural), so that's where most of any stipend bling would go. Logic be damned; this rent and food thing will work somehow.
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