Michelle: I've been having a similar problem, but I find reading helps. When I read, I get inspired. At the same time, don't be too hard on yourself. You've just put yourself out there in a big way and you should be proud of that effort. I hope it pays off for you this round. Take care!
When I have to write something new and I don't feel it, I search through old journals (I call them thoughtbooks) for any bit of conversation I've heard that sparks my interest or some word or some trivial fact about anything. Let your past self inspire your present self.
It's upsetting that we all have this problem, especially considering what our intentions were when applying for an MFA, BUT it is also really comforting to know that I am not the only one out there who can't get into a writing groove lately. I've tried reading, I've tried revisiting older drafts, I've tried writing exercises. None seem to work for more than 30 minutes.
I'm beginning to wonder if the problem is my brain, not my writing. What if I'm writing just as I always do, and I am just being more critical of it now because no MFA programs love me enough to tell me whether I rock or suck? lol. Ohhh golly. I wish I could go all "Eternal Sunshine" on myself and erase the application process from my brain. Then if I'm rejected I'll just think "these idiots, I never even applied here." and If I'm accepted I'll just be like "well isn't that convenient. I was just thinking how lovely it would be attend X's MFA program." ...and then I could write, with confidence, everywhere in between.
I know how you all feel. I feel like my writing has just been stunted by these applications, and I have 12-20 pages due by the 18th (which, of course, just HAS to be my birthday). But I'm trying though.
The first thing I do when I get up in the morning is have breakfast. After that, I get my notebook and start "doodling" -- that is, I write anything that comes to mind. Words become sentences, then sentences become paragraphs, then paragraphs become page after page of drivel. It usually ends up being quite random crap but after 5 minutes, it turns coherent. I get a lot of short story ideas this way.
So, it's like doodling, the way you draw random circles and shapes and lines on a piece of paper. Except you do it with words and a word processor. You could use a pen and paper, if you like.
We've been talking about this over on the Ning group. I've been having major issues. Part of it is all the stress. Part of it is just not being able to get my thoughts out on paper. I'm there with you all.
Sometimes, though, it helps me to write about not being able to write. Or to revise. I agree with whoever suggested that. I'm writing journals, too, which is good, even if they're nothing important or particularly good. At least I'm spending some time each day trying to write something. That's what really matters.
I also just put aside my computer and sit with pen and paper. That helps a lot, too. No rabid checking of MFA blog. No rabid checking of email. Just pen, paper, me. That's it.
Still trying to break through. Wanted to add my two cents.
In the beginning of February I challenged myself to write *at least* 500 words a day. I've heard this was Hemingway's rule, and if it was good enough for him, it's good enough for me! 500 words takes me less than 20 minutes and they really start to add up.
That's all great advice. That's sorta what I've been doing. Things are getting better. Just wrote a bit about manta rays (watched Planet Earth -- Deep Oceans yesterday; incredible). Haha. Now I'm wikipedia-ing them and looking at videos online.
I know exactly what everyone is talking about. I have a manuscript (which I used part of for my writing sample) and I really NEED and WANT to work on it, but it is just not coming out. Any serious writing is just not working either. But I have learned to just write crap, any crap. I will say the one word that scares alot of serious writers, but try fanfiction. It has helped me so much get over writing hurdles, because you dont have to think about it. It is already all there, you just have the fun job of manipulating others work. It's a great realease and gets the creative thoughts going for more real writing.
@Chrissy H. -- that's a good idea. Have you ever done NaNoWriMo? The goal was 1,667 a day. I did it this year for the first time and figured out that I can write almost a thousand words in half an hour. Haha. And most of it was crap, of course, but it was lots of writing for me. I should start doing that again...
500-1000 quality words a day is usu. my goal. That can take a couple of hours to all day and/or night depending on how neurotic I'm being : - ) I sometimes count "writing inside my head" and research as part of my daily quota though. It's funny how research can entail watching Lost and stuffing my face with junk food when I'm really not in the mood.
Chrissy - I've done NaNoWriMo a number of times! Once I wrote 10K in one day - a personal record for me. This was actually the first year in a while I decided not to do it. I thought my MFA apps were more important than a giant pile of words I'd never do anything with. :)
By the way, congrats on your acceptance! I keep reading "Congrats, Chrissy!" and even if it's not me, it's still nice to see!
@Chrissy H. -- Thanks! I can't wait until you get in somwhere, too, and I can be all like, "YAY CHRISSY! CHRISSYs RULE!"
Yeah, I did it this year as a personal goal to get me out of a funk I was in. I ended up writing most of it in the last week or so. I won, but I was write upwards of 12,000 words a day. Haha.
I was also doing all my revising for my applications. It was a good writing month for me. But that's why I got behind on NaNo.
I'm not a fiction writer, either, so it was an interesting experience. Prolly not going to go for a "novel" again. Maybe short stories or creative non piece, or something...
Great advice on the doodle writing. I'm going to try that one. The timing of your comment made me laugh, too, because I have to re-write a pre existing short story in another genre, and since I can't write right now, I chose the "graphic novel." So I am just sitting down to doodle a bit until I find the right style for my graphic novel approach. After that, I'm definitely trying doodle-writing. Thanks!
@Emily
I am currently at WMU finishing my undergrad. I, too, thought my chances of getting in at WMU were probably better than all the others, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized I was wrong. WMU's MFA program is on the rise, and their Ph.D. program is especially sought after (at least in my opinion, as most of my instructors are the Ph.D. students--so this is what I hear). My point is, no school is a safe school anymore. WMU recieved more applications this year, just as every other program did, and they can only accept so many. But your spot in the MFA program at WMU isn't only competing with other fiction applicants and poetry applicants--you're competing with playwrites, CNF and Ph.D. students as well. Don't let this rejection hurt you more just because you thought it was safer. It is just as likely that the program you thought you had a 1 in a million chance of attending will accept you tomorrow. You just never know. Don't count yourself out.
I do not. However, I think it's variable to change each year. I don't want to promise anything, but I can try to get some information and report back. It's our spring break this week, so info might be delayed, but if any info has been released, then I'll be sure to hear about it eventually. Otherwise I'd suggest emailing the program. They are friendly folks over in the English department.
i'm not arna, but several people have said that in the past people have been admitted to iowa without receiving a phone call, and that some of those letters will be acceptances.
#2 If I send you a SASE, a piece of paper, and some change to buy typewriter ribbon, will you type out an acceptance letter from Iowa and send it to me?
I had the writing problem too. What really helped me was to formulate a Plan B that I'm excited about, and to remember that I don't have to go to an MFA program to be a writer. I had a good discussion with someone about why I write. It has nothing to do with a degree, and focusing on my reasons was inspiring to me. I used the lull in productivity as a time to read a lot as well, and that always fuels my flame.
One other thing. I was saying to myself: I'm not writing! What if I DO get into a program... I will be a fraud! I had to let go of that too, and not be so hard on myself. Being able to write again followed that process.
We should all be so lucky as to have a little Arna inside of us. (Arna might be lucky to have a little Arna inside all of us too. I mean, depending... In the case of Henry, Arna would be hella lucky to be part of such a pretty thing.)
Jason, It's never Lupus or M.S. Unless they first rule it out and go through a bunch of other things and then realize it was Lupus all along (after somebody says to House "I don't know how to ride a bike," and he gets that glimmer in his eye and realizes this is applicable to the case in some way and storms across that hospital), it was just presenting itself if a weird way.
Iowa called me on the 17th of February from what I remember.
@Patrick.
I'm from Coleraine, right on the north coast; Heaney's county, so at least I don't have to live up to anything...oh...wait...
I tried to apply for Oxford (my old university), but they seem incapable of using references from last year - "Can't...quite...arggghhh...move...them... from...this...pile...to...that... pile". One of my referees has a father who is dying, and they couldn't even give me an exception on that basis - it's the beautiful compassion I experienced as an undergraduate there! I like sending them e-mails reminding them of the fact that they have a really anal approach to applications...and quite a lot of other things.
I wish I had've applied to Queen's in Belfast though as my only U.K. application - it seems far more preferable than Oxford to me - they've some great speakers this Spring (Michael Longley, Sean O'Brien). I'm not convinced there is a more poetically-fortuitous place to be born than N. Ireland, given its poetic heritage over the last forty years (but I'm biased!)
As for the rejection you figure you'll have from Iowa, my personal advice would be that if you are just coming out of undergraduate university at 21, historical development arcs of major poets (bar Muldoon, Tennyson, and a few others) would go against you, being more pronounced from 24-30 (a lot of poets first publish a book at 27). Given that a thesis, essentially a book, is your main aim at an MFA (and how many programs would not accept you if you already have one), being accepted at 21 or 22 isn't necessarily, in my opinion, a good thing - it could potentially be disruptive to the solitary graft work you'd be doing otherwise that brings you out of juvenilia, and will block off the chance to do attend another MFA. This is obviously an opinion that has no recourse to whatever stage your writing is at.
Yeah, a lot of people have told me that, maybe take a year out etc, but to be honest, I think I would go off my game being in the 'real' world, trying to find a job that would further my c.v.
I've been accepted in the mfa in Glasgow, adn it seems really good, any ideas?
Also, the program in Trinity in Dublin is meant to be really good from what I hear!
Major congrats on Iowa! Awesome news!
Do you think the program in Oxford is any good? I can't seem to get that much info on it.
I know that most programs are incredibly busy at this time of the year. But there has got to be a more efficient, more expedient system with which to send out acceptance, wait-list, & rejection notifications, right?
Old Poet, I totally agree!! I have 4 schools left to notify out of 11 total and one waitlist. Two email rejections (seems to be the fastest method and most environmentally friendly, why don't they all do it???). I have another unofficial rejection from an email I sent to the director of a program. Other than that, crickets!!
Here's my suggestion: take a little bit of the control back and give some of the programs a call or email. I'm not doing that for some programs, even though I haven't heard anything from them yet, but I emailed Alabama because I really wanted to know my status and found that I had been rejected. Maybe pick a few of the schools you are excited about (or all of them??) and give them an email/phone call. Being in the dark sucks donkey butt!
@ kaybay & OldPoet: I hear ya. I've only gotten official word from 5 schools out of my 17. I would kill small helpless animals right now for some news.
Old Poet, forgive me if I'm wrong, but I don't think Southern Illinois has notified poets yet. Don't lose hope yet! I got my fiction rejection from them last week, so I think if poetry rejections had done out at the same time, you'd have it by now.
My UNLV status has been changed to: "Graduate College Application Checklist Complete."
I don't really think it means more than just the graduate school verifying that you meet their required GPA standards if the department wants you. I guess.
March Radness indeed. Two rejections in the mail today (only one of which was news):
UMASS- Considerate enough to drive home the point with actual ink and paper.
UC-Boulder- So far the only one that didn't encourage me to either re-apply or wish me success in furthering my grad school career. Instead they "urge(d) me to continue to seek a satisfying career as a writer". Has there ever been such a thing?
Here's to hoping somebody gets some good news this month.
I got rejected from the University of Wyoming (poetry) weeks ago, and let me say: I am sooooooo grateful for their promptness in notifying me. Yeah...it sucked getting rejected, but at least I know where I stand with them.
I wish other programs would take a page out of WY's book regarding the early notification.
@ All of you charming little Iowa admittances. This question may or may not have been addressed already. But just out of curiosity: do your ISIS profiles also still say "In Progress"?
@Woon-Yes, thanks Woon, I have registered on this and for some reason, for a few days, couldn't find my way back to where I had originally looked. So thank you, the link worked and now I'm set for more distractions!
Yes, it still says "In Progress". From the history of the "P&W" boards on Iowa, they seemed to stick on "In Progress" well into March (and then nobody mentions it again).
@mj: Me too. I gave up my apartment today. And on the train ride back to Chez Maman, who stepped into my train cabin but the man who fired me a year ago?
The stars are most definitely not aligned for this Cancer.
It's 1:55 AM here, so goodnight. I really hope tomorrow will be a good day for all. This waiting process is nerve-wrecking. Speaking of which, I made my first brownies today. They were surprisingly good. Yay!
Also, I was in fiction. According to Driftless House, poets haven't been notified yet (or we don't know any who have.) So if you're in poetry, the game's not over.
Unfortunately I was also in fiction. Also, extremely unfortunately Indiana was my only school. My husband is currently a PhD student in Accounting at IU and so I was not able to apply to other programs. I hesitate about going to a low res program so.... Sigh. Thanks so much for the info Jasmine. It feels better to know.
And thanks to the people who put out reading suggestions for ss collections by recent MFAers.
I started thinking about this after I stumbled across Aryn Kyle's God of Animals at Costco. I think if you manage to get your lit fic novel sold at freaking Costco you're doing pretty well for yourself. (I'm looking to read ss collections right now, so I didn't pick it up.)
More suggestions would be great, although I think I should have suggested MFAers from the last five years instead.
Here's a sloppy paste and cut of everyone's suggestions. I'm saving them on my comp for future use, so I figured i'd make it easier for you guys too if you get the same idea. Let me know if I missed some.
Chris Adrian's (IWW MFA) recent collection "A Better Angel". Also awesome is Wells Tower's (Columbia MFA) collection, "Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned."
Lydia Peele advantages
"For the Relief of Unbearable Urges" by Nathan Englander (Iowa MFA)
"Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It" by Maile Meloy (Irvine MFA)
"The God of Animals" (novel) and "Boys and Girls Like You And Me" (stories) by Aryn Kyle (Montana MFA)
"You Are Not A Stranger Here" by Adam Haslett (Iowa MFA) *Pulitzer finalist
"War By Candlelight" and "Lost City Radio" by Daniel Alarcon (Iowa MFA)
And
"A Thousand Years of Good Prayers" by Yiyun Li (Iowa MFA)
Barb Johnson “More of this World”
"St. Lucy's Home For Girls Raised By Wolves" by Karen Russell
Knockemstiff by Donald Ray Pollock (OSU)
Wolfboy by Evan Kuhlman (Notre Dame)
Refresh, Refresh by Ben Percy (Southern Illinois)
Farewell Navigator by Leni Zumas (U. Mass - Amherst)
Half a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Johns Hopkins)
What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us by Laura Van Den Berg (Emerson)
"How To Breathe Underwater" by Julie Orringer (Iowa MFA)
"Drinking Coffee Elsewhere" by ZZ Packer (Iowa MFA)
"Things That Fall from the Sky" by Kevin Brockmeier (Iowa MFA)
"The Laws of Evening" by Mary Yukari Waters "(UC Irvine MFA)
"You Are Not A Stranger Here" by Adam Haslett (Iowa MFA)
"A Thousand Years of Good Prayers" by Yiyun Li (Iowa MFA)
"Hoe It Was for Me" by Andrew Sean Greer (Montana MFA)
"For the Relief of Unbearable Urges" by Nathan Englander (Iowa MFA)
"Ms. Hempel Chronicles" by Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum (Iowa MFA)
"Magic for Beginners" by Kelly Link (UNC Greensboro MFA)
"We're in Trouble" by Christopher Coake (Ohio State MFA
“Girl Trouble" by Holly Goddard Jones
Jason Brown Driving the Heart and Other Stories -Why the Devil Chose New England For His Work
"The End" - Salvatore Scibona (Iowa MFA)
The People of Paper by Salvador Plascencia (Syracuse MFA, I think he's in the PhD program at the University of Southern California, but I'm not positive about that last)
I applied to some of these schools that I see decisions on like Vanderbilt, and I'm not entirely sure what that means, any ideas? Fiction by the way. My list is as follows:
Texas State LSU Ole Miss Alabama Florida State University of Florida Vanderbilt
Nothing from anybody yet, but University of Florida did send an e-mail saying they would update statuses this week.
I'm also getting panicky about this problem. I haven't written an actual story in quite a few months. With an over-the-top summer internship, a crazy term of applying to MFA programs, and my final term as an undergrad, I've really struggled to fit in decent writing time.
I tried to do the "five minutes a day" thing or whatever, but it's just not as productive for me.
So what I do instead is I have like sixteen journals and I scramble to write something down whenever something - anything - floats down to me.
Yesterday it was a fictionalized discussion about remembering the details of someone's birth certificate. A few days ago it was a two sentence description of how the birds look when they fly low over the fields.
These are my small victories. I figure that post-graduation and during my time in an MFA program is when the heat should really be on me to figure out what my writing schedule needs to be.
Okay, so a couple folks have said Iowa has 50 fiction students. But how is that so? I thought they accepted 12 fiction per year. Then add to that the 12 who are already there (2nd year students) and you get 24. Where is the 50 coming from?
Thank you! I don't have any news on other genres or when the rest of the notifications go out. I do know mine was called "early acceptance" so I think they are just beginning. I hope you hear good news!
@Sam N, thanks for compiling all of the suggestions. Whether I get in anywhere or not, I plan on read a lot more contemporary lit.
I also received the UNCW rejection email today. The fact that they're now unranked did lessen the sting.
@Old Poet, I agree that an early rejection can be a comfort. I appreciate that about UT -- they read my sample, it wasn't for them, I got my rejection. Or denial, rather.
I thought Seth's blog said they accept 25 a year in each genre. I think they accept 50 in total. (Perhaps that's where someone came up with the 50 in fiction idea?)
Okay, here's the data from Seth's selectivity page:
16. University of Iowa (IWW) (2.91%) [50/1,710] 2010 ^
Mr. Hemlock and others interested in U of Oregon...
I'm in the fiction program at Oregon right now. Love it.
For the record, this year our stipend is about $1,200 per month, which is more like 11K than 9K. Is anyone getting rich on it? No. Is Eugene a terribly expensive place to live? Also no. And we have health insurance on top of that, which is, of course, no small thing.
Oregon's a very small program, obviously, which is something I like. The students get along well, and everyone's writing very different but interesting work. We have the chance to work closely with all of the faculty before choosing a thesis advisor. Are they household names? Maybe not, but the professors all know their stuff and can actually convey that "stuff" to their students. It can be a tough program, certainly, and isn't a good match for anyone who needs/wants to be told how good they are. That said, I've already learned a lot and I know my writing's improving like crazy.
At Oregon we also get to teach creative writing in our first year, which is a lot of fun.
i'd love to go to oregon. one of your profs posted a comment a few days ago. 568 applicants for 6 spots. don't have to be a math major to know that's pushing one percent.
You're making me cry. I applied to Oregon and would love to get in. The Kidd program was a big draw for me. Do you get to teach in it/have you had any experience with it?
RE UNCW rejections: Anyone out there receive one for CNF? All I've seen here so far is poetry and fiction? Why are "us" nonfiction people separated from the rest of the group so often? The fourth genre. Anyway, enough ranting into cyberspace. ALSO, ANY MEMPHIS CNF people there? Curious...
@Laura T: I can't remember if I sent my congratulations. So, congrats!! Your poetry is beautiful and dark and shadowy. Like I told you on the Ning deal, you make lovely choices. And Rutgers made a lovely choice in you!
Dear Alabama: come on! Would you just send me my rejection already (I already saw that you have an "acceptees weekend" coming up); otherwise, I'd be thinking my hopes still dangle, however precariously. Not cool.
I got a 'good news voicemail' from the NEOMFA here in Cleveland.
I did NOT get any email from UF. I wonder if, when Presley wrote "but University of Florida did send an e-mail saying they would update statuses this week" -- that Presley actually meant Florida State's email that said they would begin posting acceptances/rejections to the website in the first week of March.
Anyway. Florida State and UF, come on! Notify! Please! I am BEGGING YOU.
The IWW is planning on putting all of their official acceptance/rejection letters in the snail mail on or shortly after Friday.
What I don't know:
If they're done with calls, and/or if some of those letters will be wait list notifications.
For those interested, someone who I'm pretty sure is Alexi Zentner wrote a couple years ago on the PW boards that he'd learned from his experience being on Iowa's wait list that they had only one person on it for fiction, and that it was possibly only dealt with as the need (/spot) arose. DISCLAIMER: I don't know if this is how Iowa still does it, or even if they ever actually did do it this way. But that is what I remember of the Speakeasy discussion.
One person, I think, meaning that they only tell/deal with the first person on the list at a time. But again, that's my dim recollection of what someone I've never met wrote on the PW speakeasy.
I was waitlisted at Iowa last year. They said the list was short, but probably more than one person. Also, when I called them for the final decision (also last year), they said that everyone offered in fiction accepted.
@Lauren, Congrats on the NEOMFA! Even if it's still unofficial...
@Arna Thanks for the Iowa information.
I am starting to suspect that next year I will be the Mama Bear of this board giving all the kiddies advice because my prospects are looking crappier and crappier. March Radness, have you anything for meee?
MJ- It was a small envelope from the English department. Starting with the words "We regret to inform you..." Oh well I didn't think I would get in there anyways.
Rose - I didn't apply to Minnesota, even though I applied to Mankato and Moorhead, because I didn't meet the MN GPA requirement and my GRE scores are pretty bad. And yes I know that those shouldn't matter if you have an awesome writing sample.
I tried to pick some schools that I thought were realistic for me to get in to. I realize there is no safety school either but I tried to think realistically about what schools I could possibly get into.
MJ- It was a small envelope from the English department. Starting with the words "We regret to inform you..." Oh well I didn't think I would get in there anyways.
Rose - I didn't apply to Minnesota, even though I applied to Mankato and Moorhead, because I didn't meet the MN GPA requirement and my GRE scores are pretty bad. And yes I know that those shouldn't matter if you have an awesome writing sample.
I tried to pick some schools that I thought were realistic for me to get in to. I realize there is no safety school either but I tried to think realistically about what schools I could possibly get into.
@Adam: They called me kind of late in the day. They probably haven’t called everyone yet. I’d also suppose there is a wait-list or set of alternates. I wouldn’t give up hope yet. Also, no one else on here has been contacted... that's a good sign.
Ugh, I was just able to check my status for Florida for the first time, and they're claiming they did not receive my transcript. Gosh, that is frustrating.
Now I know UF has like a trillion applications, but we are paying these schools to review our applications, they at least send a letter in the mail to someone telling them if they're missing something (as many schools do).
@Le Tigre - I wouldn't be so sure they're missing them. My status says transcripts are missing as well, and at least one other person has the same thing. Since I know I sent mine in, I've been assuming they don't show up on the status check because they were sent to the creative writing program rather than to the grad school.
I could be wrong about this. I sent an email to Carla Blount, the program assistant, to verify, but I haven't heard back yet.
Does anyone know the status with CSU Fiction? I think a couple of people posted on here with acceptances, but it didn't seem like there were that many. Does anyone know if all of the acceptances have gone out? If we haven't heard from them, can we kind of assume rejection?? :(
It's been my understanding that the acceptances posted in CSU fiction have been unofficial and that they may very well still be notifying. I'm not 100% on this, but that is what I could gather from the posts I've read. I may just be overly optimistic, though.
George Mason (accepted 2/12 email) American (accepted 3/1 snail mail) UMD-College Park (assumed rejection) Johns Hopkins Emerson Boston University UMASS-Boston UNH Columbia College Chicago
all in fiction. You guys here are pretty much awesome, if I can say that.
First time writing but a long-time reader... given that we're in crunch time, just wanted to add in another experience to keep up hope :) Will update as I hear more, high hopes y'all!!!
Creative non-fiction:
Rejected:
3/1 - U Oregon, via mail 2/25 - U Wyoming, via mail
Still awaiting word:
U Colorado Boulder UNCW George mason Hunter Vanderbilt New School UNH Louisiana State U Washington U Montana Columbia American
Hello all. I have been following these threads for some time now.
I am in at UMass-Amherst for poetry and already sent in my acceptance.
Don't ever assume rejection. I assumed rejection and came so close to giving up my ideals and dreams.
I don't know where an MFA will lead me but damn it all you live once.
"A lot of people enjoy being dead. But they are not dead, really. They're just backing away from life. Reach out. Take a chance. Get hurt even. But play as well as you can. Go team, go! Give me an L. Give me an I. Give me a V. Give me an E. L-I-V-E. LIVE! Otherwise, you got nothing to talk about in the locker room." - Maude
When I was researching into MFA programs, I encountered the CU website. It had a requirement that applicants must have a BA in English Lit. So, I sent them an email asking, essentially, "Hey, guys, is it true that only English Lit peeps should apply?" and I received no response. They probably thought I was an idiot.
I believe a while back you noted that there were a little more than 3,000 individual candidates applying for creative writing MFA programs each year. Looking at the number of people accepted each year to the top 60 schools (Selectivity, Acceptance Rate list), there appear to be about 890 slots available. If you add in all the other schools, wouldn't that mean there are at least 2500 total slots available each year? Doesn't that mean if you apply to a decent amount of schools, including lower tier ones, and if funding isn't an issue (a big if obviously) it would be difficult NOT to get in somewhere? Or am I misinterpreting the numbers? In any case, thanks for all your work in pulling together the numbers.
Yes, if you're willing to apply everywhere, you are basically guaranteed a slot. At a low-res program at the very least.
I think the concern of most people is funding, not just the mere fact of getting in. And I would be willing to wager that if you added up the top 50 schools ranked by funding, you would get a lot less than 800 slots, as some of the biggest programs in the top 60, in terms of admits, are nowhere close to fully funded (see: UNCW, NYU, Columbia, basically all schools in the NY area).
Yeah, the extended Michener rejection-dates were a heartbreaker.
@Aaron, Eric, Lauren-- Congratulations! Yay for good news!
@the rest of us-- Between the hoarde of rejection letters just come and the death of Mr. Hannah, I'd say this was a pretty terrible way to ring in March "radness".
@ Aaron Aps: Congrats on LSU! I have several friends who finished that program last year, and I'd be happy to put you in touch with some other poets there if you would like. Everyone I know who went there was quite happy with the program.
Great work by Seth. Obviously, don't treat it as rankings set in stone. Lots of data are missing so there was some extrapolations done. The rankings don't interest me much, but the raw data do.
All of this info (selectivity, response data, etc.) can be found on Seth's blog: http://sethabramson.blogspot.com/
You will see a message saying that the blog has been discontinued, but just scroll down and use the links listed in the gray bar on the right side of the page
Here is the direct link to the 2010 response data (which can also be accessed through Seth's blog): http://driftless-house.blogspot.com/2010/02/2010-cw-mamfaphd-application-responses.html
The total number of applicants to full-residency MFAs annually can only be estimated--though there's enough data to make a reasonable estimate. The low end says 3,500, and the high end something like 4,500 (AWP claims 13,000 total for all types of graduate school programs in creative writing -- this is definitely wrong). I haven't counted the number of spots available at the nation's 2 full-res MFA-par non-terminal MAs and 142 full-res MFAs (145 programs total if you count USC's MFA in Dramatic Writing in its Theatre Department -- yes, I'm that much of a geek), but if it's 2,500 than yes, in theory somewhere between 55% and 70% of MFA applicants will get accepted in any given year. So--to answer your specific question--yes, it has always been the case that (not being sarcastic here, just realistic) if one's willing to pay a lot to get an MFA, to apply to a lower-ranked program, to move anywhere/anytime, and to apply to a ton of programs one is more likely than not to get at least one offer. As to whether that offer would be worth taking...
Rising Yellow Rose, I applied to Florida Atlantic, and I cannot, despite several attempts, get anybody else on this blog to even acknowledge the program's existence. I don't know how big the program is so I don't know anything about the acceptance rate. I'm quite interested in the program - HELLO, PEOPLE, this is a fully funded program in Boca Raton. Sure, it's expensive to live there and the funding is on the low end, so a few loans/a part time job are likely in order... but WHY haven't people been talking about the program? There is some interesting faculty, too. I cannot for the life of me figure it out. They'll be notifying late (I their deadline was just today) so I'm trying not to think about them too much now.
So I have been a complete lurker for the past two weeks. Initially, I thought this was a horribly addictive thing, checking in twice a day, indulging my worst self-punishing tendencies, but you all are quite wonderful and supportive of each other, so I've decided to fully join the fray.
@ arna- You are very gracious. I wish you the best wherever you go (and those are some pretty damn impressive schools you got into).
@nefertiti- Tinkers by Paul Harding. He was my writing instructor until this past December- a phenomenal teacher. Glad someone on this board loves his little book as much as I do.
My list, for fiction:
Texas- rejected- they could not lick the stamp fast enough! Syracuse- rejected UMass Amherst-rejected Wisconsin-rejected Iowa-presumed rejection Cornell-presumed rejection Michigan-presumed rejection Virginia Hopkins UNH Columbia
Also some questions, to all of you: How many years have you been applying? Was there ever any moment where you thought you'd give up? Because this is an astounding amount of rejection, and one never knows his/her exact placement vis a vis these programs...it's just absolute rejection. I'm a bit crushed, and am wondering how you all handle it or don't...for that matter. Thanks.
No word from any of the programs I've applied to. Most of them usually notify applicants in early or mid-March, but I've pretty much given up. I'd rather take the flood of rejections with pure numbness than be heartbroken.
It's interesting to see how so many people are going through the same things I'm going through in regards to this nerve-wracking process. One can only hope that with technology acceptances, rejections and waitlists would be given out in a much more timely manner.
@Georgie, Paul taught me too I did three writing courses with him at the Harvard Extension in 2008 and till 2009 May and I pretty much applied to MFA schools because of him:)
Last year I applied to three schools and was rejected across the board. I was heartbroken for about a week, and then I got over it. I just wrote to write for the next year, and read a whole hell of a lot (as usual). Something happened, I learned something without knowing it. I came to feel really excited about the path I was on, MFA or not.
I applied to ten schools this year, and have so far gotten two rejections and two acceptances. Part of getting accepted is luck, because this whole thing is so damn subjective. But I think it also has to do with commiting to writing, MFA or not. I was prepared to not get in this year, and I had a plan B (which centered around writing) that I was excited about.
This is just my experience, and you still have some great schools left. For me, I found great gifts in not getting in the first time around, and I wouldn't change anything.
Thanks for all of that info (sorry, don't have internet at home & my phone=broken so I can't reply in a timely fashion).
@Nefrettiti,
Thanks for the support. Hope you've been hearing good news from your progs as well! =D
@everyone: What does it mean, exactly, when a school emails you to let you know that you've been "recommended to the admissions committee"?? Someone mentioned that previously, and it's completely and & utterly beyond my understanding.
Thanks all, and I wish us ALL LUCK IN THE WEEKS TO COME!
This is my second year applying. I was pretty naive last year. I wish I had known about Seth's Blog. I had no idea of my odds. I applied to only 6 schools, all top tier, UF was my backup school. How crazy was that?
Checking out your list, with the exception of UNH and Columbia, all those schools are incredibly competitive. It's not a reflection of your work if you don't get in.
Rejection is part of the writer's life: publishing in lit mags, finding an agent, getting a book deal, these goals are even harder to achieve than a MFA. Everyone has their own way of dealing with rejection, but you do have to find some way because it doesn't seem to abate.
It helps to talk to other writers. (That's why this blog is so great.) Once I found out that writers with 3 or 4 books published still got 40 rejections per story from lit mags; or writers with major literary awards were let go from their publishers for selling only a few thousand copies, it put my struggles in perspective.
Is anybody else having an issue with the number of posts changing and jumping around and being really weird on this mailbag? It's kind of frustrating/difficult to get to last page.
I was wondering - has anyone here applied in the past, got accepted to at least one MFA program (or more) - but didn't go? Maybe because the MFA programs that offered a rejection either weren't first/second/third/etc. choice, and you wanted to try again the following year, to get into a program you really love?
I'm having the same trouble--thought it was my computer
@KT I applied to 6 schools 4 years ago, got in to 2 and didn't go. After applying but before hearing, I heard about a great job and figured it would be Plan B, so I applied and got the job offer before hearing from schools. Took the job and didn't back out a month later when I heard from my top choice school.
I flew out of Los Angeles to my hometown (Sacramento) last night because my dad had heart surgery today. MFA programs couldn't have been further from my mind in the OR waiting room.
Dad came through with flying colors and is resting comfortably after watching the Bachelor finale (which raised his blood pressure, worrying the nurses--Dad was not pleased that Jake picked Vienna who he calls the Cross-eyed Tramp).
My husband just called to check in. I told him to look for my Montana rejection. He said it wasn't in there, but that I'm in @ Boulder for fiction!
I'm exhausted and just happy that my Daddy is okay. I'm sure the jumping up and down will commence after some sleep. Goodnight everyone!
@ woon: Thank you! I'm pretty damn stoked. I don't remember the English lit requirement at all, but I probably just didn't even register since I did major in English as an undergrad. Boo, though, for them not responding to you!
@ Katie: I was accepted to NYU 5 years ago, went to visit, sat in on a class, met other amazing accepted students, and ended up not going. It ultimately came down to not wanting to be $100K in debt for an MFA and not really wanting to live in the city.
Now I'm obsessively scrutinizing the numbers, trying to convince myself that having gotten into one school with a 5% acceptance rate means maybe I've got a shot at a school with a 6% acceptance... even though really we all know it's a total fuckin' crapshoot. Doesn't help that I'm numerically retarded and just confused the shit outta myself. *back pat*
Well, March Radness, sadly, brought some rejections -- but also some long-awaited acceptances for KittyInACathouse, Courtney, AaronApps, Eric, amanda, Anthony & Michael! So that's pretty f*ckin' rad! For a one-day total, that's a high number of acceptances. Especially since most of you guys are regular posters. Eric and AaronApps haven't been super active on this blog, but I *know* you guys from P&W. Congrats! All in all, March 1 = Rad.
@amanda - I hope Boulder comes through with some good funding for you. It seems like a great option, except for the money problem.
@Anthony - Mad congrats on getting into your top choice school so early in the game! It sounds like you have a very well thought out, centered attitude. Thank you so much for sharing that with us.
@klairkwilty - Iowa fully funds all 100 of its IWW students. They used to have a tiered (unequal) funding scheme, but they stopped that sh*t a long minute ago. I believe the last year of the unequal funding system at Iowa was the year before Seth enrolled -- I'm sure Seth will correct me if I'm mistaken. Iowa's student funding comes from different sources, though, which means that most students have to teach for the money, while a few do not. But my understanding is that they work really hard at Iowa to keep the monies equal for everyone. Which is pretty f*cking awesome!
The people here who are in funding limbo at Iowa have been accepted into the non-fiction program, which is separate from the IWW. Hopefully, Iowa will be able to make the funding situation as wonderful for all its writers as it has for the writers in the IWW.
@Arna - Rock on!
@all - What has surprised you? Most of us, here, did a lot of research into the programs and the application process before we began. We read about applicants' experiences from earlier years... We found out how selective the programs were when we read Seth's blog... We knew that we were in a different, terrifyingly more subjective situation than our friends who were applying to Top Law Schools and Prestigious Doctoral Programs... So, I'm curious, what about the process or the schools or the outcomes or your reactions has surprised you?
@ Nefrettiti and @Emma- I was at Extension School for awhile, studied with Paul, then did a small group thing with him. It took me a very long time to decide to apply, and yet I still wish I had fixated less on this whole process, and had concentrated on listening to this great instructor. I miss him.
@Trilbe- First, I sorta loves you! You are so supportive and nice. I want only good things for you. I'm surprised that given my amount of preparation (three years of reading and writing and waiting to be ready), or what I was thought was preparation and research, did not cushion me in some way. I knew it was an incredibly selective process, but I did not expect this bump in applications (I waited for the wrong year to apply I guess).
I have applied before, had gotten into Brooklyn, and NYU, but was not able to go due to some family issues. I feel like this year has been a complete game-changer.
Good question. Surprise #1: I had no idea that I would get two rejections as early as mid-February and then hear of virtually no activity from the other programs I applied to for two weeks (and counting). Surprise #2: That I would find this lag between news to be completely crazy-making. I'm usually able to remain somewhat level headed, but am now suffering from a serious case of irrational pessimism - and am 100% convinced that I won't get in anywhere by virtue of the fact that I didn't get into the two most competitive schools I've applied to. Surprise #3: That I'd care so much and become so vested in this process. Amazing Plan B or no, not getting in this year would suck for me. :(
To everyone who asked - my story will be published in the spring issue if LIT, which comes from the New School. Now if I could just get an MFA acceptance, I'd be set!
Thanks for your answer. Obviously if you want funding (and I wholeheartedly agree that you should) and a top tier program the odds of getting in are slim. But I thought of the question because a number of people on the blog have mentioned wanting to get in "somewhere." I think most meant "somewhere on my preferred list" but I was wondering how hard it would be to get in if you just wanted to get into a generic MFA program. Thanks again and good luck to everyone.
I got into VCFA this year, but probably won't be able to go. Still waiting on another school, but my living situation and my wife's work schedule don't jive with the residency dates. In fact, even if I got into another low-res, I probably won't be able to go to that one either. Doesn't help that my wife thinks it's a waste of money :(
Congrats to all the latest acceptances. Glad you made it.
Are you me? I'm in the exact same situation. Two rejections two weeks ago, and now unending silence and growing pessimism. I'm damn near positive I won't get in anywhere this year, and am trying not to let it completely crush me. I too have been very surprised how much I really want this. I'm trying to turn all this negative energy into creativity, with some sporadic success. I finally wrote last night, for four hours. Trying to concentrate on busting my ass for next year... but I gotta tell you, I'm sick to death of waiting to get on with my life.
Finally got my paper mail rejection from UMass-Amherst last night after being DENIED on their website for 10 days or so. March radness, where art thou?
I got the FSU e-mail as well, but it definitely did not belong in the GNE category, although it was very nice. I e-mailed the program coordinator there, and she said they'd put letters in the mail this week, and that she would also try to e-mail decisions as soon as she knew them.
@ Trilbe: Thank you so much. I also would like to echo what Georgie said. You are such a sweetheart on here and take so much time to respond to people. It's very much appreciated. If kindness has any correlation with success, you should be on top of the world.
Also, I'd love to exchange poetry with you if you're interested (mandasue at gmail).
@G Jackson, a couple pages back you asked about SUNY Albany
what do you want to know?
I got my BA there years ago and dropped out of the MA program a year later (I was 20-21 and a mess.) I studied primarily with Judith Johnson for writing anyway. She's gone now.
You can apply for funding. The deadline is Jan 15.
I had a friend who was in the program not as a writer who dropped out a few years ago. There was a pretty vocal split between the deconstructionists and the Marxist/feminist/queer theory people. but I don't know if that is still the case.
I you want to be considered for the creative writing piece, you need to submit a creative sample as well as your academic writing.
One of the profs in the program with whom I'm still in contact says it's pretty heavily theory-driven.
You need to take the GRE, but don't need the subject test.
The campus is hideous. It was designed for Arizona or somewhere warm and picks up the wind and sends it howling through. It's all concrete and gets damp and cold. the undergrad dorms sucked. I don't suppose they've improved much in 25 years or so since I graduated.
The university is trying to become the center of nanoscale tech on the east coast.
None of this is well-organized, I know.
Let's see... Jeff Berman and Helen Elam are two great profs. And don Byrd. Pierre Jorris is there, but I don't know anything about his teaching. Bosco I think is still there. I enjoyed him.
If you have specific questions, let me know.
Oh, there is a language requirement for the PhD at least.
Sorry for any typos. I'm basically texting this from my phone.
Are you two planning to go to Michigan's admit weekend? I am probably going to go. I would love to get in touch before then. I think the visit's definitely going to be the deciding factor for me.
I wasn't sure at first, but when I read that you wrote for four hours yesterday, I realized that I could confidently answer your question - I am definitely not you. (But if you get an acceptance first, I may change my mind.)
In terms of getting in somewhere, permit me to make a plug for low-res. programs, which have astronomically high acceptance rates by comparison with full-res. programs and may be a good alternative to a less selective full-res. program that isn't desirable for some reason having to do with poor funding, bizarre location, e.g.:
I realize that most MFA folks don't consider applying to low-residency programs because of the cost, but if you have a job that covers your tuition while allowing you to pay your other expenses, then you're essentially "fully funded," just as you would be at a full-residency program that requires you to earn your keep by teaching. You don't get much teaching experience in a low-res. program, of course, but the tight market for tenure-track jobs increasingly calls into question the value of such experience.
I realize also that some full-res. programs offer fellowships: free money. In the low-res. world, the equivalent is when your employer pays the tuition as part of a continuing education/workforce training program (most large companies, at least, have them).
Low-res programs such as Converse College, Queens U. of Charlotte, and Pine Manor have outstanding faculty and are fairly affordable at something more or less than $5,000/semester and with the option to complete the program (and spread the program costs) over four or five years.
Also, in low-res there are two application cycles each year (usually).
I wouldn't ever make the argument that an MFA applicant shouldn't try to get full funding at a top full-res. program, but for those who don't get in, who have a job that could cover tuition costs, etc., then low-res. may be an answer.
2,502 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 1001 – 1200 of 2502 Newer› Newest»Michelle: I've been having a similar problem, but I find reading helps. When I read, I get inspired. At the same time, don't be too hard on yourself. You've just put yourself out there in a big way and you should be proud of that effort. I hope it pays off for you this round. Take care!
thanks for the update arna!! appreciate it!
oh well.
i half gave up on mccann and that ever elusive phone call. now it is more like 80 percent.
@Michelle
When I have to write something new and I don't feel it, I search through old journals (I call them thoughtbooks) for any bit of conversation I've heard that sparks my interest or some word or some trivial fact about anything. Let your past self inspire your present self.
Rejected from Western Michigan via snail mail today, 3/1.
@Emily
Sorry to hear about WMU. Was it fiction or poetry?
@Amber, Merideth, and Franny:
It's upsetting that we all have this problem, especially considering what our intentions were when applying for an MFA, BUT it is also really comforting to know that I am not the only one out there who can't get into a writing groove lately. I've tried reading, I've tried revisiting older drafts, I've tried writing exercises. None seem to work for more than 30 minutes.
I'm beginning to wonder if the problem is my brain, not my writing. What if I'm writing just as I always do, and I am just being more critical of it now because no MFA programs love me enough to tell me whether I rock or suck? lol. Ohhh golly. I wish I could go all "Eternal Sunshine" on myself and erase the application process from my brain. Then if I'm rejected I'll just think "these idiots, I never even applied here." and If I'm accepted I'll just be like "well isn't that convenient. I was just thinking how lovely it would be attend X's MFA program." ...and then I could write, with confidence, everywhere in between.
@ Michelle and others with this writing problem,
I know how you all feel. I feel like my writing has just been stunted by these applications, and I have 12-20 pages due by the 18th (which, of course, just HAS to be my birthday). But I'm trying though.
I'm sure we can all get through it.
@ Andrew
The WMU rejection was fiction. I'm really depressed--I thought Western was my best bet of the 15 schools I applied to.
Has anyone gotten calls from Hunter for interviews regarding poetry?
Have you tried doodle-writing?
The first thing I do when I get up in the morning is have breakfast. After that, I get my notebook and start "doodling" -- that is, I write anything that comes to mind. Words become sentences, then sentences become paragraphs, then paragraphs become page after page of drivel. It usually ends up being quite random crap but after 5 minutes, it turns coherent. I get a lot of short story ideas this way.
So, it's like doodling, the way you draw random circles and shapes and lines on a piece of paper. Except you do it with words and a word processor. You could use a pen and paper, if you like.
Everyone having writing problems--
We've been talking about this over on the Ning group. I've been having major issues. Part of it is all the stress. Part of it is just not being able to get my thoughts out on paper. I'm there with you all.
Sometimes, though, it helps me to write about not being able to write. Or to revise. I agree with whoever suggested that. I'm writing journals, too, which is good, even if they're nothing important or particularly good. At least I'm spending some time each day trying to write something. That's what really matters.
I also just put aside my computer and sit with pen and paper. That helps a lot, too. No rabid checking of MFA blog. No rabid checking of email. Just pen, paper, me. That's it.
Still trying to break through. Wanted to add my two cents.
@ Arna, do you know if Iowa is still making phone calls? Thanks in advance for any inside scoop.
I think you have to be willing to write junk and oodles of it. It's really liberating.
Re: writing problems.
In the beginning of February I challenged myself to write *at least* 500 words a day. I've heard this was Hemingway's rule, and if it was good enough for him, it's good enough for me! 500 words takes me less than 20 minutes and they really start to add up.
@Woon
That's all great advice. That's sorta what I've been doing. Things are getting better. Just wrote a bit about manta rays (watched Planet Earth -- Deep Oceans yesterday; incredible). Haha. Now I'm wikipedia-ing them and looking at videos online.
Way to waste some time.
Re: Writing Troubles
I know exactly what everyone is talking about. I have a manuscript (which I used part of for my writing sample) and I really NEED and WANT to work on it, but it is just not coming out. Any serious writing is just not working either. But I have learned to just write crap, any crap. I will say the one word that scares alot of serious writers, but try fanfiction. It has helped me so much get over writing hurdles, because you dont have to think about it. It is already all there, you just have the fun job of manipulating others work. It's a great realease and gets the creative thoughts going for more real writing.
@Chrissy H. -- that's a good idea. Have you ever done NaNoWriMo? The goal was 1,667 a day. I did it this year for the first time and figured out that I can write almost a thousand words in half an hour. Haha. And most of it was crap, of course, but it was lots of writing for me. I should start doing that again...
500-1000 quality words a day is usu. my goal. That can take a couple of hours to all day and/or night depending on how neurotic I'm being : - ) I sometimes count "writing inside my head" and research as part of my daily quota though. It's funny how research can entail watching Lost and stuffing my face with junk food when I'm really not in the mood.
Chrissy - I've done NaNoWriMo a number of times! Once I wrote 10K in one day - a personal record for me. This was actually the first year in a while I decided not to do it. I thought my MFA apps were more important than a giant pile of words I'd never do anything with. :)
By the way, congrats on your acceptance! I keep reading "Congrats, Chrissy!" and even if it's not me, it's still nice to see!
@Chrissy H. -- Thanks! I can't wait until you get in somwhere, too, and I can be all like, "YAY CHRISSY! CHRISSYs RULE!"
Yeah, I did it this year as a personal goal to get me out of a funk I was in. I ended up writing most of it in the last week or so. I won, but I was write upwards of 12,000 words a day. Haha.
I was also doing all my revising for my applications. It was a good writing month for me. But that's why I got behind on NaNo.
I'm not a fiction writer, either, so it was an interesting experience. Prolly not going to go for a "novel" again. Maybe short stories or creative non piece, or something...
@Woon
Great advice on the doodle writing. I'm going to try that one. The timing of your comment made me laugh, too, because I have to re-write a pre existing short story in another genre, and since I can't write right now, I chose the "graphic novel." So I am just sitting down to doodle a bit until I find the right style for my graphic novel approach. After that, I'm definitely trying doodle-writing. Thanks!
@Emily
I am currently at WMU finishing my undergrad. I, too, thought my chances of getting in at WMU were probably better than all the others, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized I was wrong. WMU's MFA program is on the rise, and their Ph.D. program is especially sought after (at least in my opinion, as most of my instructors are the Ph.D. students--so this is what I hear). My point is, no school is a safe school anymore. WMU recieved more applications this year, just as every other program did, and they can only accept so many. But your spot in the MFA program at WMU isn't only competing with other fiction applicants and poetry applicants--you're competing with playwrites, CNF and Ph.D. students as well. Don't let this rejection hurt you more just because you thought it was safer. It is just as likely that the program you thought you had a 1 in a million chance of attending will accept you tomorrow. You just never know. Don't count yourself out.
Why won't anyone call? Aren't I pretty?
@Michelle
Do you know how many people WMU accepts?
Thanks, Michelle. I really appreciate your insight!
I second the question asked earlier to Arna:
Even though Iowa is mailing out notifications on Friday, does that mean we're out of the running if we don't get a phone call before we get a letter?
That info will help me better shape my MFA-less life path.
@Andrew
I do not. However, I think it's variable to change each year. I don't want to promise anything, but I can try to get some information and report back. It's our spring break this week, so info might be delayed, but if any info has been released, then I'll be sure to hear about it eventually. Otherwise I'd suggest emailing the program. They are friendly folks over in the English department.
@pencore
i'm not arna, but several people have said that in the past people have been admitted to iowa without receiving a phone call, and that some of those letters will be acceptances.
Thanks, Michelle. Good lookin' out. Perhaps I'll drop those nice people a line.
My favorite website for forcing myself to write is Write or Die! Try it; it is fantastic.
Mike, two questions.
#1 Why aren't you Arna?
#2 If I send you a SASE, a piece of paper, and some change to buy typewriter ribbon, will you type out an acceptance letter from Iowa and send it to me?
@Michelle
I had the writing problem too. What really helped me was to formulate a Plan B that I'm excited about, and to remember that I don't have to go to an MFA program to be a writer. I had a good discussion with someone about why I write. It has nothing to do with a degree, and focusing on my reasons was inspiring to me. I used the lull in productivity as a time to read a lot as well, and that always fuels my flame.
One other thing. I was saying to myself: I'm not writing! What if I DO get into a program... I will be a fraud! I had to let go of that too, and not be so hard on myself. Being able to write again followed that process.
Thanks for the suggestions, guys. Those are actually some really good ideas; I think I might give some of them a shot as well.
It's probably better than watching three seasons of House straight in a row. :P
@Amber
Nothing is better than 3 straight seasons of House... except maybe 4-5-6 straight seasons.
"It could be lupus.."
subscribe
@Henry -- yes, you are pretty.
@pencore
#1 i've been pretty preoccupied with that question myself lately. i can't imagine why.
#2 when i saw 'typewriter ribbon' i thought of resident evil 2 before i thought of typerwriters.
perhaps #2 answers #1.
@Jason J
Lol!
"It's never lupus..."
Mike:
Touche.
We should all be so lucky as to have a little Arna inside of us. (Arna might be lucky to have a little Arna inside all of us too. I mean, depending... In the case of Henry, Arna would be hella lucky to be part of such a pretty thing.)
Jason,
It's never Lupus or M.S. Unless they first rule it out and go through a bunch of other things and then realize it was Lupus all along (after somebody says to House "I don't know how to ride a bike," and he gets that glimmer in his eye and realizes this is applicable to the case in some way and storms across that hospital), it was just presenting itself if a weird way.
I just found out Margaret Atwood is coming to the local university Wednesday. Scrambling to get tickets!
@Sud.
Iowa called me on the 17th of February from what I remember.
@Patrick.
I'm from Coleraine, right on the north coast; Heaney's county, so at least I don't have to live up to anything...oh...wait...
I tried to apply for Oxford (my old university), but they seem incapable of using references from last year - "Can't...quite...arggghhh...move...them...
from...this...pile...to...that...
pile". One of my referees has a father who is dying, and they couldn't even give me an exception on that basis - it's the beautiful compassion I experienced as an undergraduate there! I like sending them e-mails reminding them of the fact that they have a really anal approach to applications...and quite a lot of other things.
I wish I had've applied to Queen's in Belfast though as my only U.K. application - it seems far more preferable than Oxford to me - they've some great speakers this Spring (Michael Longley, Sean O'Brien). I'm not convinced there is a more poetically-fortuitous place to be born than N. Ireland, given its poetic heritage over the last forty years (but I'm biased!)
As for the rejection you figure you'll have from Iowa, my personal advice would be that if you are just coming out of undergraduate university at 21, historical development arcs of major poets (bar Muldoon, Tennyson, and a few others) would go against you, being more pronounced from 24-30 (a lot of poets first publish a book at 27). Given that a thesis, essentially a book, is your main aim at an MFA (and how many programs would not accept you if you already have one), being accepted at 21 or 22 isn't necessarily, in my opinion, a good thing - it could potentially be disruptive to the solitary graft work you'd be doing otherwise that brings you out of juvenilia, and will block off the chance to do attend another MFA. This is obviously an opinion that has no recourse to whatever stage your writing is at.
@WreckingLight!
Thanks a mil!
Yeah, a lot of people have told me that, maybe take a year out etc, but to be honest, I think I would go off my game being in the 'real' world, trying to find a job that would further my c.v.
I've been accepted in the mfa in Glasgow, adn it seems really good, any ideas?
Also, the program in Trinity in Dublin is meant to be really good from what I hear!
Major congrats on Iowa! Awesome news!
Do you think the program in Oxford is any good? I can't seem to get that much info on it.
Thanks a mil!
Jasmine, Good luck with the tickets!
@Jason J and @Amber
"Beckett was going to call his play Waiting for House’s Approval but thought the title was too grim."
well if my phone isn't going to ring and my email isn't going to populate with MFA related information....
then I will focus all my energy on tomorrow night's impending Lost.
le sigh.
It feels like I've officially hit that application response dead-spot. Seems I haven't heard ANY news from ANY schools in a long long while.
Still waiting on:
--Alabama (assumed rej.)
--Arkansas
--Indiana (assumed rej.)
--Michigan (assumed rej.)
--Purdue
--Southern Illinois (assumed rej.)
--Virginia Tech (assumed rej.)
I know that most programs are incredibly busy at this time of the year. But there has got to be a more efficient, more expedient system with which to send out acceptance, wait-list, & rejection notifications, right?
:-(
Old Poet, I totally agree!! I have 4 schools left to notify out of 11 total and one waitlist. Two email rejections (seems to be the fastest method and most environmentally friendly, why don't they all do it???). I have another unofficial rejection from an email I sent to the director of a program. Other than that, crickets!!
Here's my suggestion: take a little bit of the control back and give some of the programs a call or email. I'm not doing that for some programs, even though I haven't heard anything from them yet, but I emailed Alabama because I really wanted to know my status and found that I had been rejected. Maybe pick a few of the schools you are excited about (or all of them??) and give them an email/phone call. Being in the dark sucks donkey butt!
Oh, congrats anyone who heard good news! Sorry about the UNCW emails, they seem a little sketchy anyway. Who needs them??!
@Wrecking Light- thanks for the Iowa update...according to Arna, we will all know after Friday.
@Patrick-I have also applied to Oxford (did I already say that?). Also wanting more info, so if you hear anything, let me know, please?
Thanks!
@ kaybay & OldPoet: I hear ya. I've only gotten official word from 5 schools out of my 17. I would kill small helpless animals right now for some news.
And I'm a vegetarian.
Old Poet,
forgive me if I'm wrong, but I don't think Southern Illinois has notified poets yet. Don't lose hope yet! I got my fiction rejection from them last week, so I think if poetry rejections had done out at the same time, you'd have it by now.
@Tim Noble-I would love to be added to that group!
Why won't Indiana reject me already? WHY?
re: UNLV (on the 801-1000 page)
My UNLV status has been changed to:
"Graduate College Application Checklist Complete."
I don't really think it means more than just the graduate school verifying that you meet their required GPA standards if the department wants you. I guess.
March Radness indeed. Two rejections in the mail today (only one of which was news):
UMASS- Considerate enough to drive home the point with actual ink and paper.
UC-Boulder- So far the only one that didn't encourage me to either re-apply or wish me success in furthering my grad school career. Instead they "urge(d) me to continue to seek a satisfying career as a writer". Has there ever been such a thing?
Here's to hoping somebody gets some good news this month.
@sud
If I hear of anything about Oxford, I will let you know!
@ kaybay
@ amanda
@ Ashley Brooke
etc.
I got rejected from the University of Wyoming (poetry) weeks ago, and let me say: I am sooooooo grateful for their promptness in notifying me. Yeah...it sucked getting rejected, but at least I know where I stand with them.
I wish other programs would take a page out of WY's book regarding the early notification.
@ All of you charming little Iowa admittances. This question may or may not have been addressed already. But just out of curiosity: do your ISIS profiles also still say "In Progress"?
Humblest regards. :)
@patrick-Thanks:)
@Woon-Yes, thanks Woon, I have registered on this and for some reason, for a few days, couldn't find my way back to where I had originally looked. So thank you, the link worked and now I'm set for more distractions!
i am so frustrated right now. march 1 was my worst day in a long time.
Anna,
I've been accepted into Iowa, but no change on the ISIS page. Still "In Progress". Hope this helps you out,
-M.
Why, MJ?
@Anna.
Yes, it still says "In Progress". From the history of the "P&W" boards on Iowa, they seemed to stick on "In Progress" well into March (and then nobody mentions it again).
@mj: Me too. I gave up my apartment today. And on the train ride back to Chez Maman, who stepped into my train cabin but the man who fired me a year ago?
The stars are most definitely not aligned for this Cancer.
@ M. Johnson, WreckingLight, and Danielle Wheeler - Thanks for the info! Perhaps I can stop needlessly and obsessively "checking" it now. :)
It's 1:55 AM here, so goodnight. I really hope tomorrow will be a good day for all. This waiting process is nerve-wrecking. Speaking of which, I made my first brownies today. They were surprisingly good. Yay!
I'm typically a lurker but I'm dying to know, has anyone heard from Indiana officially, phone call or otherwise?
Night all!
hope tomorrow brings everyone buckets of good news!
Kelly,
Yes, a few of us have heard from Indiana. I got a phone call on 2/3.
Thanks Jasmine, I appreciate it. Congrats by the way (I'm assuming it was an acceptance.) Well, I guess maybe next year for me.
Kelly,
Where else have you applied?
Occasional lurker coming out of the woodwork to give my application list... I am applying for Fiction (focusing on Low-Res. programs.)
SFSU
CCA
Mills
USF
Antioch U. LA
Stonecoast
Solstice (Pine Manor)
Bennington
Lesley University (accepted!)
Kelly,
Also, I was in fiction. According to Driftless House, poets haven't been notified yet (or we don't know any who have.) So if you're in poetry, the game's not over.
Omg, my "quickie" horoscope made me laugh :D
"Who knows what tomorrow will bring? Not you, that's for sure. So stop worrying."
'Tis true, horoscope, 'tis true...
Jasmine,
Unfortunately I was also in fiction. Also, extremely unfortunately Indiana was my only school. My husband is currently a PhD student in Accounting at IU and so I was not able to apply to other programs. I hesitate about going to a low res program so.... Sigh. Thanks so much for the info Jasmine. It feels better to know.
First off, congrats to everyone with good news.
And thanks to the people who put out reading suggestions for ss collections by recent MFAers.
I started thinking about this after I stumbled across Aryn Kyle's God of Animals at Costco. I think if you manage to get your lit fic novel sold at freaking Costco you're doing pretty well for yourself. (I'm looking to read ss collections right now, so I didn't pick it up.)
More suggestions would be great, although I think I should have suggested MFAers from the last five years instead.
Here's a sloppy paste and cut of everyone's suggestions. I'm saving them on my comp for future use, so I figured i'd make it easier for you guys too if you get the same idea. Let me know if I missed some.
Chris Adrian's (IWW MFA) recent collection "A Better Angel". Also awesome is Wells Tower's (Columbia MFA) collection, "Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned."
Lydia Peele advantages
"For the Relief of Unbearable Urges" by Nathan Englander (Iowa MFA)
"Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It" by Maile Meloy (Irvine MFA)
"The God of Animals" (novel) and "Boys and Girls Like You And Me" (stories) by Aryn Kyle (Montana MFA)
"You Are Not A Stranger Here" by Adam Haslett (Iowa MFA) *Pulitzer finalist
"War By Candlelight" and "Lost City Radio" by Daniel Alarcon (Iowa MFA)
And
"A Thousand Years of Good Prayers" by Yiyun Li (Iowa MFA)
Barb Johnson “More of this World”
"St. Lucy's Home For Girls Raised By Wolves" by Karen Russell
Knockemstiff by Donald Ray Pollock (OSU)
Wolfboy by Evan Kuhlman (Notre Dame)
Refresh, Refresh by Ben Percy (Southern Illinois)
Farewell Navigator by Leni Zumas (U. Mass - Amherst)
Half a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Johns Hopkins)
What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us by Laura Van Den Berg (Emerson)
"How To Breathe Underwater" by Julie Orringer (Iowa MFA)
"Drinking Coffee Elsewhere" by ZZ Packer (Iowa MFA)
"Things That Fall from the Sky" by Kevin Brockmeier (Iowa MFA)
"The Laws of Evening" by Mary Yukari Waters "(UC Irvine MFA)
"You Are Not A Stranger Here" by Adam Haslett (Iowa MFA)
"A Thousand Years of
Good Prayers" by Yiyun Li (Iowa MFA)
"Hoe It Was for Me" by Andrew Sean Greer (Montana MFA)
"For the Relief of Unbearable Urges" by Nathan Englander (Iowa MFA)
"Ms. Hempel Chronicles" by Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum (Iowa MFA)
"Magic for Beginners" by Kelly Link (UNC Greensboro MFA)
"We're in Trouble" by Christopher Coake (Ohio State MFA
“Girl Trouble" by Holly Goddard Jones
Jason Brown Driving the Heart and Other Stories
-Why the Devil Chose New England For His Work
"The End" - Salvatore Scibona (Iowa MFA)
The People of Paper by Salvador Plascencia (Syracuse MFA, I think he's in the PhD program at the University of Southern California, but I'm not positive about that last)
paul yoon's 'once the shore'
I applied to some of these schools that I see decisions on like Vanderbilt, and I'm not entirely sure what that means, any ideas? Fiction by the way. My list is as follows:
Texas State
LSU
Ole Miss
Alabama
Florida State
University of Florida
Vanderbilt
Nothing from anybody yet, but University of Florida did send an e-mail saying they would update statuses this week.
Presley, Coughdrop:
I didn't get that e-mail either. Hrm.
To weigh in on the writer's block discussion -
I'm also getting panicky about this problem. I haven't written an actual story in quite a few months. With an over-the-top summer internship, a crazy term of applying to MFA programs, and my final term as an undergrad, I've really struggled to fit in decent writing time.
I tried to do the "five minutes a day" thing or whatever, but it's just not as productive for me.
So what I do instead is I have like sixteen journals and I scramble to write something down whenever something - anything - floats down to me.
Yesterday it was a fictionalized discussion about remembering the details of someone's birth certificate. A few days ago it was a two sentence description of how the birds look when they fly low over the fields.
These are my small victories. I figure that post-graduation and during my time in an MFA program is when the heat should really be on me to figure out what my writing schedule needs to be.
Okay, so a couple folks have said Iowa has 50 fiction students. But how is that so? I thought they accepted 12 fiction per year. Then add to that the 12 who are already there (2nd year students) and you get 24. Where is the 50 coming from?
PS: I'm also a UNCW reject, and I also did not get the e-mail from Florida.
Received a phone call from LSU earlier this afternoon. In for Poetry!
MFA Application List:
Louisiana State (Accepted)
Minnesota (Wait-listed)
Brown ?
Cornell?
Montana (Not Likely)
UMass – Amherst (Denied)
Ohio State (Assumed Rejection)
Syracuse (Rejection)
@Anna:
My Isis profile still says "in progress" despite an acceptance. I think they wait to change it until the letters go out, which appears to be Friday.
Did anyone else get that email from Florida? Because I didn't either.
@Ell,
Congrats about Maryland! How did they notify you, if you don't mind me asking?
And yes, congrats to everybody who has heard...things! This week is going to be crazy.
Congratulations Aaron!
sam,
i know you want MFAers from the past five years, which this is not, but def a good one:
rebecca curtis (syracuse MFA, now a prof at columbia) 'twenty grand"
Ashley Brooke,
Thank you! I don't have any news on other genres or when the rest of the notifications go out. I do know mine was called "early acceptance" so I think they are just beginning. I hope you hear good news!
@Sam N, thanks for compiling all of the suggestions. Whether I get in anywhere or not, I plan on read a lot more contemporary lit.
I also received the UNCW rejection email today. The fact that they're now unranked did lessen the sting.
@Old Poet, I agree that an early rejection can be a comfort. I appreciate that about UT -- they read my sample, it wasn't for them, I got my rejection. Or denial, rather.
re: Iowa
I thought Seth's blog said they accept 25 a year in each genre. I think they accept 50 in total. (Perhaps that's where someone came up with the 50 in fiction idea?)
Okay, here's the data from Seth's selectivity page:
16. University of Iowa (IWW) (2.91%) [50/1,710] 2010 ^
riah,
the fifty in fiction is 25 incoming, 25 second year students. but yes, only twenty five accepted per year.
Mr. Hemlock and others interested in U of Oregon...
I'm in the fiction program at Oregon right now. Love it.
For the record, this year our stipend is about $1,200 per month, which is more like 11K than 9K. Is anyone getting rich on it? No. Is Eugene a terribly expensive place to live? Also no. And we have health insurance on top of that, which is, of course, no small thing.
Oregon's a very small program, obviously, which is something I like. The students get along well, and everyone's writing very different but interesting work. We have the chance to work closely with all of the faculty before choosing a thesis advisor. Are they household names? Maybe not, but the professors all know their stuff and can actually convey that "stuff" to their students. It can be a tough program, certainly, and isn't a good match for anyone who needs/wants to be told how good they are. That said, I've already learned a lot and I know my writing's improving like crazy.
At Oregon we also get to teach creative writing in our first year, which is a lot of fun.
God, 25 is a lot of students. I wonder how many didn't get funding?
I also did not receive an email from UF. Kind of an odd thing to send to some people (?), since it's not in the GNE category.
RDL,
i'd love to go to oregon. one of your profs posted a comment a few days ago. 568 applicants for 6 spots. don't have to be a math major to know that's pushing one percent.
@ RDL
You're making me cry. I applied to Oregon and would love to get in. The Kidd program was a big draw for me. Do you get to teach in it/have you had any experience with it?
Anyone with any insider info on Columbia/NYU's whenabouts?
@Kaybay... Ha! Mine says: You need to tidy up your life a bit. It's not so hard, really.
I'm drinking Yogi echinacea immune system booster tea and the tea tag says, "You are infinite."
That, I am.
Just accepted to Johns Hopkins via phone (poetry). Still floored.
RE UNCW rejections: Anyone out there receive one for CNF? All I've seen here so far is poetry and fiction? Why are "us" nonfiction people separated from the rest of the group so often? The fourth genre. Anyway, enough ranting into cyberspace. ALSO, ANY MEMPHIS CNF people there? Curious...
@ Eric: Fantastic. Congrats!
@Laura T: I can't remember if I sent my congratulations. So, congrats!! Your poetry is beautiful and dark and shadowy. Like I told you on the Ning deal, you make lovely choices. And Rutgers made a lovely choice in you!
Dear Alabama: come on! Would you just send me my rejection already (I already saw that you have an "acceptees weekend" coming up); otherwise, I'd be thinking my hopes still dangle, however precariously. Not cool.
Sincerely,
You-Know-Who
Hi everyone,
I got a 'good news voicemail' from the NEOMFA here in Cleveland.
I did NOT get any email from UF. I wonder if, when Presley wrote "but University of Florida did send an e-mail saying they would update statuses this week" -- that Presley actually meant Florida State's email that said they would begin posting acceptances/rejections to the website in the first week of March.
Anyway. Florida State and UF, come on! Notify! Please! I am BEGGING YOU.
Congrats to Aaron, Eric, & Kitty!
UPDATE CLARIFICATION:
Re: Iowa, to those who've asked:
What I know:
The IWW is planning on putting all of their official acceptance/rejection letters in the snail mail on or shortly after Friday.
What I don't know:
If they're done with calls, and/or if some of those letters will be wait list notifications.
For those interested, someone who I'm pretty sure is Alexi Zentner wrote a couple years ago on the PW boards that he'd learned from his experience being on Iowa's wait list that they had only one person on it for fiction, and that it was possibly only dealt with as the need (/spot) arose. DISCLAIMER: I don't know if this is how Iowa still does it, or even if they ever actually did do it this way. But that is what I remember of the Speakeasy discussion.
CLARIFICATION OF THE CLARIFICATION
One person, I think, meaning that they only tell/deal with the first person on the list at a time. But again, that's my dim recollection of what someone I've never met wrote on the PW speakeasy.
Franny, thank you so much!!
Arna,
I was waitlisted at Iowa last year. They said the list was short, but probably more than one person. Also, when I called them for the final decision (also last year), they said that everyone offered in fiction accepted.
It was florida state, sorry guys. I didn't mean to freak people out.
@Aaron: Congrats! I applied there also (poetry) - any indication if they're done or not?
Sad News:
Barry Hannah dead by heart attack at his home in Oxford.
@Lauren,
Congrats on the NEOMFA! Even if it's still unofficial...
@Arna
Thanks for the Iowa information.
I am starting to suspect that next year I will be the Mama Bear of this board giving all the kiddies advice because my prospects are looking crappier and crappier. March Radness, have you anything for meee?
@RDL
Thanks for the info on Oregon RDL. That stipend seems much more realistic. And teaching creative writing rather than composition is an extra perk.
How are they at placing alumni in jobs and/or fellowships?
Devastating news about Barry Hannah...
RIP Barry Hannah
I didn't even think of checking my SPAM mail! Now I'll be checking that folder too!
MJ- It was a small envelope from the English department. Starting with the words "We regret to inform you..." Oh well I didn't think I would get in there anyways.
Rose - I didn't apply to Minnesota, even though I applied to Mankato and Moorhead, because I didn't meet the MN GPA requirement and my GRE scores are pretty bad. And yes I know that those shouldn't matter if you have an awesome writing sample.
I tried to pick some schools that I thought were realistic for me to get in to. I realize there is no safety school either but I tried to think realistically about what schools I could possibly get into.
MJ- It was a small envelope from the English department. Starting with the words "We regret to inform you..." Oh well I didn't think I would get in there anyways.
Rose - I didn't apply to Minnesota, even though I applied to Mankato and Moorhead, because I didn't meet the MN GPA requirement and my GRE scores are pretty bad. And yes I know that those shouldn't matter if you have an awesome writing sample.
I tried to pick some schools that I thought were realistic for me to get in to. I realize there is no safety school either but I tried to think realistically about what schools I could possibly get into.
@ Arna, thanks for sharing what you know.
Thanks everyone!
@Adam: They called me kind of late in the day. They probably haven’t called everyone yet. I’d also suppose there is a wait-list or set of alternates. I wouldn’t give up hope yet. Also, no one else on here has been contacted... that's a good sign.
Best,
Aaron
Ugh, I was just able to check my status for Florida for the first time, and they're claiming they did not receive my transcript. Gosh, that is frustrating.
Now I know UF has like a trillion applications, but we are paying these schools to review our applications, they at least send a letter in the mail to someone telling them if they're missing something (as many schools do).
@Le Tigre - I wouldn't be so sure they're missing them. My status says transcripts are missing as well, and at least one other person has the same thing. Since I know I sent mine in, I've been assuming they don't show up on the status check because they were sent to the creative writing program rather than to the grad school.
I could be wrong about this. I sent an email to Carla Blount, the program assistant, to verify, but I haven't heard back yet.
Re: CSU Fiction
Does anyone know the status with CSU Fiction? I think a couple of people posted on here with acceptances, but it didn't seem like there were that many. Does anyone know if all of the acceptances have gone out? If we haven't heard from them, can we kind of assume rejection?? :(
@Sarah
It's been my understanding that the acceptances posted in CSU fiction have been unofficial and that they may very well still be notifying. I'm not 100% on this, but that is what I could gather from the posts I've read. I may just be overly optimistic, though.
Hi! I've been a lurker since Feb 15th.
I applied to:
George Mason (accepted 2/12 email)
American (accepted 3/1 snail mail)
UMD-College Park (assumed rejection)
Johns Hopkins
Emerson
Boston University
UMASS-Boston
UNH
Columbia College Chicago
all in fiction. You guys here are pretty much awesome, if I can say that.
@DFW
Great, thanks, I appreciate your help!
Re: Florida transcripts
Word is there was a mix-up between departments and everything's okay.
Congrats KBT. George Mason was sure early with their acceptance letter. They must have really wanted you.
Might as well since all I can do is wait...my list was whittled down to four pretty quickly. For Seth:
Applied/Still Waiting:
Columbia College Chicago
SAIC
I'm planning on applying to:
CCNY
Northwestern
All for fiction. I'm really keeping my fingers crossed for CCC though.
I keep doing this. Stupid bookmark.
IN AT BOULDER!!! for poetry, by mail, unfunded.
First time writing but a long-time reader... given that we're in crunch time, just wanted to add in another experience to keep up hope :) Will update as I hear more, high hopes y'all!!!
Creative non-fiction:
Rejected:
3/1 - U Oregon, via mail
2/25 - U Wyoming, via mail
Still awaiting word:
U Colorado Boulder
UNCW
George mason
Hunter
Vanderbilt
New School
UNH
Louisiana State
U Washington
U Montana
Columbia
American
Here at Hopkins I do believe the faculty is done with its initial acceptances in poetry. No idea about fiction.
Usually five waitlist letters go out about a week later.
Good luck all.
Hello all. I have been following these threads for some time now.
I am in at UMass-Amherst for poetry and already sent in my acceptance.
Don't ever assume rejection. I assumed rejection and came so close to giving up my ideals and dreams.
I don't know where an MFA will lead me but damn it all you live once.
"A lot of people enjoy being dead. But they are not dead, really. They're just backing away from life. Reach out. Take a chance. Get hurt even. But play as well as you can. Go team, go! Give me an L. Give me an I. Give me a V. Give me an E. L-I-V-E. LIVE! Otherwise, you got nothing to talk about in the locker room." - Maude
Life should be beautiful.
@amanda -- Congrats on CU!
When I was researching into MFA programs, I encountered the CU website. It had a requirement that applicants must have a BA in English Lit. So, I sent them an email asking, essentially, "Hey, guys, is it true that only English Lit peeps should apply?" and I received no response. They probably thought I was an idiot.
So, I didn't apply.
Awful news about Hannah. I was just asking someone on this blog earlier if he was still teaching at Ole Miss.
Seth Abramson:
I believe a while back you noted that there were a little more than 3,000 individual candidates applying for creative writing MFA programs each year. Looking at the number of people accepted each year to the top 60 schools (Selectivity, Acceptance Rate list), there appear to be about 890 slots available. If you add in all the other schools, wouldn't that mean there are at least 2500 total slots available each year? Doesn't that mean if you apply to a decent amount of schools, including lower tier ones, and if funding isn't an issue (a big if obviously) it would be difficult NOT to get in somewhere? Or am I misinterpreting the numbers? In any case, thanks for all your work in pulling together the numbers.
@Florida Transcripts
Thanks. I'm less concerned now. I'm still concerned I won't get in, but that's separate.
On a related note though, I tried e-mailing the Department multiple times but the e-mail on the website was never working. Is this just me?
@DG
Yes, if you're willing to apply everywhere, you are basically guaranteed a slot. At a low-res program at the very least.
I think the concern of most people is funding, not just the mere fact of getting in. And I would be willing to wager that if you added up the top 50 schools ranked by funding, you would get a lot less than 800 slots, as some of the biggest programs in the top 60, in terms of admits, are nowhere close to fully funded (see: UNCW, NYU, Columbia, basically all schools in the NY area).
@Nathaniel
@Seth
Do any of the poorly-funded programs in the top 60 have difficulty filling out a class?
@red--
Yeah, the extended Michener rejection-dates were a heartbreaker.
@Aaron, Eric, Lauren-- Congratulations! Yay for good news!
@the rest of us--
Between the hoarde of rejection letters just come and the death of Mr. Hannah, I'd say this was a pretty terrible way to ring in March "radness".
How do you check your UFlorida status?
@ Aaron Aps: Congrats on LSU! I have several friends who finished that program last year, and I'd be happy to put you in touch with some other poets there if you would like. Everyone I know who went there was quite happy with the program.
Where is this funding page everyone's talking about?
And where is the selectivity page?
Thank you so much!
also I would just like you say that all of you are fabulous.
I am way over-tired. but this does not in any way lessen the obviousness of this blog's collective fabulousness.
The data is on Seth's site.
Selectivity:
http://sethabramson.blogspot.com/2010/01/2010-mfa-rankings-selectivity.html
Funding:
http://sethabramson.blogspot.com/2009/01/creative-writing-mfa-rankings-2010.html
Great work by Seth. Obviously, don't treat it as rankings set in stone. Lots of data are missing so there was some extrapolations done. The rankings don't interest me much, but the raw data do.
@Emma
All of this info (selectivity, response data, etc.) can be found on Seth's blog:
http://sethabramson.blogspot.com/
You will see a message saying that the blog has been discontinued, but just scroll down and use the links listed in the gray bar on the right side of the page
Here is the direct link to the 2010 response data (which can also be accessed through Seth's blog): http://driftless-house.blogspot.com/2010/02/2010-cw-mamfaphd-application-responses.html
Hope that helps! :)
DG,
The total number of applicants to full-residency MFAs annually can only be estimated--though there's enough data to make a reasonable estimate. The low end says 3,500, and the high end something like 4,500 (AWP claims 13,000 total for all types of graduate school programs in creative writing -- this is definitely wrong). I haven't counted the number of spots available at the nation's 2 full-res MFA-par non-terminal MAs and 142 full-res MFAs (145 programs total if you count USC's MFA in Dramatic Writing in its Theatre Department -- yes, I'm that much of a geek), but if it's 2,500 than yes, in theory somewhere between 55% and 70% of MFA applicants will get accepted in any given year. So--to answer your specific question--yes, it has always been the case that (not being sarcastic here, just realistic) if one's willing to pay a lot to get an MFA, to apply to a lower-ranked program, to move anywhere/anytime, and to apply to a ton of programs one is more likely than not to get at least one offer. As to whether that offer would be worth taking...
...well, you know my thoughts on that. :-)
Be well,
Seth
Seth,
You are someone who I would like to chest bump.
Rising Yellow Rose,
I applied to Florida Atlantic, and I cannot, despite several attempts, get anybody else on this blog to even acknowledge the program's existence. I don't know how big the program is so I don't know anything about the acceptance rate. I'm quite interested in the program - HELLO, PEOPLE, this is a fully funded program in Boca Raton. Sure, it's expensive to live there and the funding is on the low end, so a few loans/a part time job are likely in order... but WHY haven't people been talking about the program? There is some interesting faculty, too. I cannot for the life of me figure it out. They'll be notifying late (I their deadline was just today) so I'm trying not to think about them too much now.
So I have been a complete lurker for the past two weeks. Initially, I thought this was a horribly addictive thing, checking in twice a day, indulging my worst self-punishing tendencies, but you all are quite wonderful and supportive of each other, so I've decided to fully join the fray.
@ arna- You are very gracious. I wish you the best wherever you go (and those are some pretty damn impressive schools you got into).
@nefertiti- Tinkers by Paul Harding. He was my writing instructor until this past December- a phenomenal teacher. Glad someone on this board loves his little book as much as I do.
My list, for fiction:
Texas- rejected- they could not lick the stamp fast enough!
Syracuse- rejected
UMass Amherst-rejected
Wisconsin-rejected
Iowa-presumed rejection
Cornell-presumed rejection
Michigan-presumed rejection
Virginia
Hopkins
UNH
Columbia
Also some questions, to all of you: How many years have you been applying? Was there ever any moment where you thought you'd give up? Because this is an astounding amount of rejection, and one never knows his/her exact placement vis a vis these programs...it's just absolute rejection. I'm a bit crushed, and am wondering how you all handle it or don't...for that matter. Thanks.
No word from any of the programs I've applied to. Most of them usually notify applicants in early or mid-March, but I've pretty much given up. I'd rather take the flood of rejections with pure numbness than be heartbroken.
It's interesting to see how so many people are going through the same things I'm going through in regards to this nerve-wracking process. One can only hope that with technology acceptances, rejections and waitlists would be given out in a much more timely manner.
Once again, good luck to all.
@Georgie, Paul taught me too I did three writing courses with him at the Harvard Extension in 2008 and till 2009 May and I pretty much applied to MFA schools because of him:)
@Georgie
Last year I applied to three schools and was rejected across the board. I was heartbroken for about a week, and then I got over it. I just wrote to write for the next year, and read a whole hell of a lot (as usual). Something happened, I learned something without knowing it. I came to feel really excited about the path I was on, MFA or not.
I applied to ten schools this year, and have so far gotten two rejections and two acceptances. Part of getting accepted is luck, because this whole thing is so damn subjective. But I think it also has to do with commiting to writing, MFA or not. I was prepared to not get in this year, and I had a plan B (which centered around writing) that I was excited about.
This is just my experience, and you still have some great schools left. For me, I found great gifts in not getting in the first time around, and I wouldn't change anything.
ps You guys are so lucky to have studied with Paul Harding!
@WreckingLight,
Thanks for all of that info (sorry, don't have internet at home & my phone=broken so I can't reply in a timely fashion).
@Nefrettiti,
Thanks for the support. Hope you've been hearing good news from your progs as well! =D
@everyone: What does it mean, exactly, when a school emails you to let you know that you've been "recommended to the admissions committee"?? Someone mentioned that previously, and it's completely and & utterly beyond my understanding.
Thanks all, and I wish us ALL LUCK IN THE WEEKS TO COME!
@ Georgie
This is my second year applying. I was pretty naive last year. I wish I had known about Seth's Blog. I had no idea of my odds. I applied to only 6 schools, all top tier, UF was my backup school. How crazy was that?
Checking out your list, with the exception of UNH and Columbia, all those schools are incredibly competitive. It's not a reflection of your work if you don't get in.
Rejection is part of the writer's life: publishing in lit mags, finding an agent, getting a book deal, these goals are even harder to achieve than a MFA. Everyone has their own way of dealing with rejection, but you do have to find some way because it doesn't seem to abate.
It helps to talk to other writers. (That's why this blog is so great.) Once I found out that writers with 3 or 4 books published still got 40 rejections per story from lit mags; or writers with major literary awards were let go from their publishers for selling only a few thousand copies, it put my struggles in perspective.
Is anybody else having an issue with the number of posts changing and jumping around and being really weird on this mailbag? It's kind of frustrating/difficult to get to last page.
I was wondering - has anyone here applied in the past, got accepted to at least one MFA program (or more) - but didn't go? Maybe because the MFA programs that offered a rejection either weren't first/second/third/etc. choice, and you wanted to try again the following year, to get into a program you really love?
@Ashley
I'm having the same trouble--thought it was my computer
@KT
I applied to 6 schools 4 years ago, got in to 2 and didn't go. After applying but before hearing, I heard about a great job and figured it would be Plan B, so I applied and got the job offer before hearing from schools. Took the job and didn't back out a month later when I heard from my top choice school.
I'm applying again now.
I flew out of Los Angeles to my hometown (Sacramento) last night because my dad had heart surgery today. MFA programs couldn't have been further from my mind in the OR waiting room.
Dad came through with flying colors and is resting comfortably after watching the Bachelor finale (which raised his blood pressure, worrying the nurses--Dad was not pleased that Jake picked Vienna who he calls the Cross-eyed Tramp).
My husband just called to check in. I told him to look for my Montana rejection. He said it wasn't in there, but that I'm in @ Boulder for fiction!
I'm exhausted and just happy that my Daddy is okay. I'm sure the jumping up and down will commence after some sleep. Goodnight everyone!
@ woon: Thank you! I'm pretty damn stoked. I don't remember the English lit requirement at all, but I probably just didn't even register since I did major in English as an undergrad. Boo, though, for them not responding to you!
@ Katie: I was accepted to NYU 5 years ago, went to visit, sat in on a class, met other amazing accepted students, and ended up not going. It ultimately came down to not wanting to be $100K in debt for an MFA and not really wanting to live in the city.
Thanks for the links to the data!
Now I'm obsessively scrutinizing the numbers, trying to convince myself that having gotten into one school with a 5% acceptance rate means maybe I've got a shot at a school with a 6% acceptance... even though really we all know it's a total fuckin' crapshoot. Doesn't help that I'm numerically retarded and just confused the shit outta myself. *back pat*
Well, March Radness, sadly, brought some rejections -- but also some long-awaited acceptances for KittyInACathouse, Courtney, AaronApps, Eric, amanda, Anthony & Michael! So that's pretty f*ckin' rad! For a one-day total, that's a high number of acceptances. Especially since most of you guys are regular posters. Eric and AaronApps haven't been super active on this blog, but I *know* you guys from P&W. Congrats! All in all, March 1 = Rad.
@amanda - I hope Boulder comes through with some good funding for you. It seems like a great option, except for the money problem.
@Anthony - Mad congrats on getting into your top choice school so early in the game! It sounds like you have a very well thought out, centered attitude. Thank you so much for sharing that with us.
@klairkwilty - Iowa fully funds all 100 of its IWW students. They used to have a tiered (unequal) funding scheme, but they stopped that sh*t a long minute ago. I believe the last year of the unequal funding system at Iowa was the year before Seth enrolled -- I'm sure Seth will correct me if I'm mistaken. Iowa's student funding comes from different sources, though, which means that most students have to teach for the money, while a few do not. But my understanding is that they work really hard at Iowa to keep the monies equal for everyone. Which is pretty f*cking awesome!
The people here who are in funding limbo at Iowa have been accepted into the non-fiction program, which is separate from the IWW. Hopefully, Iowa will be able to make the funding situation as wonderful for all its writers as it has for the writers in the IWW.
@Arna - Rock on!
@all - What has surprised you? Most of us, here, did a lot of research into the programs and the application process before we began. We read about applicants' experiences from earlier years... We found out how selective the programs were when we read Seth's blog... We knew that we were in a different, terrifyingly more subjective situation than our friends who were applying to Top Law Schools and Prestigious Doctoral Programs... So, I'm curious, what about the process or the schools or the outcomes or your reactions has surprised you?
FOR EVERYONE!!
if any of you are getting really down, frustrated, peeved, etc, etc, from all this mfa crap, then listen to this song! It cheered me up!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ay1z1Z0p6Xg
Good luck to everyone!
@ Nefrettiti and @Emma- I was at Extension School for awhile, studied with Paul, then did a small group thing with him. It took me a very long time to decide to apply, and yet I still wish I had fixated less on this whole process, and had concentrated on listening to this great instructor. I miss him.
@Trilbe- First, I sorta loves you! You are so supportive and nice. I want only good things for you. I'm surprised that given my amount of preparation (three years of reading and writing and waiting to be ready), or what I was thought was preparation and research, did not cushion me in some way. I knew it was an incredibly selective process, but I did not expect this bump in applications (I waited for the wrong year to apply I guess).
I have applied before, had gotten into Brooklyn, and NYU, but was not able to go due to some family issues. I feel like this year has been a complete game-changer.
I apologize for that car wreck of a sentence in the middle.
@ Courtney,
Congratulations on getting into Boulder! And I'm glad your dad is okay!
@Trilbe -
Good question. Surprise #1: I had no idea that I would get two rejections as early as mid-February and then hear of virtually no activity from the other programs I applied to for two weeks (and counting). Surprise #2: That I would find this lag between news to be completely crazy-making. I'm usually able to remain somewhat level headed, but am now suffering from a serious case of irrational pessimism - and am 100% convinced that I won't get in anywhere by virtue of the fact that I didn't get into the two most competitive schools I've applied to. Surprise #3: That I'd care so much and become so vested in this process. Amazing Plan B or no, not getting in this year would suck for me. :(
To everyone who asked - my story will be published in the spring issue if LIT, which comes from the New School. Now if I could just get an MFA acceptance, I'd be set!
Seth:
Thanks for your answer. Obviously if you want funding (and I wholeheartedly agree that you should) and a top tier program the odds of getting in are slim. But I thought of the question because a number of people on the blog have mentioned wanting to get in "somewhere." I think most meant "somewhere on my preferred list" but I was wondering how hard it would be to get in if you just wanted to get into a generic MFA program. Thanks again and good luck to everyone.
re: CCA emails bouncing back. I was actually typing it in wrong.
Me, myself, Coughdrop actually fails at life and may or may not deserve to be rejected due to increasing amounts of stupidity as this process goes on.
The good news is I will actually probably figure this problem out now.
@KT
I got into VCFA this year, but probably won't be able to go. Still waiting on another school, but my living situation and my wife's work schedule don't jive with the residency dates. In fact, even if I got into another low-res, I probably won't be able to go to that one either. Doesn't help that my wife thinks it's a waste of money :(
Congrats to all the latest acceptances. Glad you made it.
Posted on Driftless House this morning:
"University of New Mexico has sent letters of acceptance out in all genres and follow-up calls and emails are being made this week!"
@ Jen
Are you me? I'm in the exact same situation. Two rejections two weeks ago, and now unending silence and growing pessimism. I'm damn near positive I won't get in anywhere this year, and am trying not to let it completely crush me. I too have been very surprised how much I really want this. I'm trying to turn all this negative energy into creativity, with some sporadic success. I finally wrote last night, for four hours. Trying to concentrate on busting my ass for next year... but I gotta tell you, I'm sick to death of waiting to get on with my life.
Finally got my paper mail rejection from UMass-Amherst last night after being DENIED on their website for 10 days or so. March radness, where art thou?
I got the FSU e-mail as well, but it definitely did not belong in the GNE category, although it was very nice. I e-mailed the program coordinator there, and she said they'd put letters in the mail this week, and that she would also try to e-mail decisions as soon as she knew them.
@KT
I got into Montana last year and didn't go. They didn't offer me any funding, so it was a pretty easy choice for me.
Also, congratulations to all of yesterday's/this weekend's admits - I'm so happy for all you guys. Yay!
Also, congratulations to all of yesterday's/this weekend's admits - I'm so happy for all you guys. Yay!
@ Trilbe: Thank you so much. I also would like to echo what Georgie said. You are such a sweetheart on here and take so much time to respond to people. It's very much appreciated. If kindness has any correlation with success, you should be on top of the world.
Also, I'd love to exchange poetry with you if you're interested (mandasue at gmail).
@G Jackson, a couple pages back you asked about SUNY Albany
what do you want to know?
I got my BA there years ago and dropped out of the MA program a year later (I was 20-21 and a mess.) I studied primarily with Judith Johnson for writing anyway. She's gone now.
You can apply for funding. The deadline is Jan 15.
I had a friend who was in the program not as a writer who dropped out a few years ago. There was a pretty vocal split between the deconstructionists and the Marxist/feminist/queer theory people. but I don't know if that is still the case.
I you want to be considered for the creative writing piece, you need to submit a creative sample as well as your academic writing.
One of the profs in the program with whom I'm still in contact says it's pretty heavily theory-driven.
You need to take the GRE, but don't need the subject test.
The campus is hideous. It was designed for Arizona or somewhere warm and picks up the wind and sends it howling through. It's all concrete and gets damp and cold. the undergrad dorms sucked. I don't suppose they've improved much in 25 years or so since I graduated.
The university is trying to become the center of nanoscale tech on the east coast.
None of this is well-organized, I know.
Let's see... Jeff Berman and Helen Elam are two great profs. And don Byrd. Pierre Jorris is there, but I don't know anything about his teaching. Bosco I think is still there. I enjoyed him.
If you have specific questions, let me know.
Oh, there is a language requirement for the PhD at least.
Sorry for any typos. I'm basically texting this from my phone.
Nadiya and Trilbe,
Are you two planning to go to Michigan's admit weekend? I am probably going to go. I would love to get in touch before then. I think the visit's definitely going to be the deciding factor for me.
@Trilbe, I love how you've become the resident cheerleader for this blog. You're so good at providing the warm and fuzzies!
@Everyone else, let's not give up on March radness yet! It's only the 2nd day! Dearest Cell Phone, please ring for me today?
@ Red Micky -
I wasn't sure at first, but when I read that you wrote for four hours yesterday, I realized that I could confidently answer your question - I am definitely not you. (But if you get an acceptance first, I may change my mind.)
@DG
In terms of getting in somewhere, permit me to make a plug for low-res. programs, which have astronomically high acceptance rates by comparison with full-res. programs and may be a good alternative to a less selective full-res. program that isn't desirable for some reason having to do with poor funding, bizarre location, e.g.:
I realize that most MFA folks don't consider applying to low-residency programs because of the cost, but if you have a job that covers your tuition while allowing you to pay your other expenses, then you're essentially "fully funded," just as you would be at a full-residency program that requires you to earn your keep by teaching. You don't get much teaching experience in a low-res. program, of course, but the tight market for tenure-track jobs increasingly calls into question the value of such experience.
I realize also that some full-res. programs offer fellowships: free money. In the low-res. world, the equivalent is when your employer pays the tuition as part of a continuing education/workforce training program (most large companies, at least, have them).
Low-res programs such as Converse College, Queens U. of Charlotte, and Pine Manor have outstanding faculty and are fairly affordable at something more or less than $5,000/semester and with the option to complete the program (and spread the program costs) over four or five years.
Also, in low-res there are two application cycles each year (usually).
I wouldn't ever make the argument that an MFA applicant shouldn't try to get full funding at a top full-res. program, but for those who don't get in, who have a job that could cover tuition costs, etc., then low-res. may be an answer.
I'm a low-res. applicant myself.
Sorry for going on so long. Good luck to all!
Wow, I am so depressed by the news about Bary Hannah... just heard.
@Jim-I'm also applying to primarily low res programs, would love to know which schools you're applying to.
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