We have sent your application to the department for a review. Many applicants are waiting to be reviewed at this moment. You can check your status at www.myenrollment.brooklyn.cuny.edu Thank you, AW Office of Graduate Admissions
@ kaybay - I hope you land somewhere really great next fall (teaching-wise), and then go into the '11 application cycle ready to give the other Florida applicants a run for their money.
We're all still rooting for you - if you do get good news from Florida or elsewhere, don't forget to let us know. You will be missed!
P.S. I don't think it's a bad idea to take a break from writing. Sometimes you need to take a step back to re-evaluate - you'll return stronger for it.
i'm in total agreement. taking a break from writing isn't something anyone should judge. everyone does this stuff differently, and maybe you need to go DO for a while and then come back to writing with a fresh perspective.
always have appreciated your attitude and comments on the blog and was definitely rooting for you. I'm four rejections in, so you may see me here next year too!
@coreyann-- Sarah Lawrence just made their decisions, but they haven't notified anyone yet (to the best of my knowledge). I emailed them to withdraw my application, and that's how I found out I was accepted... ouch! I'm afraid I made myself look like an incredible a-hole. Anyway, best of luck to you.
I was accepted with a fellowship at Notre Dame today for fiction. I was in absolute shock b/c, weeks ago, I had resigned myself to rejection from ND (my top choice) after a wave of fiction applicants already heard good news and after being rejected from quite a few schools. So, seriously, there is no rejection until you are rejected.
Also, per an email a few days ago from Illinois, they are not done notifying fiction acceptances. Ditto perhaps for Indiana, who typically makes some late in the game offers according to a friend in the program currently. Keep the faith in yourselves, hopefully better than I did.
thanks for the clarification. and now i will freak out. they didn't say when they were notifying? can't believe they told you about your acceptance.... aghhhh.
@Jacquelyn-- I can tell you that I just turned down a spot at Hunter (fiction) today, so at least one spot is still open.
@Coreyann-- I have no idea when Sarah Lawrence will notify. I was trying to do a courteous thing and withdraw, becaue I know I'm not going to attend. But perhaps they didn't take it that way? I don't know. Good luck to you.
@kaybay - Best of luck! I'm running with one waitlist, a bunch of denials, a few likely denials, and one school that hasn't notified yet, so I may be seeing you around these parts next year. (Unless! Fingers crossed! We both have a sudden turn of fortune!)
I'm down to four applications pending, two of which are likely rejections, so I may be meeting you here in the mix again next year (and will of course look forward to it).
Note to everyone: I just called up UW-Milwaukee’s MA program to decline the offer (it is a cool MA program since it is attached to all of the high quality PhD students they accept but I didn’t get any funding and I probably wouldn’t have went anyway with MFA acceptances to my name). The person on the phone asked me to send an e-mail stating why I was declining the offer so that they can use it in the future to make program modifications. So, I just want to say to everyone that you might want to keep this in mind if you’re turning down offers in the near future (especially if they are unfunded). Rather than simply turning them down (kindly) tell them why in an e-mail. It might just make things better for some people down the line.
IU was one of the top schools on my list, and I'm still a bit in shock that I have a chance (granted...a very small chance) of getting in there. Nice to hear that the campus and city sound as great as the faculty.
I was feeling pretty down. 5 rejections and counting, and they all seemed to come on the same day, but now I'm feeling much better because I've been admitted to a writing workshop over summer for sci-fi and fantasy writing, which is now my not so secret love. All my grad school applications were my "literary" writing, which I just don't enjoy doing as much. I submitted stories that weren't fantasy because of the stigma in academia against genre writing. So it's nice to get some validation for what I actually do.
@KayBay -- you will be missed! Good luck with everything!
CONGRATS to all acceptances and waitlists! I can't keep up with all the posts when I work a full day. Gosh.
QUESTION: have any poets heard back from Indiana? I saw that there was a waitlist for poetry, but I was wondering if anyone else heard anything. When I called to see where they were at back in February, they said they'd be snail-mailing and emailing acceptances (depending on the offer). So I was wondering if anyone had heard anything...DH has only fiction acceptance posted.
@daniel- I really want to go to Portland, but no, I haven't heard from any other schools yet. I was in my car driving home Saturday night and I was talking to myself pondering life, and I looked up and my eyes fell upon a street sign that read "Portland." I have never, ever seen this sign in my life. I feel like the universe is leading me there or something. :)
@Morgan-- I received the same strange call this morning. Showed up on my phone as "Unknown," with no number attached, and no voicemail. I'm still waiting to hear from Florida St., Houston, Colorado State, and Arizona. Any schools in common? Can we pretend that this mystery caller was a school phoning in a YES for both of us?
AHHH WHAT THE HELL. I'm not waiting on any of those schools, but it seems like it could be a big week for a few of mine. SO let's pretend that these calls were 2 separate schools accepting both of us!!
But like, why no v-mail? It's cool, try again tomorrow, I'm gunna turn my ringer on high and my profs will just have to deal!
Okay, I have a non-MFA question. For those of you with few or no publications who submit to lit mags, what do you send them when they ask for a resume/CV and cover letter? What if my resume is completely unrelated to writing? Do I send that anyway? Do I make a whole new one? And I've read up on what goes in a cover letter to a literary agent, but I'm not sure what should be written for a lit mag submission.
Thanks in advance, guys. (And sorry if this question has been asked...I've been following all these mailbags for a while now but it's entirely possible I could have missed a related comment...)
On the notice of random calls that a few people got, there is a scam going around asking for your account numbers, but if you do not pick up the machine does not leave a message.
This is not to say that you were not accepted, but more of a warning towards others, that you may get some crazy calls here in the near future.
It already happened to me. It was such a letdown to see that call and get all worked up to hear some voice ask me for my credit number and my info.
yeah, i just got one that left a message about lowering my interest rate (second call in a span of 4 days). i don't understand why they have make calling scams now...right in the midst of mfa season...
you don't need to send your resume. make your cover letter brief and to the point. also, if you have previous publications list them in the cover letter. and DON'T stable your piece. many lit mags will tell you exactly what they want you to send, formatting etc, in their submission guide.
KayBay, I'm going to miss your posts but I completely understand your need to leave/breathe. Don't give up completely though - something could open up an McNeese and you still haven't gotten rejections from the rest of your schools. Who knows? I'm hoping for the best for you.
I've never seen a lit mag that asked for a resume, but I always keep my cover letter short an sweet.
1) salutation (with editor name if possible)
2) title of what you're sending them (no plot/them description unless you can relate it directly to something in the magazine), genre (fiction, nonfiction, poems - don't give titles if you're sending poems, unless the group of poems has a title or you're only submitting one), approximate word count (if you're submitting prose)
3) publication history/awards or degrees/student status (if you're an undergrad, just say that you're studying creative writing at (blank) university, don't explicitly mention that you're an undergrad - no reason to let them come to early conclusions that aren't warranted) - a note on this - if you have no publications or awards, that's fine, don't mention anything, just tell them something about yourself (student here, nurse's aide here, that sort of thing)
It really doesn't matter. Also, I don't know ANY lit mags that care enough/have the time and resources to see a CV/Resume.
To/Dear: John Bookworm, Editor XXX Review
Attached/Included is my story, XXX (X,XXX words), for your consideration. Some of my other stories have appeared or are forthcoming in X, X, and X publications.
Thank you for reading my story. I look forward to any future correspondence.
I am one of the less-than-lucky 401 out of 426 in poetry at Iowa. I rate their stationery below Johns Hopkins in quality, though both notes are thoroughly concise.
This is silly, but I'm seeing far too many parallels between the Grad schools I've applied to and my personal (see: romantic) life. I'm afraid that next I'll get an offer from a school but they'll tell me they only want something casual, so I can sit in on some classes but I can't stay the whole class and I must remember that this will never lead to a degree because they were dumped by another writer for Iowa not too long ago and they're still pretty hurt about it all. If that happens, I hope the school will at least pay for the textbooks and provide transportation, otherwise I'd feel kinda cheap. I also hopes the school gives good oral...exams!
Congrats to Sara and WT for Notre Dame! And congrats to all other acceptances/waitlists (especially phillywriter!) that I've missed over the weekend. I've been nursing a sick boyfriend, and although it isn't fun, it's taken my mind off of the MFA game.
Thanks for the tips! I actually have a couple of lit mags on my list that specifically ask for a resume...but if that apparently isn't normal perhaps I'll just include my regular resume, even though it's pretty corporate. Or maybe I just won't include one at all! But good to know the cover letter isn't anything I need to stress over too much.
I don't usually post about stuff like this, but I run into this problem so much as an Assistant Editor for Narrative Magazine that I feel like I would be remiss in not offering some tips.
As the first editor reading your work, I can tell a lot about your submission from your cover letter/short bio. Obviously, I don't prejudge the story, and quality writing stands out the same way no matter what the cover letter/bio says. But I do think there are distinct ways to get the editors to take you more seriously.
First of all, I read submissions from published writers all the time. I've read stories from graduates of every top MFA program, as well as stories from writers who've published books with the big publishing houses. Most of these stories are not very good. The quality of the writing in your submission is more important than any credential. It follows then, that my number one tip is DON'T PAD YOUR BIO. If you haven't been published, you haven't been published. It's not a big deal. Obviously, having a lot of publishing credits gets the editor's attention, but not having those doesn't lose that editor's attention. Bad writing does.
I want to emphasize this point: do not pad your bios. Keep it simple and short. Do not list your self-published novel. Do not list sketchy online zines. Do not vaguely mention that you've been published, without saying where. If it was worth mentioning, mention it. If it's not, don't. Don't mention your pets, your hobbies, your property, or anything else that doesn't matter. Don't try to be overly informal or jokey. I'm reading your submission, like most slush pile assistants, for no pay. I'm only doing it because I believe that somewhere in there waits a story that matters, that's beautiful, that deserves to be published. This is not a joke. Writing is an honor and a privilege. Don't introduce your writing with something that degrades it. Do mention where you're from. Do thank the editor for reading your work. Do mention any post undergraduate work. Don't mention your undergraduate degree in English if that's the only credential you have.It's OK to mention your profession, within reason. Don't say you haven't been published if you haven't been published. And remember, it's fine to write a bio that reads like this, for example: I am a working mother of three. I was a participant in the Insert State/City/College Summer Writing Conference in 2008. Currently, I live and work in the DC area.
Secondly, ONLY SEND YOUR VERY BEST WORK. Sending something off before it's ready is a waste of both my time and yours. I know it's not your best. You know it's not your best. You have to realize, at a magazine like Narrative, I (and I'm not high on the totem pole at all) am reading hundreds of submissions. You have to be better than every single one of them. Don't send the story you finished last week and aren't sure about. Send the story you'd write if you knew you were dying. The best practical advice for sending your best work, though, is pretty simple. HAVE MULTIPLE OTHER PEOPLE READ IT FIRST AND THEN REWRITE. Obviously, some people's notes are better than others. But it's very important to approach the story again after you have more perspective on it.
Third, a simple one, LINE EDIT YOUR STORY BEFORE SUBMITTING. Nothing says sloppy like consistent typos or grammatical errors. If I like your story, I have to stand up for it and defend it to my bosses. I'm putting my reputation on the line for it. The least you could do is make it clear you didn't even care enough to run spell check.
Fourth, another simple one, for online submissions SAVE YOUR STORY AS A REGULAR .DOC FILE, NOT A .DOCX. Docx's make it so much harder on everyone involved. Obviously, the writing gets considered either way. But it's a small thing you can do to start off on the right foot with the editors.
And finally, KEEP IT SHORT. The good long short story is so exceedingly rare, that I can almost guarantee, unless you're T.C. Boyle ("The Love of My Life") or Alice Munro or Josh Weil (who writes novellas), that your story will be better off much shorter. I write this as a writer who is prone to long short stories myself. The problem for an editor reading your piece is this: the longer the story goes on, the better it has to be for us to accept it. Anything above 20 pages, to put a number out there, has to be basically perfect. A 12 page story might have some flaws, but it usually moves past them too quickly to sink the ship. That being said, my other length advice is DON'T SEND STORIES UNDER SEVEN PAGES. I can't think of a single good story, published or in submission, that I've read that would be under seven Word Doc pages. I take that back. Jamaica Kincaid's "Girl" and David Foster Wallace's "Incarnations of Burned Children" but that latter one is a good example because it's actually not that short. There is a similar length principle at work here. Under seven pages, a story has to be perfect. If there's even one little flaw, it represents so much of the story that it's hard to get over.
Those are the tips that I can think of off the top of my head.
Sorry, this is kind of random, but I just wanted to say THANK YOU so, so much for that link you posted to http://portland.readinglocal.com/ a while back!
Kind of an odd situation, but over the past month (after receiving rejections from several programs and resigning myself to the fact that I am probably not going to get in anywhere this time around), I have been toying with the idea of moving to Portland for a little/long while (I'm from California, at school in SoCal right now). I had pretty much made up my mind to move there, and now after looking over that Reading Local site, I am totally hooked!
Haha anyway, I apologize for this rambling and incoherent message, but I just want to say thank you, you've gotten me so excited about my new life in PORTLAND!!! Wooo hooo!! :D
Finally got my Iowa rejection letter today. I like this little collage of rejection letters that i am building. They'll fit nicely around my acceptance letter centerpiece.
Hey peeps, I hope I didn't lead anyone astray into thinking that I'm making a terribly brave decision by giving up my Indy spot to go off into the world MFAless. I have already given up my Rutgers spot (to decidedly less fanfare) and still haven't confirmed with VTech (which is where I'm leaning and most likely will end up). But it is frightening when I think that I'm turning down such a well-regarded program to jump into one that's relatively new. A sincere good luck, again, to the waitlisters. I really hope one of you guys on here nab it.
Jasmine, I read your post describing your visit to Bloomington and your interaction with the students and faculty and my heart fell - everything you described was what attracted me there in the first place - the vibe; the beauty; the relative hip factor for a Midwestern town . . . aaarrrghhh. I just hope my gut isn't leading me astray.
Kaybay: we haven't exchanged comments formally, but I feel like I know you in a way (cue Psycho sound bite). You've been so forward, brash, humorous and comforting with your comments on here. I'm really hoping that something deservedly great will come through for you in the next weeks. If not, you sound like a fighter, and I have a feeling you'll make something work out for you. So, for what it's worth, I'm forwarding you prosperous vybez over the Internet.
Wandering Tree, I'm sure I'm not alone on here in expressing that two offers alone isn't commensurate with the scope and talent that seethes from the folds of your work. Congrats on Notre. It's well deserved. For a long time I meant to send you an e-mail going over what I found so exciting about several of your pieces. I'll admit though, that I had my best friend read a few of them with me and we've made it one of our five life ambitions to go clam fishing in the East Sea.
A super SUPER belated congratulations to Ashley Brook, Coughdrop and Courtney . . . I don't know why I took so long with the congrats for you guys. But I feel obliged to say that I've just emerged from the stupor induced by my tour (a week ago) of the Wray&Nephew White Rum grounds. Anyone with the slightest knowledge of this particular brand of Jamaican white rum (and why the occasional sips had me loopy for days) will hopefully testify on my behalf.
Arna: well, if editors would've just told me that from the beginning I wouldn't have been going around banging their significant others. People today, I swear.
I was just having a conversation with a friend about gut feelings. If your gut says VTech, go with it. Mine has been saying the state of Indiana since before I applied (Indiana is the only state where I applied to more than one school, and I even wrote somewhere before applying that I think Indiana's calling my name). I really think your feelings won't lead you astray.
Good luck with everything. Don't waste any time on regrets; everything's going to be great.
@everyone for those of you who are thinking of moving to another city or another state even, how are you planning on taking care of housing. i can barely afford my own place and had to have a roommate. are you just going to craigslist it? i wonder if there's a place that the MFA community people can gather with their respective schoolmates and pool their housing resources.
Anyone thinking of going the NYC MFA-route...let's talk in mid-April. Def. be interesting to live with writers, esp. since I'm very quiet and introverted. A fellow shy, introvert would prob. be better than some guy off the street who does drugs and invites all types of weirdoes into his room...I've heard stories in the past from friends who've been through these types of situations. I haven't had a roommate in years, but I'll bite the bullet if the roommate is as quiet and responsible as I am (an impossibility, maybe).
@ cecil: Zoetrope is free. I think there are some workshops they have through Gotham, and I assume those are similar to other Gotham workshops. They're worthwhile if you can afford it.
I think Cecil is referring to the paid Zoetrope workshops which are led by folks like Aimee Bender, Mary Gaitskill, Ha Jin, Pinckney Benedict etc. not Zoetrope Virtual Studios.
Cecil,
I'm not Arna but I do know that Narrative has let people apply to be an assistant editor/reader in the past. I have a couple of friends that are also asst. editors/readers for Narrative. Many other journals offer similar positions. Some of these positions can grow into full-time/paid work (not common obviously) while others are strictly volunteer and offer little room for growth. Electric Literature, for example, recently called out for readers via application (you needed to send a piece of critical writing). Zoetrope: All-Story is also open to readers, but I think they def. want writers that have been around the block a couple of times.
I just received a waitlist notification from Colorado State in poetry via snail mail dated 3/3.
@Seth: I don't know how forthcoming they are about application data, but Matthew Cooperman reported they had a record number of applications and I was among the top 15% of candidates.
@Arna--a very, very sincere thank you for your advice. Now, I'm off to TP Bill Gates's house for making a word processor that's not automatically back-compatible. Fookin Doc fookin X.
@kaybay--from the first time I joined here, admittedly late, you were the one I was most rooting for. Maybe I'll see you here next year (but I hope something conspires to make that unnecessary!)
The Iowa rejection battalion has indeed reached the West Coast. Also got a jury duty summons for the downtown LA courthouse, one hour from where I live in traffic. Bad mail day.
I'm not totally giving up hope yet (9 rejections of 18 total, most have already notified), and I realize there's a lot of improving I need to do on my work, but I am curious about the effect academic background has, if any:
They say you don't have to be an English major, which I believe, but my Undergrad transcript has only a couple of GE English classes and nothing else, no upper level English at all. My GPA was high with everything I took, and I did respectably well on the GRE. I've been taking Creative Writing classes at an extension program more recently. Is my lack of Lit analysis classes going to hurt me significantly? i.e., if I don't get in this year, should I take some of those in addition to CW (with what time, I'm not sure)?
Above all, I'm looking forward to taking another hard look at my writing in the year to come (if I don't get in).
Thanks. This blog is great - so much love. (This is the first post I've written sober. Yay!)
I start reading this blog each year about this time--thanks to Seth, whose work over the years has been heroic and useful and necessary--to remind myself, again, what applicants are going through (enduring?). I wish the process could be quicker for all of you, and less anxiety-inducing.
I can only speak for myself, as someone who is in her sixth year of reading MFA application files, at my particular program, but I take the reading of and decisions about each file very seriously. I open each one with hope.
You all have heard much of this before, or at least had questions about some of the items below, but I thought this might be useful--if not this go round, then the next.
1. A close second in importance after your writing sample is your personal statement. When someone's personal statement doesn't address much or any of what we've asked for, when it comes down to making final selections, this is most often the deciding factor: if someone doesn't care enough to address our questions, then we are left thinking that we weren't high on their list and they aren't really that interested in our program. I am often stunned at how often personal statements read like a template with our program's name inserted in various spots. Others read like essays for undergrad school, rather than a writer applying to study writing.
2. Don't tell us all--as in paragraph after paragraph-- about your childhood writing. Please. We are interested in who you are as a writer now and for the past couple of years--how you talk about your writing, who your literary influences are and in what way.
3. Great that you've always wanted to live in our particular area of the country. But that's irrelevant, really, to our choosing YOU. We want to know why you want to study writing at our program and with our faculty (without parroting back sentences off our website about our program).
4. We offer full funding to everyone who is admitted--unless they've checked the box saying they don't want funding. Our funding is through teaching fellowships, teaching creative writing the first year. Therefore, part of our admission decision is, can this person teach creative writing at the intro level? We look to transcripts (what courses have you taken in literature and creative writing), letters of rec, and the personal statement for this info.
5. If your writing sample and your personal statement and your rec letters are strong, your GPA, as long as it's a 3.0 or higher, especially in lit and writing courses, doesn't come into play. At all. (We don't ask for GREs.)
I don't mean any of this to be unkind or harsh. I absolutely agree with Seth that you should cast your application net wide, but it should be a focused net. Many applicants would have a much better shot if they spent time tailoring their personal statements to each place they are applying to, studied who the faculty is at each program and were realistic about whether their work is a good match with the sensibilities of the faculty and program.
That said, I'd be glad to answer any questions I can.
Woon, that's right! You're a fiction admit! Thank you. After one acceptance, the waitlist is flattering. I am seriously grateful to find out that I'm actually "competitive". Does that make sense? There is no real rubric to this thing, so I feel fortunate to learn I've done *something* right.
I like CU (Julie Carr, Noah Eli Gordon), but I also like CSU (Dan Beachy-Quick, better ranking).
About this matching the sensibilities of the faculty and school, I don't know, but it's tough.
It's great in theory, and for a writer of something like magical realism or experimental work (hi, Brown), it can work to some degree. But when we get beyond that and into all the shades of realism, and when we're dealing with four and five faculty members per school, and most schools aren't at all clear about their particular sensibilities (in fact, a huge number of them make it a point to say that they aren't looking for any specific kind of work!), we're a little bit stuck.
Schools are not literary journals (though some run them--helpful!). I can read the work of alumni, sure, but that work tends to run the gamut, except in the most obvious and extreme cases.
Beyond reading work from every faculty member from every potential school, and assuming every faculty members' taste in stories hews close to their own writing, I'm not sure what to do.
The director of McNeese has a great post on the program's website. He says, "[My aesthetic], essentially, is that I think fiction should be more about the heart than the brain. I read to have an experience outside of myself that somehow either rhymes with my sense of what it is to be human or expands that sense. If you find yourself talking to others about the thematic implications of your work, or dream about the Cliff Notes someone will write one day to explain the beauty of what you've done, we won't get along."
Here, I know where I'm at, but statements like this are all too rare.
Much as I want to resent you for your resounding success of late, you make it very difficult. :-) Thanks for the great and detailed advice about submitting to lit mags.
One clarification question: When you suggest keeping stories under 20 pages, I'm guessing you mean DOUBLE SPACED?
I've been submitting one particular piece, unsuccessfully, for two years. It's 24 pages double-spaced and I never send to magazines that specify a limit under that. But it sounds like the "real" length limit may be well under what mags post on their site, neh?
@Laurie Lynn -- First, thank you for allowing us to field questions about the admissions process in general and Oregon, in particular.
Second, I have a question about your item #3. You said: "We want to know why you want to study writing at our program and with our faculty." This is the part that is the most difficult for me. I have said this before in other sections of this blog and I'll repeat it here (in case you haven't been following my ongoing monologue):
I believe I can learn from any MFA faculty; that is, anyone who is incisive and knowledgeable and experienced -- and willing to share that knowledge and experience. What I don't know is: is a particular faculty member a good teacher? Will I click with said teacher? I don't know how any applicant can answer this question without having taken classes with them.
My best creative writing teacher is someone whose work I don't particularly like. He's a good writer, but I'm not a "fan" of his work. His aesthetics are different from mine and I'm not drawn to the subject matter of his stories. Yet, he's a great teacher and I learned so much from him. If I didn't know him and saw his name on some school's faculty list and sampled his work, I'd probably punt.
I'm not sure I could ever say I would love to work with so-and-so or at such-and-such place without it ringing false. The truth is, I'm adaptable and willing to learn from everybody, so long as they're willing to share and teach me what I need to learn.
I feel this particular requirement of yours (and others as well) is another means by which applicants can B.S. their way into a faculty member's heart, so to speak.
Finally, I'm not sure I'd want to work with my literary heroes. More than likely, they would let me down in some way or they would turn out to be total A**holes.
Surprised to see the personal statement has so much weight, as I'd been told it's mainly to get across some information about yourself and who you are as a writer and make sure you're not an ass.
I purposely didn't discuss faculty members as that seems to be fraught with political peril. Do you laud every faculty member, or only the ones you feel a kinship with? There's also only so much information you can glean from a Web site, so I think in some cases it's tough to go into detail about why programs are perfect fits.
But of course I'm defensive since the only place I was accepted doesn't even ask for a personal statement. And I will fully admit I've never figured out how to make them anything but an exercise in polite bullshit.
@ Laurie Lynn, I am sure that everyone on this blog really appreciates your posting and giving advice to a bunch of stress-crazed applicants. I wish that members of admissions committees at more programs would do the same thing!
@ k, I also think it would be great if more programs posted a statement like the one by the McNeese director. Otherwise, it's so difficult to tell whether or not certain schools are looking for a certain aesthetic, and what that aesthetic is. Reading faculty work is helpful, but when pieces of writing by faculty members at one program differ widely from each other, it's impossible to tell if the school itself has a dominant aesthetic.
I also agree with a lot of what Woon said. In my statements of purpose, I didn't mention any faculty members at all, even at the schools I applied to mostly for the faculty. I just didn't know how to include them in my statement without sounding like I was, as Woon said, BSing or "sucking up." Anything I would have said about loving a particular faculty member's work, or that my work has been influenced by that person's work, would have been completely genuine, but set down into a formal little sentence in the statement, it didn't *look* genuine to me.
I had reasons for applying to each the many programs I applied to, and included these reasons in my statements. But this was another area where I wasn't quite sure what to include, specifically. I didn't want to sound like I was repeating info on the website, like Laurie Lynn said in her comment, but for programs that I couldn't manage to visit before applying, most of the info I had came from the website or brochures. I only included in my statements aspects of the programs that I loved, but still wasn't sure how to go about doing this.
Basically, when writing my statement, I kind of wished I could just meet the adcom of each program in person and gush on and on about how much I wanted to be in their program. Crammed into a 500-word statement of purpose, I felt like it was difficult to get across everything I wanted to, about how excited I was about the programs to which I applied. I made my best effort and have gotten into a few programs, though, so maybe I did a better job than I thought I did?
The first sentence of your third paragraph puts it beautifully. I would admire something like that in a P.S.--it tells me a great deal about you.
Oh geez, I'm sure not talking about ass-kissing profs (ugh!). I'm talking about some sense that applicants have some sense of the faculty (how's that for an inelegant sentence?). Imagine you follow up that great sentence of yours with something like (this is hypothetical here): I know that my character development needs work and given that Xfaculty's Xbook is very character-driven, I know I could learn a great deal from him--or what you might want to learn from him. Not ass-kissing, but acknowledging, in some way, that you are somewhat familiar with his work (and at least on the fiction side of things, the other two of us aren't offended at all if we aren't mentioned).
That said, one of the great things about blogs like this is that you all can share what you know about different faculty and take that into consideration as you're applying (one of the many factors, I know).
Of course, these are issues that come into play, often in very minute ways, when we sit down with our 25-30 final group of files. Before that? It's all about the writing sample. After that? It's still 95% still about the writing sample.
I appreciate the time and consideration you've given to us at the MFA Blog.
Judging from other responses, the point I'm about to address is a controversial one for your program.
I'm also curious about Oregon's SOP prompt asking why the applicant wants to work with particular faculty. I'll be honest and say I applied to the program not having read any Oregon faculty work. My work is inspired by the writers I know, many who aren't teaching at MFA programs or are pushing daisies.
I wonder if the prompt encourages slapdash research and disingenuous answers more than anything else. I wonder how important it is for the applicant, a writer young in her career, to have an aesthetic consonant with her teachers'. I wonder what political peril the applicant risks including one teacher and expurgating another.
I sidestepped the question--not because I didn't agonize over it, and not because I failed to research the program (I've taken digital walking tours of your campus/environs via google maps)--because I didn't have a concise, ready answer for it to fit into the word-count parameters.
You're absolutely right. Not saying that's good or it's bad, just I agree.
@Laura T.
Very good points--I couldn't tell you what our program "aesthetic" is because the three of us who teach fiction have three very different approaches to teaching and writing (which is a very good thing, I think), but we all agree at the core: stories that are character-driven and that surprise us in some way, that aren't predictable (not in an experimental way but in rendering what it means to be human way).
@Laurie Lynn - thank you for your (surprisingly) prompt response. I'm not sure it's completely satisfactory to me, but I don't want to belabor this point. I do, however, really really appreciate that you took the time to put your thoughts into words in this blog.
If you researched the program, then I'm sure that came through in your P.S. If you talked about your influences, writers who have inspired your own work, then you've done much more than many applicants in their P.S. and sidestepping the faculty question isn't going to hurt you.
In my opinion, it's less about aesthetic than it is about craft concerns. I wouldn't want an incoming class of writers who all matched my aesthetic.
But you, and others, have raised very good points about that part of our PS prompt--and I will take it to our next faculty meeting. Thank you.
@Anti: Kinda random but read your comment earlier regarding the wait for TNS acceptance packet. I'm in the same boat except that I got tired of checking my mailbox 10 times a day for the promised packet so I called them today. The admissions person I spoke to said they've not mailed anything yet and that she was staring at a mountain of to-be-mailed packets. Patience...
@Brad Smith: I was also accepted to CU (like yourself), but the waitlist, whether there's movement or not, is flattering. Thanks for declining the CSU spot early. And thanks generally to the conscientious applicants who've made early decisions. Did you also already decline your spot at CU? I ask because I'd like to have your money. Yes, I would.
I assume you'll accept the offer from Michener. That's incredible! Congratulations! I didn't apply, but wish I had in spite of the odds. It's a dream place to be from almost every angle. Best of luck to you!!
Thanks so much for the response! I think more programs (particularly the small ones, but also the big names like Iowa or MIchigan) would benefit from faculty acknowledging our existence here.
I don't expect to get into Oregon (1% admission rate and my sample was more "experimental" than character-driven), but I will give (mad) props to programs that agree on this site's premise: open communication, transparency, and applicant empowerment.
Wow, what a great flurry of posts with Laurie Lynn! By the time it took me to compose my question, the blog, choked with comments, couldn't post it, which is great because it had already been asked and answered several times over.
Wow. Tonight has, in the course of the last 20 minutes, taught me a whole hell of a lot. Some of it I'm embarrassed for not already knowing, so I'm grateful to soak up the knowledge y'all were more than willing to share.
@arna - you've been pulled in a lot of directions around here, so your gracious time and information, as "one of us" with some insight to the other side is so genuinely appreciated. and super useful.
@laurie - very, very few folks from inside the depths of programs have been brave enough to cross our waters here. thank you, so much. the personal statement was a tremendously difficult thing for me, which is weird because i can spend full days talking about myself. that was concise, understandable, and while controversial (i'm sure you've figured out that sky color is controversial around these parts, around these days) a huge help for everyone who will in all likelihood be revising their personal statements next year. DISCLAIMER: i can say all this without being an ass-kisser, because i promise you i'm never, ever moving to oregon. that said, your website bio is laugh-out-loud funny and i'm going to have to delve into how you were... shot by a dog...
@Arna--Obviously some fine advice there, but I'm going to have to disagree about the better short stories being less than some magic page length. Now, maybe longer stories can’t be accepted in some publications due to practical issues, but that’s a completely different issue.
Food for thought: I just flipped open Glimmer Train’s Fall 2009 issue and most stories in it are over 20 pages, including one 40 page story (single spaced). I also opened up some Millhauser and Murakami and there are many short stories well over 20 pages (single spaced).
The problem I had in writing my personal statement was that I heard so much contradictory I kind of ended up with a bit of a mess. I don't really think about my personal statement much anymore, actually! I don't think I like it much anymore. I do know that I ultimately choose not to mention faculty or even writers that I admired because I had been advised against it for various reasons. I deleted it all and ripped my SOP apart. There are a lot of things I would do differently.
@koru - In my SOPs, I did indeed list my "favorite" writers or "influential" writers. But this also requires further clarification. I love writers A, B, and C, though I never tried to emulate them. I simply like them as a reader. However, I've been told in workshop that I "sound" like writer X and Y, even though they're not among my favorites. So, in sum, I love A, B, and C, but much to my surprise, I write like X and Y. Don't know what to make of that.
One of the reasons my program is specific about what we're looking for in the PS--because different programs are looking for different things in the PS and we see no reason not to let applicants know what we're interested in learning about you.
And I know there's lots of contradictory information out there (Steve Almond's piece in Poets and Writers was great advice; Seth is often, mostly actually, very on target--can't agree with his assessment of one particular poetry program, but that's okay).
But, I stress again, it's the writing sample, writing sample, writing sample, first and foremost.
Arna didn't say anything about shorter stories being better. He's just saying that shorter stories stand a better chance at being accepted. Now, I don't think anyone would agree with the advice to tailor your stories just because of some magic number. If a story NEEDS to be 30 pages so be it (and if it is truly great, it will be accepted eventually). There are always journals that accept longer work BUT for writers esp. at the beginning stages of their career, longer work is harder to pull off with the same amount of effectiveness as shorter work (and when taking into consideration the limited space in a journal, a longer story better well damn be worth the extra mile).
Yes, I have declined the spot at Colorado. I've actually formally committed to Michener. It was kind of a no-brainer for me, and I figured that the sooner I made a decision the better it was for all parties involved.
@ L Lewis
Yeah, my opinion of the personal statement was similar to yours. I basically used a form statement, the kind that the wonderful and generous Laurie Lynn warns against. Yes, it was thoughtful and sincere, but nothing spectacular. My goal was to not make an ass of myself. That was about it.
If a given school had specific prompts or questions, I adjusted accordingly (though not thrilled to do so).
I just don't think it's realistic for admissions committees to expect each applicant to tailor their statement to each program specifically, at least in any major ways. In theory, it makes sense. But when the statement, as well as the other application materials requested (sometimes a teaching statement, etc) play such a minor role in their admissions decision (as even Ms Lynn admits) it's not really fair to expect us to spend such a high percentage of our time writing a new statement for each of our 15 or so schools.
And yeah, it's not their fault that we're applying to so many. But they need to understand that, given the ridiculous odds against us getting into their program, we HAVE to apply to that many.
This is certainly not intended to be a direct criticism of Ms Lynn or her program. That said: committees, if they really sympathize with their applicants, can make their application processes much simpler.
The worst, for me, was when a given program had a confusing or just poorly designed website. I really appreciated schools like Michigan, for example, where everything was easy to find. (might I add that, of the schools I applied to, the best websites happened to belong to top-5 schools. The poor and confusing websites universally belonged to the lower ranked programs. Perhaps coincidental, though I doubt it. You can tell a lot about a program by the way its site is run.)
Beyond that, schools need to drop the GRE requirement. It is absolutely irrelevant for creative writing students, and extremely expensive. How much does it cost now to take the test? $130? Then, to send scores, you have to pay (I believe) $20 per. When you have 10 schools on your list that require a score, a score which, as they will even admit, plays either zero or an extremely minor role in their decision, you will easily spend well over $300 for absolutely nothing. It's a bunch of bullshit. No way around it. If some programs don't need the score, no programs need the score.
And, yes, if a large part of a committee's decision is based upon the application materials *not* the manuscript, then go ahead and ask us to include it all. But for so many programs to openly admit that the manuscript is the only really vital part of your application, please, please don't ask us to jump through hoops that cost us large quantities of money and time.
Okay, that's my rant for the month. Again: not directed in any way at Ms Lynn. I applaud her for coming onto this board and going out of her way to be honest and forthright about what her program looks for in an applicant. Maybe if people from other programs would be so courageous and thoughtful this entire process would be a lot less painful.
Oh, and one more idea, before I officially lose my rant for the month...
I think it would be brilliant for a program to announce its accepted students in an online webcast set up to mimic a professional sports draft. Announce, say, month ahead, for applicants to, "Tune in on March __ at 8 pm cst for our annual MFA draft." And then have some hotshot department chair read off the names of the accepted, as well as wait-listed students, and (hell) maybe even say where they're from, what their manuscript was like, etc (have some fun! come on!) and encourage the applicants whose name wasn't called to keep their chins up.
This would take out all the anxiety, the waiting, the ambiguity, etc. Plus, it'd be hella exciting for everyone involved.
The good long short story is so exceedingly rare, that I can almost guarantee, unless you're T.C. Boyle ("The Love of My Life") or Alice Munro or Josh Weil (who writes novellas), that your story will be better off much shorter.
I'm in at San Fran State! But they need to know before the week is up if I'm going to attend because they are offering a Provost's scholarship possibility (reducing tuition to in-state) only IF I tell them before the week is up.
And naturally I haven't heard an acceptance from ANYWHERE else, (Brooklyn is silent, and they are my absolute NUMBERO UNO and I would die to go there).
I'm just writing to let you guys that know I'm taking my name off the Wyoming fiction waitlist. If I remember right, Beth (the director) told me that they had only put 5 people on their waitlist. Hopefully this frees up a potential spot for someone.
i know this is a dumb question, but does anyone know how to pronounce Chuck Kinder's last name? He's the head of the creative writing department at Pitt and I'm planning on calling him tomorrow or the next day and I don't want to butcher the pronunciation. I've read it a million times, but I've never heard anyone say it out loud.
Is it pronounced like amazon's "Kindle" or is it more like the word "kind?"
I know this is a minor issue, but if there's a place for minor questions and neuroses, this is it.
Brad, I totally agree with you about doing away with GREs completely, among other things. Every single detail that we have to add to our app. packet is time less spent on the writing sample, which is clearly the clincher. Not only that, but the stress and worry of just thinking about writing the statement of purpose distracted me while I worked on editing my sample (not that this is an excuse or anything, just a fact), and certainly made it harder to focus on what really matters.
And God, I know what you mean about the websites. Some of them I visited and almost immediately left (Utah and Western Mich. to name two) because it was like being thrown back to 1998.
I also echo the appreciation for Laurie sharing that useful information with us (even though I didn't apply to Oregon).
And Arna, even for a poet your points were quite helpful. Thanks!
You know what's funny? I am starting to hope I don't get in anywhere, instead of getting in on a last minute waitlist. Because thinking about me being "nowhere" with my writing inspires some deep and intricate introspection; whereas, acceptance at this stage, I fear, would make me more complacent.
Ok, I'm well on my way, if complete rejection is my goal.
On the other hand, even though I believe in what I just wrote, if I got in somewhere I would probably poop my pants and gargle yes, please, yes, even though I know I'm not worthy. I wish I had some convictions, shit.
In Fiction, via email late last night--I actually don't even have my log-on information (just couldn't keep up with them all) so am not sure if my status changed online but it sounds like a quick wave with them asking me to make the decision this week for the scholarship so I'd be inclined to think that nothing had changed there yet...
But prepare to be bombarded with questions because Emerson is my first choice ;)
Quincy, which genre?
Where did it show that you've been accepted?
(I just checked my status, all heart-pounding and angry at my computer for going so slowly, and it didn't say anything. Just the list of materials they received.)
I deleted my former post because I felt it was too negative. Yes, if you go a little farther out I think you'll be fine. Short North, Victorian Village, Grandview, and Upper Arlington seem to be fun neighborhoods that have solid public transportation to and from campus. If you can get in touch with a current student, they might be able to help you make the final decision on an apartment and its location.
Anyone know much about this program? I'm creative nonfiction and just received an acceptance yesterday. I know very little about the actual program and I noticed it's dropped significantly in Seth's rankings over the last few years. I'd appreciate any thoughts! Thanks!
I'm in at OSU also (for poetry) and grew up in Cincinnati, so I've visited friends in Columbus many many times.
I am a guy, but I've never had a problem with crime or mugging there, and actually don't know of anyone who has either. I'd say safety is probably increased by staying closer to campus in non-deserted neighborhoods where there are large student populations. My impression is that a lot of people applying seem to worry about the distractions of Greek life or bar/party scenes, so if greater safety isn't worth those detractors (if you see them as such), then I further understand your reservations.
Other preventative stuff: talk to current students and faculty about safe neighborhoods, look at your apartment beforehand if you can, consider university housing (there are graduate dormitories), and remember all cities are dangerous, and all hazards can be mitigated, eliminated or avoided.
Sorry if that was all sort of obvious, just some points from happy, jingoistic Columbus residents. Good luck with your decision and maybe I'll see you this Fall!
Thanks. :) Yeah, I live right now in a city ... but it's one where I can honestly walk around alone at night without worrying ... it would be quite a change to suddenly have to start worrying about stuff like the rape by the English dept. that Antalya mentioned in her deleted post.
Has anyone accepted yet? I'm probably going to accept Iowa this week if I don't hear anything from the rest of my schools, namely Houston and Virginia (for fiction). I'm tired of waiting and need to start looking for a place to live!
Good morning to all and congrats to the USF admits!
Andrew Sottile, who was awesome and called yesterday, said that UNH would be notifying admits today. Has anyone's status page changed yet? Mine still says the same "Under Review by Department".
Klairkwilty- I am also fighting the urge to just make a final decision and accept already, just so I can feel settled. I'm like 80% sure of my decision, though, and am going to wait another week for official letters to arrive from other programs, but then it is Spring Break, so... I dunno.
I hear Connie sends out housing info to Iowa people at some point. I was actually there last weekend, doing some preliminary apartment hunting (it is close to where my bro lives), and it seems like there is hardly anything decent left, so I'm looking forward to that packet!
Just called UNT and DU. They are still making decisions... letters will be out by the end of the week, or, in the case of UNT, after Spring break (next week).
"So you're telling me there's a chance!": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX5jNnDMfxA
Yeah I'd really like to know where I stand *cough* HoustonIndianaArkansas *cough.*
I want to go to the open house, but I work for Americorps in St. Louis and do a lot of outdoors work out of town, so getting time off is always dodgy. My request for that weekend is "being processed" now, which seems appropriate given the last three months haha. I also told them my birthday is that weekend (which it is), so maybe that'll be the clincher.
@coughdrop, @koru -- I am absolutely dying to hear from Hollins. They look like they have an incredible program. When I called them in February, they said we wouldn't know before the second week of March (Hello, second week of March. You're making me anxious...).
Thanks for weighing in. I actually feel like it's really inappropriate and icky for me to say anything that might influence anybody's decision, which is why I deleted the other post. I also think that I wouldn't pass up the opportunity, and would just take precautions. It's difficult to comment on this in this situation. Good luck to both of you guys!
Thanks for the UNT update! I was wondering what was up with them! ... they reported A LOT earlier last year! at least i know not to obsessively check my online status, lol!
@Matt, I'm waiting on two of those schools as well (Arkansas and Houston). I'm free from work that weekend; we're closed that week at work and Monday, with it being easter weekend they're having the OSU open house. So though my family is annoyed I won't be with them ... I'll be in Columbus. I suppose I ought to send the sheet in at some point. :-/
I don't think it's inappropriate to post that apartment breakins, armed robberies of students and rape's a problem in an area.
Honestly, that DOES influence my decision, and I don't think that's a bad thing. If I'm going to be at a school for two or three years, I want to know what I'm getting into, rather than feeling a prisoner in my apartment once I go somewhere. We all have different comfort levels with all sorts of different things: cost of living, crime, homophobia, weather, geography, etc.
It's not easy making these decisions. But knowing as much as we can, and deciding what actually matters ... always good.
Have any of you Indiana fiction waitlisters heard anything? We know Cratty's spot is out there, but I haven't heard a peep. If one of you gets in off the waitlist, please let me know so that I can try to tone my high hopes down to reality.
I just had an additional comment on the discussion with Laurie Lynn from Oregon yesterday (and thanks again to her for posting here! I wish more admissions boards would do that):
She advised that we personalize our SoPs more for each school, talking about how we feel we might connect with the various faculty members' writing styles. But when I was trying to do that, I had a really hard time even finding stories by a lot of the faculty writers, even ones at the more prestigious schools. The school library here doesn't stock many lit mags, so it can be really difficult to track things like that down.
And while websites like Fivechapters do have some stories, it's not like torrents of short story collections are all over piratesbay (or maybe that's a good thing?). There are lots of writers who may have a short story collection or two, but with such small print runs that they're basically inaccessible to most of us applicants.
Also, Tom Kealey advised against addressing specific faculty members, which was probably the deciding factor in my case. But once you've ruled that out, it's really difficult to personalize for a school aside from "I really like your school".
@Danielle - It's really strange that we haven't been bombarded with mail from the university. All I've received is the acceptance letter. I looked on craigslist for apartments and, good lord, those places look like what you'd expect to find in BFE. Total dumps, and the landlords want like $1000/mo! Are they crazy? I'm going up there in April to look and hopefully lock in a place early, because I don't want to get stuck in some carpeted, Formica-countered monstrosity.
@ Nathaniel - I'm not sure if this is helpful for you or not, but when writing my SOP I talked about the school's program and alumni. For instance, I mentioned if I was excited to take lit classes or electives (depending on the course requirements). I tried to tie this into what I wanted to study in my own writing, such as the melding of history and reality, for example.
If I'd read (and liked) the work of writers who'd gone through the program I mentioned that, too - I did that for almost every school.
I know that's not a formula, but I thought it might be helpful to say there are definitely ways to personalize an SOP to each school without talking about faculty.
I'm in Brooklyn now. I've got a studio in Fort Greene. Absolutely love the neighborhood! But if I'm going to be attending The New School, I should probably consider jumping into a share with someone myself. Conveniently my lease lapses in August.
If anyone wants to keep in touch about housing in Brooklyn, or ask me any questions, hit me at jason ed collins at hotmail dot com. Cheers.
all I really know is that the faculty looks pretty great and I remember reading enthusiastic student accounts of the program (always a good sign). the PhD program seems pretty well-regarded, and now their funding is absolutely stellar (second only to UT Austin, I believe)...
basically, congrats, and best of luck if you go there!
@ Phillywriter, I hear you, and I'll let you know if I hear anything. And yes, we should probably go all Karl Rove on Bloomington so people run screaming from the chance to go to IU. But I guess the first step of that plan would be to not announce it to the message board? Damn. I was never a good evil villian.
@whynot - I applied for fiction. The GNE was far from an acceptance, just a faculty member sending a note to say he liked the writing sample. They haven't yet made decisions.
But it got me thinking about the program in more concrete terms. :P
I guess the tendency with GNE's (for me, at least), is to assume the best... but take that with a grain of salt, if you wish.
Either way, Houston's program is worth serious consideration. I've seen mixed reviews of the city on this board, but I've heard it's a great place to live, from real live people and the internets. Regarding the latter- http://www.kiplinger.com/features/archives/2008/05/2008-best-city-houston.html
2,265 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 601 – 800 of 2265 Newer› Newest»@Kaybay--you will be missed! Good luck with whatever you do and wherever you land!
@sabine
got this email back from brooklyn today:
Dear Student,
We have sent your application to the department for a review. Many applicants are waiting to be reviewed at this moment. You can check your status at www.myenrollment.brooklyn.cuny.edu
Thank you,
AW
Office of Graduate Admissions
@ kaybay - I hope you land somewhere really great next fall (teaching-wise), and then go into the '11 application cycle ready to give the other Florida applicants a run for their money.
We're all still rooting for you - if you do get good news from Florida or elsewhere, don't forget to let us know. You will be missed!
P.S. I don't think it's a bad idea to take a break from writing. Sometimes you need to take a step back to re-evaluate - you'll return stronger for it.
@kaybay
i'm in total agreement. taking a break from writing isn't something anyone should judge. everyone does this stuff differently, and maybe you need to go DO for a while and then come back to writing with a fresh perspective.
always have appreciated your attitude and comments on the blog and was definitely rooting for you. I'm four rejections in, so you may see me here next year too!
@coreyann-- Sarah Lawrence just made their decisions, but they haven't notified anyone yet (to the best of my knowledge). I emailed them to withdraw my application, and that's how I found out I was accepted... ouch! I'm afraid I made myself look like an incredible a-hole. Anyway, best of luck to you.
yes, fiction.
Re: Keeping the faith in the face of silence
I was accepted with a fellowship at Notre Dame today for fiction. I was in absolute shock b/c, weeks ago, I had resigned myself to rejection from ND (my top choice) after a wave of fiction applicants already heard good news and after being rejected from quite a few schools. So, seriously, there is no rejection until you are rejected.
Also, per an email a few days ago from Illinois, they are not done notifying fiction acceptances. Ditto perhaps for Indiana, who typically makes some late in the game offers according to a friend in the program currently. Keep the faith in yourselves, hopefully better than I did.
@Emma
thanks for the clarification. and now i will freak out. they didn't say when they were notifying? can't believe they told you about your acceptance.... aghhhh.
good luck, kaybay.
Wow, Sarah, that's awesome! Congrats!
Has anyone else not heard a word from Hunter's fiction program?
Accepted to Notre Dame for fiction via email (phone call coming tomorrow). Congrats to you too, Sara!
Sarah, if you'd like you can shoot me an email at sequoia@alumni.grinnell.edu
@WT, AWESUMMMM! Congratulations!
Congratulations, Wandering Tree!
WanderingTree, congrats! Your sample was awesome and ballsy and ND would be lucky to have you.
Kaybay, it's been real. I'll probably join you once all the rejections come in and I find out I'm 0-10.
@Jacquelyn-- I can tell you that I just turned down a spot at Hunter (fiction) today, so at least one spot is still open.
@Coreyann-- I have no idea when Sarah Lawrence will notify. I was trying to do a courteous thing and withdraw, becaue I know I'm not going to attend. But perhaps they didn't take it that way? I don't know. Good luck to you.
@kaybay - Best of luck! I'm running with one waitlist, a bunch of denials, a few likely denials, and one school that hasn't notified yet, so I may be seeing you around these parts next year. (Unless! Fingers crossed! We both have a sudden turn of fortune!)
Anyone with Bowling Green, Miami, JHU, Virginia news? Anyone?
For fiction.
@Ryan
Someone posted earlier today about JHU - one of their friends was offered a spot in fiction last week. That's all I've heard.
@kaybay
I'm down to four applications pending, two of which are likely rejections, so I may be meeting you here in the mix again next year (and will of course look forward to it).
@Kaybay: Best of luck with everything.
@Sarah & WanderingTree: Major Congrats!
Note to everyone: I just called up UW-Milwaukee’s MA program to decline the offer (it is a cool MA program since it is attached to all of the high quality PhD students they accept but I didn’t get any funding and I probably wouldn’t have went anyway with MFA acceptances to my name). The person on the phone asked me to send an e-mail stating why I was declining the offer so that they can use it in the future to make program modifications. So, I just want to say to everyone that you might want to keep this in mind if you’re turning down offers in the near future (especially if they are unfunded). Rather than simply turning them down (kindly) tell them why in an e-mail. It might just make things better for some people down the line.
Long Live KayBay!
@Jasmine
Thanks for the update!
IU was one of the top schools on my list, and I'm still a bit in shock that I have a chance (granted...a very small chance) of getting in there. Nice to hear that the campus and city sound as great as the faculty.
Hope the rest of your visit goes well...
I was feeling pretty down. 5 rejections and counting, and they all seemed to come on the same day, but now I'm feeling much better because I've been admitted to a writing workshop over summer for sci-fi and fantasy writing, which is now my not so secret love. All my grad school applications were my "literary" writing, which I just don't enjoy doing as much. I submitted stories that weren't fantasy because of the stigma in academia against genre writing. So it's nice to get some validation for what I actually do.
PS - Wow I hadn't been on the blog in a couple days and there were lots of acceptances. Congrats all!
@La Falcon:
Are you going to Clarion?
Grr. Over on Driftless House, someone called Brooklyn and was told:
"either 'most of' or 'almost all' their accepted candidates AND waitlisted candidates have been contacted."
Another one bites the dust.
Old Poet:
You're welcome. I tried not to have favorites but Indiana was definitely up there for me too. I feel so lucky to have gotten in.
@KayBay -- you will be missed! Good luck with everything!
CONGRATS to all acceptances and waitlists! I can't keep up with all the posts when I work a full day. Gosh.
QUESTION: have any poets heard back from Indiana? I saw that there was a waitlist for poetry, but I was wondering if anyone else heard anything. When I called to see where they were at back in February, they said they'd be snail-mailing and emailing acceptances (depending on the offer). So I was wondering if anyone had heard anything...DH has only fiction acceptance posted.
@daniel- I really want to go to Portland, but no, I haven't heard from any other schools yet. I was in my car driving home Saturday night and I was talking to myself pondering life, and I looked up and my eyes fell upon a street sign that read "Portland." I have never, ever seen this sign in my life. I feel like the universe is leading me there or something. :)
@chelsea
it's one hell of a place, to be sure
hope to see you in the fall
@kaybay - Good luck!
Congrats to all who've received good news today!
I came home to an Iowa rejection. No personal note, so those of you who got one should consider yourselves special.
But I'm still keeping my fingers crossed about my Indiana waitlist!
My dad called me to tell me I got my Iowa rejection, at long last.
@Morgan-- I received the same strange call this morning. Showed up on my phone as "Unknown," with no number attached, and no voicemail. I'm still waiting to hear from Florida St., Houston, Colorado State, and Arizona. Any schools in common? Can we pretend that this mystery caller was a school phoning in a YES for both of us?
@Brittany
AHHH WHAT THE HELL. I'm not waiting on any of those schools, but it seems like it could be a big week for a few of mine. SO let's pretend that these calls were 2 separate schools accepting both of us!!
But like, why no v-mail? It's cool, try again tomorrow, I'm gunna turn my ringer on high and my profs will just have to deal!
Okay, I have a non-MFA question. For those of you with few or no publications who submit to lit mags, what do you send them when they ask for a resume/CV and cover letter? What if my resume is completely unrelated to writing? Do I send that anyway? Do I make a whole new one? And I've read up on what goes in a cover letter to a literary agent, but I'm not sure what should be written for a lit mag submission.
Thanks in advance, guys. (And sorry if this question has been asked...I've been following all these mailbags for a while now but it's entirely possible I could have missed a related comment...)
On the notice of random calls that a few people got, there is a scam going around asking for your account numbers, but if you do not pick up the machine does not leave a message.
This is not to say that you were not accepted, but more of a warning towards others, that you may get some crazy calls here in the near future.
It already happened to me. It was such a letdown to see that call and get all worked up to hear some voice ask me for my credit number and my info.
re: crazy phone numbers
yeah, i just got one that left a message about lowering my interest rate (second call in a span of 4 days). i don't understand why they have make calling scams now...right in the midst of mfa season...
raindrops,
you don't need to send your resume. make your cover letter brief and to the point. also, if you have previous publications list them in the cover letter. and DON'T stable your piece. many lit mags will tell you exactly what they want you to send, formatting etc, in their submission guide.
here's the best site for submissions:
www.duotrope.com
WanderingTree,
Congratulations on Notre Dame!
KayBay,
I'm going to miss your posts but I completely understand your need to leave/breathe. Don't give up completely though - something could open up an McNeese and you still haven't gotten rejections from the rest of your schools. Who knows? I'm hoping for the best for you.
@smiling raindrops
Re:lit mags
I've never seen a lit mag that asked for a resume, but I always keep my cover letter short an sweet.
1) salutation (with editor name if possible)
2) title of what you're sending them (no plot/them description unless you can relate it directly to something in the magazine), genre (fiction, nonfiction, poems - don't give titles if you're sending poems, unless the group of poems has a title or you're only submitting one), approximate word count (if you're submitting prose)
3) publication history/awards or degrees/student status (if you're an undergrad, just say that you're studying creative writing at (blank) university, don't explicitly mention that you're an undergrad - no reason to let them come to early conclusions that aren't warranted) - a note on this - if you have no publications or awards, that's fine, don't mention anything, just tell them something about yourself (student here, nurse's aide here, that sort of thing)
keep it short!
sign off with something professional
hope that helps
Smiling Raindrops,
re: cover letters for lit mags
It really doesn't matter. Also, I don't know ANY lit mags that care enough/have the time and resources to see a CV/Resume.
To/Dear: John Bookworm, Editor
XXX Review
Attached/Included is my story, XXX (X,XXX words), for your consideration. Some of my other stories have appeared or are forthcoming in X, X, and X publications.
Thank you for reading my story. I look forward to any future correspondence.
Bada bing Bada boom
Sincerely,
X
I am one of the less-than-lucky 401 out of 426 in poetry at Iowa. I rate their stationery below Johns Hopkins in quality, though both notes are thoroughly concise.
This is silly, but I'm seeing far too many parallels between the Grad schools I've applied to and my personal (see: romantic) life. I'm afraid that next I'll get an offer from a school but they'll tell me they only want something casual, so I can sit in on some classes but I can't stay the whole class and I must remember that this will never lead to a degree because they were dumped by another writer for Iowa not too long ago and they're still pretty hurt about it all. If that happens, I hope the school will at least pay for the textbooks and provide transportation, otherwise I'd feel kinda cheap. I also hopes the school gives good oral...exams!
Is there someone on this blog who goes to NYU named Jack (in real life)?
subscribing
Has anyone heard any word on fiction from Univ. of Arizona?
@ pretzel
That was amazing.
Congrats to Sara and WT for Notre Dame! And congrats to all other acceptances/waitlists (especially phillywriter!) that I've missed over the weekend. I've been nursing a sick boyfriend, and although it isn't fun, it's taken my mind off of the MFA game.
Daniel & Wandering Tree,
Thanks for the tips! I actually have a couple of lit mags on my list that specifically ask for a resume...but if that apparently isn't normal perhaps I'll just include my regular resume, even though it's pretty corporate. Or maybe I just won't include one at all! But good to know the cover letter isn't anything I need to stress over too much.
@smilingraindrops
I don't usually post about stuff like this, but I run into this problem so much as an Assistant Editor for Narrative Magazine that I feel like I would be remiss in not offering some tips.
As the first editor reading your work, I can tell a lot about your submission from your cover letter/short bio. Obviously, I don't prejudge the story, and quality writing stands out the same way no matter what the cover letter/bio says. But I do think there are distinct ways to get the editors to take you more seriously.
First of all, I read submissions from published writers all the time. I've read stories from graduates of every top MFA program, as well as stories from writers who've published books with the big publishing houses. Most of these stories are not very good. The quality of the writing in your submission is more important than any credential. It follows then, that my number one tip is DON'T PAD YOUR BIO. If you haven't been published, you haven't been published. It's not a big deal. Obviously, having a lot of publishing credits gets the editor's attention, but not having those doesn't lose that editor's attention. Bad writing does.
I want to emphasize this point: do not pad your bios. Keep it simple and short. Do not list your self-published novel. Do not list sketchy online zines. Do not vaguely mention that you've been published, without saying where. If it was worth mentioning, mention it. If it's not, don't. Don't mention your pets, your hobbies, your property, or anything else that doesn't matter. Don't try to be overly informal or jokey. I'm reading your submission, like most slush pile assistants, for no pay. I'm only doing it because I believe that somewhere in there waits a story that matters, that's beautiful, that deserves to be published. This is not a joke. Writing is an honor and a privilege. Don't introduce your writing with something that degrades it. Do mention where you're from. Do thank the editor for reading your work. Do mention any post undergraduate work. Don't mention your undergraduate degree in English if that's the only credential you have.It's OK to mention your profession, within reason. Don't say you haven't been published if you haven't been published. And remember, it's fine to write a bio that reads like this, for example: I am a working mother of three. I was a participant in the Insert State/City/College Summer Writing Conference in 2008. Currently, I live and work in the DC area.
contd.
Secondly, ONLY SEND YOUR VERY BEST WORK. Sending something off before it's ready is a waste of both my time and yours. I know it's not your best. You know it's not your best. You have to realize, at a magazine like Narrative, I (and I'm not high on the totem pole at all) am reading hundreds of submissions. You have to be better than every single one of them. Don't send the story you finished last week and aren't sure about. Send the story you'd write if you knew you were dying. The best practical advice for sending your best work, though, is pretty simple. HAVE MULTIPLE OTHER PEOPLE READ IT FIRST AND THEN REWRITE. Obviously, some people's notes are better than others. But it's very important to approach the story again after you have more perspective on it.
Third, a simple one, LINE EDIT YOUR STORY BEFORE SUBMITTING. Nothing says sloppy like consistent typos or grammatical errors. If I like your story, I have to stand up for it and defend it to my bosses. I'm putting my reputation on the line for it. The least you could do is make it clear you didn't even care enough to run spell check.
Fourth, another simple one, for online submissions SAVE YOUR STORY AS A REGULAR .DOC FILE, NOT A .DOCX. Docx's make it so much harder on everyone involved. Obviously, the writing gets considered either way. But it's a small thing you can do to start off on the right foot with the editors.
And finally, KEEP IT SHORT. The good long short story is so exceedingly rare, that I can almost guarantee, unless you're T.C. Boyle ("The Love of My Life") or Alice Munro or Josh Weil (who writes novellas), that your story will be better off much shorter. I write this as a writer who is prone to long short stories myself. The problem for an editor reading your piece is this: the longer the story goes on, the better it has to be for us to accept it. Anything above 20 pages, to put a number out there, has to be basically perfect. A 12 page story might have some flaws, but it usually moves past them too quickly to sink the ship. That being said, my other length advice is DON'T SEND STORIES UNDER SEVEN PAGES. I can't think of a single good story, published or in submission, that I've read that would be under seven Word Doc pages. I take that back. Jamaica Kincaid's "Girl" and David Foster Wallace's "Incarnations of Burned Children" but that latter one is a good example because it's actually not that short. There is a similar length principle at work here. Under seven pages, a story has to be perfect. If there's even one little flaw, it represents so much of the story that it's hard to get over.
Those are the tips that I can think of off the top of my head.
Has NYU started notifying yet?
I'm still waiting for an Iowa letter, but will be waiting a while I'd say- international student!
Arna,
That's really good advice. I didn't know most of it. Thanks so much.
Patrick,
I called Iowa and they said that since it's Air mail, we should be receiving the letter by the end of this week?
From UC Irvine
Admission status updates are not available at this time and notifications will be sent out shortly. Thank you for your patience.
Sincerely,
Lynh Tran
Graduate Program Administrator
Arna,
Have you made a decision yet on where you're going?
I'd still love to read your story, if you're willing to send it.
smith.bradleyh@gmail.com
And if you're considering Michener, let's talk. I think I recall you getting in there (as well as just about every other program in the top 10).
Thanks Stranger!
Can't wait for an Iowa rejection, ha!
God luck!
@Spencer,
Sorry, this is kind of random, but I just wanted to say THANK YOU so, so much for that link you posted to http://portland.readinglocal.com/ a while back!
Kind of an odd situation, but over the past month (after receiving rejections from several programs and resigning myself to the fact that I am probably not going to get in anywhere this time around), I have been toying with the idea of moving to Portland for a little/long while (I'm from California, at school in SoCal right now). I had pretty much made up my mind to move there, and now after looking over that Reading Local site, I am totally hooked!
Haha anyway, I apologize for this rambling and incoherent message, but I just want to say thank you, you've gotten me so excited about my new life in PORTLAND!!! Wooo hooo!! :D
Finally got my Iowa rejection letter today. I like this little collage of rejection letters that i am building. They'll fit nicely around my acceptance letter centerpiece.
Hey peeps,
I hope I didn't lead anyone astray into thinking that I'm making a terribly brave decision by giving up my Indy spot to go off into the world MFAless. I have already given up my Rutgers spot (to decidedly less fanfare) and still haven't confirmed with VTech (which is where I'm leaning and most likely will end up). But it is frightening when I think that I'm turning down such a well-regarded program to jump into one that's relatively new.
A sincere good luck, again, to the waitlisters. I really hope one of you guys on here nab it.
Jasmine, I read your post describing your visit to Bloomington and your interaction with the students and faculty and my heart fell - everything you described was what attracted me there in the first place - the vibe; the beauty; the relative hip factor for a Midwestern town . . . aaarrrghhh. I just hope my gut isn't leading me astray.
Kaybay: we haven't exchanged comments formally, but I feel like I know you in a way (cue Psycho sound bite). You've been so forward, brash, humorous and comforting with your comments on here. I'm really hoping that something deservedly great will come through for you in the next weeks. If not, you sound like a fighter, and I have a feeling you'll make something work out for you. So, for what it's worth, I'm forwarding you prosperous vybez over the Internet.
Wandering Tree, I'm sure I'm not alone on here in expressing that two offers alone isn't commensurate with the scope and talent that seethes from the folds of your work. Congrats on Notre. It's well deserved. For a long time I meant to send you an e-mail going over what I found so exciting about several of your pieces. I'll admit though, that I had my best friend read a few of them with me and we've made it one of our five life ambitions to go clam fishing in the East Sea.
A super SUPER belated congratulations to Ashley Brook, Coughdrop and Courtney . . . I don't know why I took so long with the congrats for you guys. But I feel obliged to say that I've just emerged from the stupor induced by my tour (a week ago) of the Wray&Nephew White Rum grounds. Anyone with the slightest knowledge of this particular brand of Jamaican white rum (and why the occasional sips had me loopy for days) will hopefully testify on my behalf.
Arna: well, if editors would've just told me that from the beginning I wouldn't have been going around banging their significant others. People today, I swear.
Cratty,
I was just having a conversation with a friend about gut feelings. If your gut says VTech, go with it. Mine has been saying the state of Indiana since before I applied (Indiana is the only state where I applied to more than one school, and I even wrote somewhere before applying that I think Indiana's calling my name). I really think your feelings won't lead you astray.
Good luck with everything. Don't waste any time on regrets; everything's going to be great.
@everyone for those of you who are thinking of moving to another city or another state even, how are you planning on taking care of housing. i can barely afford my own place and had to have a roommate. are you just going to craigslist it? i wonder if there's a place that the MFA community people can gather with their respective schoolmates and pool their housing resources.
has anyone taken a zoetrope online class? if so, was it helpful / worth it?
I second sahaider's inquiry about housing.
Anyone thinking of going the NYC MFA-route...let's talk in mid-April. Def. be interesting to live with writers, esp. since I'm very quiet and introverted. A fellow shy, introvert would prob. be better than some guy off the street who does drugs and invites all types of weirdoes into his room...I've heard stories in the past from friends who've been through these types of situations. I haven't had a roommate in years, but I'll bite the bullet if the roommate is as quiet and responsible as I am (an impossibility, maybe).
arna,
how did you become an assistant editor at narrative?
just curious.
Cratty -
I am likely VTech bound as well, for poetry. Want to shoot me an email? It's been kind of silent on here as far as those excited about Blacksburg.
burlaper [at] gmail
@ cecil: Zoetrope is free. I think there are some workshops they have through Gotham, and I assume those are similar to other Gotham workshops. They're worthwhile if you can afford it.
@Cratty,
Thanks!
Ashley,
I think Cecil is referring to the paid Zoetrope workshops which are led by folks like Aimee Bender, Mary Gaitskill, Ha Jin, Pinckney Benedict etc. not Zoetrope Virtual Studios.
Cecil,
I'm not Arna but I do know that Narrative has let people apply to be an assistant editor/reader in the past. I have a couple of friends that are also asst. editors/readers for Narrative. Many other journals offer similar positions. Some of these positions can grow into full-time/paid work (not common obviously) while others are strictly volunteer and offer little room for growth. Electric Literature, for example, recently called out for readers via application (you needed to send a piece of critical writing). Zoetrope: All-Story is also open to readers, but I think they def. want writers that have been around the block a couple of times.
Hi Friends,
I just received a waitlist notification from Colorado State in poetry via snail mail dated 3/3.
@Seth: I don't know how forthcoming they are about application data, but Matthew Cooperman reported they had a record number of applications and I was among the top 15% of candidates.
xoxo to all.
Wow, Arna. Amazingly helpful response. Thank you for posting it!
@ Franny -- Congrats on the CSU waitlist! Hope you can get in.
@Arna--a very, very sincere thank you for your advice. Now, I'm off to TP Bill Gates's house for making a word processor that's not automatically back-compatible. Fookin Doc fookin X.
@kaybay--from the first time I joined here, admittedly late, you were the one I was most rooting for. Maybe I'll see you here next year (but I hope something conspires to make that unnecessary!)
And, btw, Arna, my stories almost always clock in at 12 pages, for some reason, so that part of your highly useful comments made me happy!
I don't even know what a "hipster" is.
Woon,
Sounds like something a hipster would say : - )
@ Arna
Thank you for all the advice!
The Iowa rejection battalion has indeed reached the West Coast. Also got a jury duty summons for the downtown LA courthouse, one hour from where I live in traffic. Bad mail day.
I'm not totally giving up hope yet (9 rejections of 18 total, most have already notified), and I realize there's a lot of improving I need to do on my work, but I am curious about the effect academic background has, if any:
They say you don't have to be an English major, which I believe, but my Undergrad transcript has only a couple of GE English classes and nothing else, no upper level English at all. My GPA was high with everything I took, and I did respectably well on the GRE. I've been taking Creative Writing classes at an extension program more recently. Is my lack of Lit analysis classes going to hurt me significantly? i.e., if I don't get in this year, should I take some of those in addition to CW (with what time, I'm not sure)?
Above all, I'm looking forward to taking another hard look at my writing in the year to come (if I don't get in).
Thanks. This blog is great - so much love. (This is the first post I've written sober. Yay!)
My hipster joke:
How many hipsters does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
.....
Oh, wait--you don't know?
@ Arna
Thank you for all the advice!
I start reading this blog each year about this time--thanks to Seth, whose work over the years has been heroic and useful and necessary--to remind myself, again, what applicants are going through (enduring?). I wish the process could be quicker for all of you, and less anxiety-inducing.
I can only speak for myself, as someone who is in her sixth year of reading MFA application files, at my particular program, but I take the reading of and decisions about each file very seriously. I open each one with hope.
You all have heard much of this before, or at least had questions about some of the items below, but I thought this might be useful--if not this go round, then the next.
1. A close second in importance after your writing sample is your personal statement. When someone's personal statement doesn't address much or any of what we've asked for, when it comes down to making final selections, this is most often the deciding factor: if someone doesn't care enough to address our questions, then we are left thinking that we weren't high on their list and they aren't really that interested in our program. I am often stunned at how often personal statements read like a template with our program's name inserted in various spots. Others read like essays for undergrad school, rather than a writer applying to study writing.
2. Don't tell us all--as in paragraph after paragraph-- about your childhood writing. Please. We are interested in who you are as a writer now and for the past couple of years--how you talk about your writing, who your literary influences are and in what way.
3. Great that you've always wanted to live in our particular area of the country. But that's irrelevant, really, to our choosing YOU. We want to know why you want to study writing at our program and with our faculty (without parroting back sentences off our website about our program).
4. We offer full funding to everyone who is admitted--unless they've checked the box saying they don't want funding. Our funding is through teaching fellowships, teaching creative writing the first year. Therefore, part of our admission decision is, can this person teach creative writing at the intro level? We look to transcripts (what courses have you taken in literature and creative writing), letters of rec, and the personal statement for this info.
5. If your writing sample and your personal statement and your rec letters are strong, your GPA, as long as it's a 3.0 or higher, especially in lit and writing courses, doesn't come into play. At all. (We don't ask for GREs.)
I don't mean any of this to be unkind or harsh. I absolutely agree with Seth that you should cast your application net wide, but it should be a focused net. Many applicants would have a much better shot if they spent time tailoring their personal statements to each place they are applying to, studied who the faculty is at each program and were realistic about whether their work is a good match with the sensibilities of the faculty and program.
That said, I'd be glad to answer any questions I can.
Woon, that's right! You're a fiction admit! Thank you. After one acceptance, the waitlist is flattering. I am seriously grateful to find out that I'm actually "competitive". Does that make sense? There is no real rubric to this thing, so I feel fortunate to learn I've done *something* right.
I like CU (Julie Carr, Noah Eli Gordon), but I also like CSU (Dan Beachy-Quick, better ranking).
Hi –
I’ve been lurking (occasionally) for the past several months.
It’s a bit late, but here is my list for fiction:
Michigan: rejected
Brown: rejected
Iowa: rejected
UNH: ?
UMASS Amherst: accepted
Any UMASS Amherst people up for exchanging emails?
wildrivergreen@gmail.com
@ Franny
Some good news for you. I turned down a spot at CSU in poetry today. That puts you one spot closer to getting in; might even get you over the hump.
Good luck!
Laurie--
About this matching the sensibilities of the faculty and school, I don't know, but it's tough.
It's great in theory, and for a writer of something like magical realism or experimental work (hi, Brown), it can work to some degree. But when we get beyond that and into all the shades of realism, and when we're dealing with four and five faculty members per school, and most schools aren't at all clear about their particular sensibilities (in fact, a huge number of them make it a point to say that they aren't looking for any specific kind of work!), we're a little bit stuck.
Schools are not literary journals (though some run them--helpful!). I can read the work of alumni, sure, but that work tends to run the gamut, except in the most obvious and extreme cases.
Beyond reading work from every faculty member from every potential school, and assuming every faculty members' taste in stories hews close to their own writing, I'm not sure what to do.
The director of McNeese has a great post on the program's website. He says, "[My aesthetic], essentially, is that I think fiction should be more about the heart than the brain. I read to have an experience outside of myself that somehow either rhymes with my sense of what it is to be human or expands that sense. If you find yourself talking to others about the thematic implications of your work, or dream about the Cliff Notes someone will write one day to explain the beauty of what you've done, we won't get along."
Here, I know where I'm at, but statements like this are all too rare.
Wait listed at CSU.
@ Arna
Much as I want to resent you for your resounding success of late, you make it very difficult. :-) Thanks for the great and detailed advice about submitting to lit mags.
One clarification question: When you suggest keeping stories under 20 pages, I'm guessing you mean DOUBLE SPACED?
I've been submitting one particular piece, unsuccessfully, for two years. It's 24 pages double-spaced and I never send to magazines that specify a limit under that. But it sounds like the "real" length limit may be well under what mags post on their site, neh?
@Laurie Lynn -- First, thank you for allowing us to field questions about the admissions process in general and Oregon, in particular.
Second, I have a question about your item #3. You said: "We want to know why you want to study writing at our program and with our faculty." This is the part that is the most difficult for me. I have said this before in other sections of this blog and I'll repeat it here (in case you haven't been following my ongoing monologue):
I believe I can learn from any MFA faculty; that is, anyone who is incisive and knowledgeable and experienced -- and willing to share that knowledge and experience. What I don't know is: is a particular faculty member a good teacher? Will I click with said teacher? I don't know how any applicant can answer this question without having taken classes with them.
My best creative writing teacher is someone whose work I don't particularly like. He's a good writer, but I'm not a "fan" of his work. His aesthetics are different from mine and I'm not drawn to the subject matter of his stories. Yet, he's a great teacher and I learned so much from him. If I didn't know him and saw his name on some school's faculty list and sampled his work, I'd probably punt.
I'm not sure I could ever say I would love to work with so-and-so or at such-and-such place without it ringing false. The truth is, I'm adaptable and willing to learn from everybody, so long as they're willing to share and teach me what I need to learn.
I feel this particular requirement of yours (and others as well) is another means by which applicants can B.S. their way into a faculty member's heart, so to speak.
Finally, I'm not sure I'd want to work with my literary heroes. More than likely, they would let me down in some way or they would turn out to be total A**holes.
@Laurie. Thanks for sharing your insight.
Surprised to see the personal statement has so much weight, as I'd been told it's mainly to get across some information about yourself and who you are as a writer and make sure you're not an ass.
I purposely didn't discuss faculty members as that seems to be fraught with political peril. Do you laud every faculty member, or only the ones you feel a kinship with? There's also only so much information you can glean from a Web site, so I think in some cases it's tough to go into detail about why programs are perfect fits.
But of course I'm defensive since the only place I was accepted doesn't even ask for a personal statement. And I will fully admit I've never figured out how to make them anything but an exercise in polite bullshit.
@ Laurie Lynn, I am sure that everyone on this blog really appreciates your posting and giving advice to a bunch of stress-crazed applicants. I wish that members of admissions committees at more programs would do the same thing!
@ k, I also think it would be great if more programs posted a statement like the one by the McNeese director. Otherwise, it's so difficult to tell whether or not certain schools are looking for a certain aesthetic, and what that aesthetic is. Reading faculty work is helpful, but when pieces of writing by faculty members at one program differ widely from each other, it's impossible to tell if the school itself has a dominant aesthetic.
I also agree with a lot of what Woon said. In my statements of purpose, I didn't mention any faculty members at all, even at the schools I applied to mostly for the faculty. I just didn't know how to include them in my statement without sounding like I was, as Woon said, BSing or "sucking up." Anything I would have said about loving a particular faculty member's work, or that my work has been influenced by that person's work, would have been completely genuine, but set down into a formal little sentence in the statement, it didn't *look* genuine to me.
I had reasons for applying to each the many programs I applied to, and included these reasons in my statements. But this was another area where I wasn't quite sure what to include, specifically. I didn't want to sound like I was repeating info on the website, like Laurie Lynn said in her comment, but for programs that I couldn't manage to visit before applying, most of the info I had came from the website or brochures. I only included in my statements aspects of the programs that I loved, but still wasn't sure how to go about doing this.
Basically, when writing my statement, I kind of wished I could just meet the adcom of each program in person and gush on and on about how much I wanted to be in their program. Crammed into a 500-word statement of purpose, I felt like it was difficult to get across everything I wanted to, about how excited I was about the programs to which I applied. I made my best effort and have gotten into a few programs, though, so maybe I did a better job than I thought I did?
if you compare all the MFA program websites, oregon stands alone, by far, as to the details they seek in a SOP. just saying.
@Woon (and k):
The first sentence of your third paragraph puts it beautifully. I would admire something like that in a P.S.--it tells me a great deal about you.
Oh geez, I'm sure not talking about ass-kissing profs (ugh!). I'm talking about some sense that applicants have some sense of the faculty (how's that for an inelegant sentence?). Imagine you follow up that great sentence of yours with something like (this is hypothetical here): I know that my character development needs work and given that Xfaculty's Xbook is very character-driven, I know I could learn a great deal from him--or what you might want to learn from him. Not ass-kissing, but acknowledging, in some way, that you are somewhat familiar with his work (and at least on the fiction side of things, the other two of us aren't offended at all if we aren't mentioned).
That said, one of the great things about blogs like this is that you all can share what you know about different faculty and take that into consideration as you're applying (one of the many factors, I know).
Of course, these are issues that come into play, often in very minute ways, when we sit down with our 25-30 final group of files. Before that? It's all about the writing sample. After that? It's still 95% still about the writing sample.
Hi Laurie,
I appreciate the time and consideration you've given to us at the MFA Blog.
Judging from other responses, the point I'm about to address is a controversial one for your program.
I'm also curious about Oregon's SOP prompt asking why the applicant wants to work with particular faculty. I'll be honest and say I applied to the program not having read any Oregon faculty work. My work is inspired by the writers I know, many who aren't teaching at MFA programs or are pushing daisies.
I wonder if the prompt encourages slapdash research and disingenuous answers more than anything else. I wonder how important it is for the applicant, a writer young in her career, to have an aesthetic consonant with her teachers'. I wonder what political peril the applicant risks including one teacher and expurgating another.
I sidestepped the question--not because I didn't agonize over it, and not because I failed to research the program (I've taken digital walking tours of your campus/environs via google maps)--because I didn't have a concise, ready answer for it to fit into the word-count parameters.
While I was in a meeting this evening I missed a call from a 'private number' and now I'm having a meltdown.
Who was I before this entire process started?
@cecil:
You're absolutely right. Not saying that's good or it's bad, just I agree.
@Laura T.
Very good points--I couldn't tell you what our program "aesthetic" is because the three of us who teach fiction have three very different approaches to teaching and writing (which is a very good thing, I think), but we all agree at the core: stories that are character-driven and that surprise us in some way, that aren't predictable (not in an experimental way but in rendering what it means to be human way).
@Laurie Lynn - thank you for your (surprisingly) prompt response. I'm not sure it's completely satisfactory to me, but I don't want to belabor this point. I do, however, really really appreciate that you took the time to put your thoughts into words in this blog.
@ M. Swann:
If you researched the program, then I'm sure that came through in your P.S. If you talked about your influences, writers who have inspired your own work, then you've done much more than many applicants in their P.S. and sidestepping the faculty question isn't going to hurt you.
In my opinion, it's less about aesthetic than it is about craft concerns. I wouldn't want an incoming class of writers who all matched my aesthetic.
But you, and others, have raised very good points about that part of our PS prompt--and I will take it to our next faculty meeting. Thank you.
@Anti:
Kinda random but read your comment earlier regarding the wait for TNS acceptance packet. I'm in the same boat except that I got tired of checking my mailbox 10 times a day for the promised packet so I called them today. The admissions person I spoke to said they've not mailed anything yet and that she was staring at a mountain of to-be-mailed packets. Patience...
@Brad Smith: I was also accepted to CU (like yourself), but the waitlist, whether there's movement or not, is flattering. Thanks for declining the CSU spot early. And thanks generally to the conscientious applicants who've made early decisions. Did you also already decline your spot at CU? I ask because I'd like to have your money. Yes, I would.
I assume you'll accept the offer from Michener. That's incredible! Congratulations! I didn't apply, but wish I had in spite of the odds. It's a dream place to be from almost every angle. Best of luck to you!!
@Arna thanks so much for your tips, the print out is up on my drawing board as a checklist before I send out submissions. Thanks once more.
Laurie Lynn,
Thanks so much for the response! I think more programs (particularly the small ones, but also the big names like Iowa or MIchigan) would benefit from faculty acknowledging our existence here.
I don't expect to get into Oregon (1% admission rate and my sample was more "experimental" than character-driven), but I will give (mad) props to programs that agree on this site's premise: open communication, transparency, and applicant empowerment.
Wow, what a great flurry of posts with Laurie Lynn! By the time it took me to compose my question, the blog, choked with comments, couldn't post it, which is great because it had already been asked and answered several times over.
@Penseur
Thanks for the update. Was worrying about when the packet was coming. At least I'm not alone in my impatience :)
Wow. Tonight has, in the course of the last 20 minutes, taught me a whole hell of a lot. Some of it I'm embarrassed for not already knowing, so I'm grateful to soak up the knowledge y'all were more than willing to share.
@arna - you've been pulled in a lot of directions around here, so your gracious time and information, as "one of us" with some insight to the other side is so genuinely appreciated. and super useful.
@laurie - very, very few folks from inside the depths of programs have been brave enough to cross our waters here. thank you, so much. the personal statement was a tremendously difficult thing for me, which is weird because i can spend full days talking about myself. that was concise, understandable, and while controversial (i'm sure you've figured out that sky color is controversial around these parts, around these days) a huge help for everyone who will in all likelihood be revising their personal statements next year.
DISCLAIMER: i can say all this without being an ass-kisser, because i promise you i'm never, ever moving to oregon. that said, your website bio is laugh-out-loud funny and i'm going to have to delve into how you were... shot by a dog...
@Arna--Obviously some fine advice there, but I'm going to have to disagree about the better short stories being less than some magic page length. Now, maybe longer stories can’t be accepted in some publications due to practical issues, but that’s a completely different issue.
Food for thought: I just flipped open Glimmer Train’s Fall 2009 issue and most stories in it are over 20 pages, including one 40 page story (single spaced). I also opened up some Millhauser and Murakami and there are many short stories well over 20 pages (single spaced).
Thanks for all of your advice, Laurie Lynn!
The problem I had in writing my personal statement was that I heard so much contradictory I kind of ended up with a bit of a mess. I don't really think about my personal statement much anymore, actually! I don't think I like it much anymore. I do know that I ultimately choose not to mention faculty or even writers that I admired because I had been advised against it for various reasons. I deleted it all and ripped my SOP apart. There are a lot of things I would do differently.
@kaybay,
Sorry to hear that you're leaving. =( I wish you the best.
@Arna,
Thanks for your post; it's very helpful!
Good luck/congrats again to all.
@Daryl
Completely agree.
Also, I think much of what Arna says about bios makes sense (e.g. don't pretend you're something you're not), but I have a friend who works for a fairly well known publication (something you'd see in Barnes & Noble, Borders, ect.) and s/he has essentially told me that they look more closely at stories submitted by people with “serious” bios. In other words, mention what writers you’ve worked with in the past, mention if you’re even applying to MFA programs, or anything else that let’s the reader know that you take writing seriously. Now, obviously the story comes first, but I’m not sure it’s good advice for every writer to trim their bio into something perfunctory and blasé. If your story is inspired by a real world experience, mention it. After all, aren’t many of us more attracted to a story if we know something interesting or intriguing about the author? For good or evil, I think the answer is a resounding yes.
@koru - In my SOPs, I did indeed list my "favorite" writers or "influential" writers. But this also requires further clarification. I love writers A, B, and C, though I never tried to emulate them. I simply like them as a reader. However, I've been told in workshop that I "sound" like writer X and Y, even though they're not among my favorites. So, in sum, I love A, B, and C, but much to my surprise, I write like X and Y. Don't know what to make of that.
@ Ashley:
One of the reasons my program is specific about what we're looking for in the PS--because different programs are looking for different things in the PS and we see no reason not to let applicants know what we're interested in learning about you.
And I know there's lots of contradictory information out there (Steve Almond's piece in Poets and Writers was great advice; Seth is often, mostly actually, very on target--can't agree with his assessment of one particular poetry program, but that's okay).
But, I stress again, it's the writing sample, writing sample, writing sample, first and foremost.
Daryl,
Arna didn't say anything about shorter stories being better. He's just saying that shorter stories stand a better chance at being accepted. Now, I don't think anyone would agree with the advice to tailor your stories just because of some magic number. If a story NEEDS to be 30 pages so be it (and if it is truly great, it will be accepted eventually). There are always journals that accept longer work BUT for writers esp. at the beginning stages of their career, longer work is harder to pull off with the same amount of effectiveness as shorter work (and when taking into consideration the limited space in a journal, a longer story better well damn be worth the extra mile).
@ Franny
Yes, I have declined the spot at Colorado. I've actually formally committed to Michener. It was kind of a no-brainer for me, and I figured that the sooner I made a decision the better it was for all parties involved.
@ L Lewis
Yeah, my opinion of the personal statement was similar to yours. I basically used a form statement, the kind that the wonderful and generous Laurie Lynn warns against. Yes, it was thoughtful and sincere, but nothing spectacular. My goal was to not make an ass of myself. That was about it.
If a given school had specific prompts or questions, I adjusted accordingly (though not thrilled to do so).
I just don't think it's realistic for admissions committees to expect each applicant to tailor their statement to each program specifically, at least in any major ways. In theory, it makes sense. But when the statement, as well as the other application materials requested (sometimes a teaching statement, etc) play such a minor role in their admissions decision (as even Ms Lynn admits) it's not really fair to expect us to spend such a high percentage of our time writing a new statement for each of our 15 or so schools.
And yeah, it's not their fault that we're applying to so many. But they need to understand that, given the ridiculous odds against us getting into their program, we HAVE to apply to that many.
This is certainly not intended to be a direct criticism of Ms Lynn or her program. That said: committees, if they really sympathize with their applicants, can make their application processes much simpler.
The worst, for me, was when a given program had a confusing or just poorly designed website. I really appreciated schools like Michigan, for example, where everything was easy to find. (might I add that, of the schools I applied to, the best websites happened to belong to top-5 schools. The poor and confusing websites universally belonged to the lower ranked programs. Perhaps coincidental, though I doubt it. You can tell a lot about a program by the way its site is run.)
CONT:
Beyond that, schools need to drop the GRE requirement. It is absolutely irrelevant for creative writing students, and extremely expensive. How much does it cost now to take the test? $130? Then, to send scores, you have to pay (I believe) $20 per. When you have 10 schools on your list that require a score, a score which, as they will even admit, plays either zero or an extremely minor role in their decision, you will easily spend well over $300 for absolutely nothing. It's a bunch of bullshit. No way around it. If some programs don't need the score, no programs need the score.
And, yes, if a large part of a committee's decision is based upon the application materials *not* the manuscript, then go ahead and ask us to include it all. But for so many programs to openly admit that the manuscript is the only really vital part of your application, please, please don't ask us to jump through hoops that cost us large quantities of money and time.
Okay, that's my rant for the month. Again: not directed in any way at Ms Lynn. I applaud her for coming onto this board and going out of her way to be honest and forthright about what her program looks for in an applicant. Maybe if people from other programs would be so courageous and thoughtful this entire process would be a lot less painful.
Oh, and one more idea, before I officially lose my rant for the month...
I think it would be brilliant for a program to announce its accepted students in an online webcast set up to mimic a professional sports draft. Announce, say, month ahead, for applicants to, "Tune in on March __ at 8 pm cst for our annual MFA draft." And then have some hotshot department chair read off the names of the accepted, as well as wait-listed students, and (hell) maybe even say where they're from, what their manuscript was like, etc (have some fun! come on!) and encourage the applicants whose name wasn't called to keep their chins up.
This would take out all the anxiety, the waiting, the ambiguity, etc. Plus, it'd be hella exciting for everyone involved.
What d'ya say?
@Wandering Tree
Eh, to quote Arna:
The good long short story is so exceedingly rare, that I can almost guarantee, unless you're T.C. Boyle ("The Love of My Life") or Alice Munro or Josh Weil (who writes novellas), that your story will be better off much shorter.
Sorry to jump in on your convo with Daryl!
I'm in at San Fran State! But they need to know before the week is up if I'm going to attend because they are offering a Provost's scholarship possibility (reducing tuition to in-state) only IF I tell them before the week is up.
And naturally I haven't heard an acceptance from ANYWHERE else, (Brooklyn is silent, and they are my absolute NUMBERO UNO and I would die to go there).
Eep! What to do?!
Hey All,
I'm just writing to let you guys that know I'm taking my name off the Wyoming fiction waitlist. If I remember right, Beth (the director) told me that they had only put 5 people on their waitlist. Hopefully this frees up a potential spot for someone.
Congrats to everyone who's heard good news.
We need a message board, guys and girls. This is ridiculous.
hey everyone
i know this is a dumb question, but does anyone know how to pronounce Chuck Kinder's last name? He's the head of the creative writing department at Pitt and I'm planning on calling him tomorrow or the next day and I don't want to butcher the pronunciation. I've read it a million times, but I've never heard anyone say it out loud.
Is it pronounced like amazon's "Kindle" or is it more like the word "kind?"
I know this is a minor issue, but if there's a place for minor questions and neuroses, this is it.
Thanks.
@daniel: If he kept the proper German pronunciation, it'd be pronounced like 'kindergarten.'
Has anyone on this blog other than Brad Smith been accepted to Michener for poetry?
@K
Your SF state acceptance, was it via email/phone call? What does your online status say? Mine hasn't really changed since I first got it.
Eek a lil worried.
@K... did you apply fiction or poetry?
Brad, I totally agree with you about doing away with GREs completely, among other things. Every single detail that we have to add to our app. packet is time less spent on the writing sample, which is clearly the clincher. Not only that, but the stress and worry of just thinking about writing the statement of purpose distracted me while I worked on editing my sample (not that this is an excuse or anything, just a fact), and certainly made it harder to focus on what really matters.
And God, I know what you mean about the websites. Some of them I visited and almost immediately left (Utah and Western Mich. to name two) because it was like being thrown back to 1998.
I also echo the appreciation for Laurie sharing that useful information with us (even though I didn't apply to Oregon).
And Arna, even for a poet your points were quite helpful. Thanks!
btw, Arna, what are some "sketchy online" mags that you refer to?
@Le Tigre et al:
It's difficult to transfer a community from one location to another: I've installed a forum here:
yxnstat.com
as a place to discuss MFA topics, but people seem loathe to venture into anything new. Check it out, and if the format suits you, post something.
You know what's funny? I am starting to hope I don't get in anywhere, instead of getting in on a last minute waitlist. Because thinking about me being "nowhere" with my writing inspires some deep and intricate introspection; whereas, acceptance at this stage, I fear, would make me more complacent.
Ok, I'm well on my way, if complete rejection is my goal.
On the other hand, even though I believe in what I just wrote, if I got in somewhere I would probably poop my pants and gargle yes, please, yes, even though I know I'm not worthy. I wish I had some convictions, shit.
@Daniel: First syllable has the emphasis and sounds just like the word "kin."
@ bbartok
Don't worry, a waiting list won't make you complacent!
Anyway it seems like bad luck to wish for what you *really* don't want.
subscribing.
just found out that i was accepted to emerson on the school's online application status page!
@Jason J
In Fiction, via email late last night--I actually don't even have my log-on information (just couldn't keep up with them all) so am not sure if my status changed online but it sounds like a quick wave with them asking me to make the decision this week for the scholarship so I'd be inclined to think that nothing had changed there yet...
Good luck!
@quincy
Kudos!! What genre?
@ quincy and amanda, Congrtaulations!!!!!!!!!!
But prepare to be bombarded with questions because Emerson is my first choice ;)
Quincy, which genre?
Where did it show that you've been accepted?
(I just checked my status, all heart-pounding and angry at my computer for going so slowly, and it didn't say anything. Just the list of materials they received.)
@ not
thanks!
@ emerson acceptees
also, if anyone has emerson questions, two of my friends went to undergrad there, so i could pass along questions to them if it helps
@montana acceptees
i went to undergrad at u of montana, i can answer almost question you have about the program, the (prose) faculty, and missoula itself
anyone here anxious to hear about Hollins?
I don't hear it talked about here very much but it seems kind of like an awesome program...
@Coughdrop,
yes, anxiously awaiting to hear from Hollins.
glad i'm not the only one still waiting on some schools that haven't reported to anyone yet ...
sorry, my bad. fiction!
Lovely Koru!
yes, they have notified this week in the past so I am a pile of mush right now thinking about it! Fingers crossed for both of us!
@ Coughdrop,
yes, they are in a gorgeous part of the world. sigh. talk about inspiring places to live to write!
fingers toes and everything else crossed for us :-)
thanks quincy and amanda. If only Emerson fiction acceptances have been notified... I can start breathing again, I'm poetry.
@koru
I deleted my former post because I felt it was too negative. Yes, if you go a little farther out I think you'll be fine. Short North, Victorian Village, Grandview, and Upper Arlington seem to be fun neighborhoods that have solid public transportation to and from campus. If you can get in touch with a current student, they might be able to help you make the final decision on an apartment and its location.
@ University of San Fran
Anyone know much about this program? I'm creative nonfiction and just received an acceptance yesterday. I know very little about the actual program and I noticed it's dropped significantly in Seth's rankings over the last few years. I'd appreciate any thoughts! Thanks!
@ koru
I'm in at OSU also (for poetry) and grew up in Cincinnati, so I've visited friends in Columbus many many times.
I am a guy, but I've never had a problem with crime or mugging there, and actually don't know of anyone who has either. I'd say safety is probably increased by staying closer to campus in non-deserted neighborhoods where there are large student populations. My impression is that a lot of people applying seem to worry about the distractions of Greek life or bar/party scenes, so if greater safety isn't worth those detractors (if you see them as such), then I further understand your reservations.
Other preventative stuff: talk to current students and faculty about safe neighborhoods, look at your apartment beforehand if you can, consider university housing (there are graduate dormitories), and remember all cities are dangerous, and all hazards can be mitigated, eliminated or avoided.
Sorry if that was all sort of obvious, just some points from happy, jingoistic Columbus residents. Good luck with your decision and maybe I'll see you this Fall!
Assuming that students might throw toilet paper in your trees, but won't steal all your possessions. Just leave candy on your doorstep or something.
@Matt, @ Antalya,
Thanks. :) Yeah, I live right now in a city ... but it's one where I can honestly walk around alone at night without worrying ... it would be quite a change to suddenly have to start worrying about stuff like the rape by the English dept. that Antalya mentioned in her deleted post.
I really just want this process over with. Sigh.
@Matt,
are you going to the open house?
* salutes kaybay *
Congratulations to WanderingTree, K, Franny, John, and Sara!
Now, if only my damn Iowa letter would show up. It's still not here! (I'm in Cambridge, MA.)
Has anyone accepted yet? I'm probably going to accept Iowa this week if I don't hear anything from the rest of my schools, namely Houston and Virginia (for fiction). I'm tired of waiting and need to start looking for a place to live!
Good morning to all and congrats to the USF admits!
Andrew Sottile, who was awesome and called yesterday, said that UNH would be notifying admits today. Has anyone's status page changed yet? Mine still says the same "Under Review by Department".
@Hilary
I'm in Cambridge too, and mine came yesterday, with no encouraging handwritten note. It was kind of cathartic, but mostly it just sucked.
@ Nathaniel
My UNH status is still "Under Review."
Klairkwilty- I am also fighting the urge to just make a final decision and accept already, just so I can feel settled. I'm like 80% sure of my decision, though, and am going to wait another week for official letters to arrive from other programs, but then it is Spring Break, so... I dunno.
I hear Connie sends out housing info to Iowa people at some point. I was actually there last weekend, doing some preliminary apartment hunting (it is close to where my bro lives), and it seems like there is hardly anything decent left, so I'm looking forward to that packet!
Just called UNT and DU. They are still making decisions... letters will be out by the end of the week, or, in the case of UNT, after Spring break (next week).
"So you're telling me there's a chance!": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX5jNnDMfxA
@Nathaniel - rough stuff. I'm sorry :(
I fully expect a rejection, and I mentally crossed Iowa off my list a long time ago... I just want to make it official so I can move on.
@ koru
Yeah I'd really like to know where I stand *cough* HoustonIndianaArkansas *cough.*
I want to go to the open house, but I work for Americorps in St. Louis and do a lot of outdoors work out of town, so getting time off is always dodgy. My request for that weekend is "being processed" now, which seems appropriate given the last three months haha. I also told them my birthday is that weekend (which it is), so maybe that'll be the clincher.
What about you?
@coughdrop, @koru -- I am absolutely dying to hear from Hollins. They look like they have an incredible program. When I called them in February, they said we wouldn't know before the second week of March (Hello, second week of March. You're making me anxious...).
Glad to know I'm in good company.
@UNH
My status also says "under review by department." They, according to the secretary, made final decisions in a meeting that took place at 9am today.
To other UNH applicants: Fiction or poetry?
@Andrew Sottile
Fiction. You?
To the UNH peeps,
My status also says "under review".
Good luck today!
@koru and @mattsumpter
Thanks for weighing in. I actually feel like it's really inappropriate and icky for me to say anything that might influence anybody's decision, which is why I deleted the other post. I also think that I wouldn't pass up the opportunity, and would just take precautions. It's difficult to comment on this in this situation. Good luck to both of you guys!
Fiction
@UNH
Applied in poetry.
Do we think they'll notify today b/c they made their final decisions or are we assuming they'll drag it out until end of week? :P
GL to all!
@Mathilda,
Thanks for the UNT update! I was wondering what was up with them! ... they reported A LOT earlier last year! at least i know not to obsessively check my online status, lol!
@Matt, I'm waiting on two of those schools as well (Arkansas and Houston). I'm free from work that weekend; we're closed that week at work and Monday, with it being easter weekend they're having the OSU open house. So though my family is annoyed I won't be with them ... I'll be in Columbus. I suppose I ought to send the sheet in at some point. :-/
@Chelsea
They better do it today! I'm sick of all this waiting.
@Nathaniel
I truly could not agree more, haha.
@Antalya,
I don't think it's inappropriate to post that apartment breakins, armed robberies of students and rape's a problem in an area.
Honestly, that DOES influence my decision, and I don't think that's a bad thing. If I'm going to be at a school for two or three years, I want to know what I'm getting into, rather than feeling a prisoner in my apartment once I go somewhere. We all have different comfort levels with all sorts of different things: cost of living, crime, homophobia, weather, geography, etc.
It's not easy making these decisions. But knowing as much as we can, and deciding what actually matters ... always good.
Have any of you Indiana fiction waitlisters heard anything? We know Cratty's spot is out there, but I haven't heard a peep. If one of you gets in off the waitlist, please let me know so that I can try to tone my high hopes down to reality.
I just had an additional comment on the discussion with Laurie Lynn from Oregon yesterday (and thanks again to her for posting here! I wish more admissions boards would do that):
She advised that we personalize our SoPs more for each school, talking about how we feel we might connect with the various faculty members' writing styles. But when I was trying to do that, I had a really hard time even finding stories by a lot of the faculty writers, even ones at the more prestigious schools. The school library here doesn't stock many lit mags, so it can be really difficult to track things like that down.
And while websites like Fivechapters do have some stories, it's not like torrents of short story collections are all over piratesbay (or maybe that's a good thing?). There are lots of writers who may have a short story collection or two, but with such small print runs that they're basically inaccessible to most of us applicants.
Also, Tom Kealey advised against addressing specific faculty members, which was probably the deciding factor in my case. But once you've ruled that out, it's really difficult to personalize for a school aside from "I really like your school".
@Danielle - It's really strange that we haven't been bombarded with mail from the university. All I've received is the acceptance letter. I looked on craigslist for apartments and, good lord, those places look like what you'd expect to find in BFE. Total dumps, and the landlords want like $1000/mo! Are they crazy? I'm going up there in April to look and hopefully lock in a place early, because I don't want to get stuck in some carpeted, Formica-countered monstrosity.
@ Nathaniel - I'm not sure if this is helpful for you or not, but when writing my SOP I talked about the school's program and alumni. For instance, I mentioned if I was excited to take lit classes or electives (depending on the course requirements). I tried to tie this into what I wanted to study in my own writing, such as the melding of history and reality, for example.
If I'd read (and liked) the work of writers who'd gone through the program I mentioned that, too - I did that for almost every school.
I know that's not a formula, but I thought it might be helpful to say there are definitely ways to personalize an SOP to each school without talking about faculty.
@UNH people
I applied nonfiction, also my status has always been "under review.."
@Hollins people, getting super anxious to hear (cnf)...their program looks awesome
@peaquah
Those are several good ideas! This is perhaps one of the many reasons you got into Michigan and I didn't...
:) Thanks!
@Anti and others moving to NYC
I'm in Brooklyn now. I've got a studio in Fort Greene. Absolutely love the neighborhood! But if I'm going to be attending The New School, I should probably consider jumping into a share with someone myself. Conveniently my lease lapses in August.
If anyone wants to keep in touch about housing in Brooklyn, or ask me any questions, hit me at jason ed collins at hotmail dot com. Cheers.
Does anyone know much about the Houston MFA program?
Got a nice (but entirely unofficial) email today, which was the very first piece of personalized news I've received from any program. :P
Anyway, I applied based primarily on the faculty strength but realize I do not know a great deal about the program itself.
Thanks in advance.
And good luck to everyone!
@ frankish
Houston GNE? oh my, you have me panicking... can i ask what genre you're in?
@ frankish, re: Houston
all I really know is that the faculty looks pretty great and I remember reading enthusiastic student accounts of the program (always a good sign). the PhD program seems pretty well-regarded, and now their funding is absolutely stellar (second only to UT Austin, I believe)...
basically, congrats, and best of luck if you go there!
@ Phillywriter, I hear you, and I'll let you know if I hear anything. And yes, we should probably go all Karl Rove on Bloomington so people run screaming from the chance to go to IU. But I guess the first step of that plan would be to not announce it to the message board? Damn. I was never a good evil villian.
@whynot - I applied for fiction. The GNE was far from an acceptance, just a faculty member sending a note to say he liked the writing sample. They haven't yet made decisions.
But it got me thinking about the program in more concrete terms. :P
Cheers!
re: UNH
I applied for CNF too. Good luck all.
@frankish
I guess the tendency with GNE's (for me, at least), is to assume the best... but take that with a grain of salt, if you wish.
Either way, Houston's program is worth serious consideration. I've seen mixed reviews of the city on this board, but I've heard it's a great place to live, from real live people and the internets. Regarding the latter- http://www.kiplinger.com/features/archives/2008/05/2008-best-city-houston.html
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