Saturday, April 01, 2006

No GREs or References?

Dumb and Referenceless in Denver writes:

I'm wondering if you know of or could recommend programs which don't require a GRE or written recommendations to be sent as part of an application package.

I've just found out about the book and plan on ordering it. It's not easy to find resources for navigating the academic industrial complex.

DRD, you're not going to find a program that will accept you without references. And there are a few that don't take GREs, but not many.

Look, I'm going to be the hard-ass here: Take the damn GRE. Get your damn references. C'mon, if you can spell academic industrial complex, then you can do well enough on the GRE to qualify for an MFA.

As far as references go: if you don't have anyone who can comment on your writing, don't worry it too much. Go with who you've got, even if they are simply character references. Everyone has three people who can write and say "This person is a hard worker and is not a serial murderer." Unless of course you aren't the first. Or are the second. And if you are the second, I apologize for being a hard-ass in this post.

Just do them, DRD. They sound more difficult than they are. Best of luck to you.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I worry about this, too..I think I blew my fiction reference by taking my prof's advice to heart ("Always feel free to stop by at office hours with questions!"). What a mistake! Now the lady ducks by me in the hall, afraid I might delay her own writing with another question. Other profs might give an honest answer--"He'll neglect everything except what he cares about, which is fiction."

Dunno if that's good enough. Why, why can't they just go by the manuscript?