Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Know Your Rights: Council of Graduate Schools Resolution

In his email to me, informing me of my acceptance at the University of Florida, Padget Powell sent the following link which I'd like to share with all of you here. There has been quite a bit of talk here and there about some programs pressuring applicants to accept an offer before hearing back from other programs. In light of such behavior, I present the "Resolution Regarding Graduate Scholars, Fellows, Trainees and Assistants" from the Council of Graduate Schools.

http://www.cgsnet.org/portals/0/pdf/CGSResolutionDec2008.pdf


Any school whose name appears on this list has pledged to allow their applicants adequate time to assess each of offers of financial aid and make an informed choice that they are comfortable with, sans the pressure. Naturally all MFA programs want decisions from their applicants as soon as possible because they want their top choice candidates, and because it will allow them to begin going through their waitlists, which may include students who have been accepted elsewhere but may still desire to go to their program. I don't post this to single any one particular program, I just think it is important for those of us who have applied to a number of schools to know what our rights are and what rules these schools should be abiding by.

Good luck to everyone as this excruciating period of uncertainty continues to unfold!

9 comments:

Jimmy Elens said...

Great link!

I've only been accepted to UCF so far and they're offering a fellowship but they've been very nice and informative in letting me know there's no rush for a decision. I too have heard stories about some programs pressuring people for early decisions and it's good to know that the vast majority of schools cannot, in fact, do this.

Thanks for the post and congrats on UF!

zt said...

I have a question about this. Does the resolution cover offers without financial aid? Because it seems to me that what schools do to get around the resolution is offer admittance without financial aid, saying that the assistantship/fellowship/funding will be decided on later, and yeah, you'll probably get funded. Still, this puts pressure on the applicant to accept the initial offer of acceptance, with a sort of promised but unofficial funding package to come at a later date. So the student is not really covered by the resolution on financial aid. Thoughts on this?

DisplayedName said...

Cough, Hunter College, cough

Jonathan as I was told said...

This question is unrelated. Does anyone know which schools have PhD Programs in Creative Writing?

Ani said...

Here's a list of the Phd Programs in Creative Writing:

http://guide.awpwriter.org/search_result.php?GradDegrOffer=PhD+in+Creative+Writing&Inst=&state=All&ProgramType=All

and if the link doesn't work, then go to www dot awpwriter dot com,

click on: Looking for a Writing Program box, select your criterias in the Graduate Program Search, and voila, you'll see the list.

Hope this helps! There are not that many Universities that offer the program and I wish there were more options in the Northeast.

zt said...

Related to this topic, everyone who has to make a decision on a school in the next week or so, but hasn't heard from anybody else, what are you going to do? Accept and then withdraw later, reject outright? Any thoughts, suggestions?

Unknown said...

I've just been accepted to Bennington, and they want a decision by next week... While it was one of my top choices, I haven't heard back from half the schools I applied to yet, and I was unexpectedly accepted to Columbia and have arranged a visit to check it out and speak with the faculty in two weeks. Can they really only give me a week to decide?

Kim said...

I just got into the MA program at Binghamton. I have also decided to get the creative writing concentration. Does anyone know anything about this program? ANY information is helpful!
thanks

Unknown said...

Fristly i wanna say thank to you for posting the link. There is a list that includes CGS member institutions that indicated their support of the Resolution which is really help us. Thanks once again.

------
Praxis 2