News and Notes

Seth has debuted another lengthy and thought-provoking article on his The Suburban Ecstasies, which can be accessed here: "The Best and Worst of 2008-9 Application Season." Not really a strict "best" or "worst" list, Seth's article is more a rumination on what MFA programs he thinks are headed up or down and everything in between. Really interesting stuff, but I think it's important to keep in mind that these are but one person's opinions, and as knowledgeable as Seth is on the subject of MFA programs, it would be unreasonable to expect him to wield expertise on all 300+ programs in the country, and similarly, to rely on his words alone as gospel. Nothing can replace meaningful individual research of a program.

In other news, I checked up on my Ohio State application status online, and found that I was rejected. Word on the MFA Blog is that nearly everyone's application has been updated, so check it out if you haven't heard from OSU yet. Annoyingly, I had to click on about three different buttons just to get to this view just to get the following message: "Your application for admission was not approved." Weaksauce. I was under no illusions that at this point in the game an OSU acceptance or waitlist was even possible, but a nicely worded rejection this is not. Here's hoping that the actual letter is a little more tactful.

The Dreaded Visit

I've finally managed to find a clearing in my work schedule, and have set up a visit to the University of Illinois campus this weekend, March 29-30. I say "the dreaded visit" in the title of this post not because I don't want to visit, but because I have an almost allergic aversion to meeting new people, much less meeting new people that I inexplicably feel like I need to impress. Which makes no sense. Their aim is to impress me, not the other way around, right? Chalk it up to my neurotic personality.

At any rate, the application calendar season, while almost over with just three weeks left until April 15, is far from definitively finished for many applicants. Scanning the usual MFA resources (MFA Blog, the Speakeasy, TSE), it's clear that there are still countless individuals waiting to hear from half, sometimes nearly all their prospective schools. It strikes me as almost crazy that some people, through no fault of their own, have yet to hear from the majority of their schools with just three weeks to go. Uprooting your entire life and potentially moving halfway across the country in just four months is no small feat for any person. Throw in a girlfriend/boyfriend/significant other/wife/husband/children, then you've got a whole world of things to do, to prepare for, to worry about, never mind the whole process of actually considering offers between different schools and the hundreds of variables that can come out of that. Stress wrapped in a handbasket to say the least, and I haven't even mentioned wait lists. My heart goes out to all those who are still currently sitting on their hands, waiting for the phone to ring or the inbox to fill up. My advice? Call or email the program. We're sitting at three weeks from the April 15 deadline, and something (rude response or otherwise) is better than sitting in limbo.

Rejection #6

My Johns Hopkins rejection finally arrived yesterday in the mail. A nice, personalized letter with my full name printed on it, as well as (as far as I can tell) a signature by the Chairman in real ink. It may sound silly, but I found it a nice touch in what is often a very impersonal process. That leaves three schools (counting Purdue) I'm waiting to hear final word from. Then I can get down to the business of choosing the program where I'll spend the next two to three years of my life.

Tuesday Review

A rejection on Monday, via mail. The culprit: Syracuse. Not a big surprise, like the other rejections. This one is less painful than most of the others, as I'd been just waiting for the letter at this point, and the idea of picking up and moving all the way to the state of New York was a little unrealistic. It's good to know for sure, however.

Also an acceptance today, via phone call, from Roosevelt University at Chicago, which I unfortunately had to turn down.

At any rate, this past week and a half has been a doozy, by far the busiest in terms of rejection and acceptance news. It is interesting how in the course of five weeks (from the beginning of February to the first week of March) I got four responses, and in the last week and a half, I got six more. I guess this time of year is the real active part of the season. The revised list:

University of Illinois - accepted
Western Michigan University - accepted
Roosevelt University (Chicago) - accepted
Purdue University - waitlisted *
University of Notre Dame - waitlisted
University of Michigan - rejected
Washington University - rejected
University of Iowa - rejected
Indiana University - rejected
Syracuse University - rejected

* Purdue's selection process relies on a system where the top 15-20 candidates for poetry and fiction each are selected. Out of these candidates, the final slots are eventually filled with permission from the Director of Composition, who has final say. This selection process works as a kind of quasi-waitlist. Details of Purdue's process can be found here.


No news:

Ohio State University
Johns Hopkins
Columbia College (Chicago)

Waitlist #2

My prayers to the gods of Acceptance and Rejection Letters last night must've been heard, because I received some nice news today in the mail. A waitlist letter from the University of Notre Dame. Very exciting.

Realistically speaking, I am about 95% sure I won't be able to go to Notre Dame, even if an offer opens up. Based on what I know about Notre Dame, they offer full tuition waivers for all their students (which is extremely nice), but only two funded TA positions. Chances are, any slot that becomes available will be one that provides no extra funding assistance (it stands to reason that the individuals who receive the TA positions are the ones least likely to turn down their offer), which makes Notre Dame a difficult call in comparison to my other offers. And it's definitely a shame, since Notre Dame is such a highly regarded program, with a wicked faculty. But my decision, once I make it, will open up the waitlist line a little bit for others, so keep hope alive!

A Rejection and an Acceptance

Received rejection number four today, from Indiana University. A long time coming, really, and I can't say I'm terribly surprised. For a while, though, I was holding out hope that I was perhaps waitlisted, due to lack of response. Add to the fact that I've always held a special place in my heart for Indiana's focus on diversity in their MFA program makes the outcome a little disappointing, personally speaking. As a writer and a minority, I've always tried to make it a point to immerse myself in an environment that fosters diversity in not only skin color, but culture, voice, and experience. I have no doubt I'll be able to find this in whatever program and school I go to, but I'd be lying if I said this rejection didn't sting just a little.

My acceptance came via email from Western Michigan University. I'm pretty excited with the acceptance, with WMU possessing a fine program with a great faculty. Unfortunately, the offer is unfunded (I had been expecting there to be partial funding, based on my research of previous years), and based on a post with another Western Michigan acceptee (to the PhD program), it seems as if WMU does not have as much funding to provide their students this year as they have in previous years. This, of course, is complete hearsey on my part, so take it with a grain of salt. At any rate, a completely unfunded offer -- however prestigious the program -- is a tough pill to swallow, especially in comparison to the other offers I have on the table.

News and Notes

On the MFA Blog a day ago, a poster informed that all the Syracuse acceptance offers have gone out (whether by mail or phonecall is unclear), and there is a waitlist of ten. The poster is on the waitlist and received notification by mail, so it appears that at least the waitlisters will get letters. I've also read a couple of posts of people receiving rejection letters from Syracuse already, so I'm assuming that everyone will receive letters of confirmation or rejection either way in a week or so.

A bit of good news for me. I received an email the other night from the director of Purdue's MFA program informing me that I was still in contention for their program, and asking that I sit tight. It was a very kind email, and very encouraging. In light of what I know about how Purdue selects their candidates (taken from the MFA Faculty Forum I), and in light of my current status, I feel fairly confident in assuming that I've been waitlisted by Purdue, regardless of what happens. At any rate, I'm trying as hard as I can not to count my chickens before all my eggs have hatched. I'm on a prospective list of up to twenty other fiction writers, all contending for about two remaining fiction slots. It's not exactly great odds, especially assuming the greatly elevated level of competition. All I can do at this point is cross my fingers.

** UPDATE **

A vigilant poster on TSE contacted Notre Dame and revealed that "letters (and all MFA-related activity) is running at least two weeks behind schedule." Ack. Someone did indeed post an acceptance on TSE on Monday to Notre Dame by phone call. I'm going to hedge and hypothesize that it is one of those "early" acceptances where the school notifies their top candidate(s) with their best funding package. At any rate, it looks like we're going to be at least a week or two waiting for any further word (acceptances, waitlists, rejections) from Notre Dame. Sit tight.

Update

A small bit of news. A generous poster on the Speakeasy Forums notified that he/she had been accepted into Notre Dame's MFA program for fiction by phone call yesterday afternoon. No word on whether all acceptances will be contacted by phone call or not; however, this person did say that the official acceptances will be arriving by mail next week. Since Notre Dame's program is small (5 fiction, 5 poetry), I'd expect them to be able to call all their prospects in the next few days, though this is just speculation on my part.

Like most people at this point, I have but a handful of actual rejections, and probably a half dozen or so implied rejections running around on my list. What to do? I'd prefer to give the University of Illinois an answer on their generous offer sooner rather than later, which is predicated on a handful of schools that I'd seriously consider offers from (in comparison to U of I's program, location, and outstanding funding) -- schools such as Purdue, Notre Dame, and Indiana University. The lack of a rejection letter keeps me in a sort of decision limbo. So as much as I hate it, I have resolved to contact the schools that I at least know have sent out acceptance and rejection letters to some of their students already (Purdue) by the end of the week. While I'd rather not bother anyone and remain comfortably anonymous through the whole process, the allure of knowing rather than just fantasizing about being on some phantom waitlist -- or worse, accepted, I just don't know yet, which is another level of delusion -- is too powerful. I need the rejection in hard writing. End of story. Move on to school number two.

I know there are many others out there who are in the same situation of "limbo rejection." How are you dealing with it? Any plans on contacting schools, coping with it?

What's on tap? (Part 2)

Coming up this weekend and next week:

Rejection letters from Johns Hopkins, expected by early next week, if not tomorrow. Rejection letters from Syracuse, too. Supposedly, the rumor on The Suburban Ecstasies is that the faculty at Notre Dame are finalizing their acceptances this week, and will start to notify next week. I know, I said the same thing last week, sorry! That's the problem with rumors. The big question, though: where the heck is my Purdue rejection letter?

Link of the week:

Wordle -- A glorified word counting utility, really, but it's actually pretty cool. Enter your story (or poem) into the application, press "Go," and watch your words populate into a word cloud. The most frequent words will appear in larger font, all the way down to the less (proportionally) frequent words. This site's also pretty interesting in determining what words you may rely on too much. I placed one of my application stories in it and got "like" as the most frequent word. Apparently I rely a lot on similes. That, or my main character talks like a valley girl.

Rejection #3

Iowa rejection is number three, via mail. The letter itself is short and sweet, fifty words at most. Interesting bit of information: "This year, eight hundred forty-two people applied for twenty-five spaces." That's for fiction, which is a 3% acceptance rate. Yikes. There's also been rumblings about how the school has had to make financial cuts this year due to the economy and flood damages, and how some of the funding money that would've normally been there in previous years (at least for the first year students) isn't there this year. While an acceptance would've been nice, I have to wonder how hard of a decision it would've been to get an acceptance from the top writing school in the country, but with no financial support at all. Silver lining, but I'm glad I don't have to make that choice.

Rejection #2

The Michigan rejection came in the mail today, and like the Washington University rejection, this one is very kind, very gracious. A snippet: "Please know that our decision is meant to negate neither your talent nor your prospects -- it is simply our collective judgment that others have first claim on our attention at present... We wish you every success in pursuing further study." I know a rejection by any other name is still a rejection, but I am nonetheless incredibly grateful for the supportive and kind words, even if they are in stock letter form.

Also interesting, the letter quoted that "this was among the most impressive group of applicants in the program's history, and also the most numerous," accepting fewer than "5% of our applicants." I'm sure they say that every year is among their "most impressive group of applicants," but in terms of pure numbers, I had heard that Michigan had received more than 700 applications this year, which, of course, goes hand in hand with plummeting acceptance rates. With application numbers being quoted as being up across the board anywhere from 50-100%, it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone how competitive this year is and will continue to be in comparison to years past.

At any rate, it's good to finally know about Michigan. That brings my batting average to one out of three, which I fully expect to get much worse in the coming days:

University of Illinois - accepted
University of Michigan - rejected
Washington University - rejected


Schools that I expect rejections from, based on news/already notified acceptances/general pessimism:

University of Iowa
Ohio State University
Indiana University
Purdue University
John Hopkins


And the rest (schools that have had little to no acceptance news as of yet):

University of Notre Dame
Syracuse University
Western Michigan University
Columbia College (Chicago)
Roosevelt University (Chicago)