Comments on Ink and Beans: Rejection Road: First MFA Responses

Thanks for writing Mike. Sorry to hear you're ...

2010-03-15T14:57:20.772-04:00

Thanks for writing Mike. Sorry to hear you're in such a tight spot. Bad enough to endure the sting of rejection without these other pressures mounting. I'll be hoping that one of your remaining four turns to gold. Do let me know if you think of it.

And yeah, while I would like to think an increase in application numbers has a lot to do with my lack of success, I came to the same conclusion that the additional, recession-induced applications probably don't represent top tier candidates. Thus, they merely add to the total number of applications and not necessarily to the level of competition.

Hi. Sorry to see you are going through this. I a...

2010-03-12T21:42:51.123-05:00

Hi. Sorry to see you are going through this. I am in pretty much the same boat. I really had no idea how competitive this would be. But one of my recommenders basically acted as if
I was definitely going to get into my top choice (Michigan). Well, I have been rejected by Michigan. And Wisconsin. And Syracuse. And, today, Cornell. I have given up hope four my last 4--Va Tech, Fla, LSU, and Indiana. Worse, I had a great plan B that just fell through the other day. And unemployment runs out in June.

BTW--I read somewher that the economy DId inspire a lot more applications. My attitude, though, was: how good could these other-wise not-focused on an MFA people be?

The way I am trying to cheer myself up is to read blogs of those who have received their MFAs and are still as lost as we are. Which seems not nice, of course, but reminds me that the MFA might not have been the answer anyway.

Good luck,
Mike in Brooklyn

Waiting for things you want is tortuous. Examples:...

2010-03-04T15:52:09.778-05:00

Waiting for things you want is tortuous. Examples:

-waiting for parents to wake up on Christmas morning
-waiting forty minutes for a rhubarb pie to bake and cool
-waiting in line for the Crazy Swings Ride at the Annual Montgomery County Greek "Opa!" Festival.

Yet, in the past week I have learned that waiting for things you DON'T want (e.g. "assumed" rejection letters") is far, far worse.

-Amanda

Thanks Spurkalurk, my brother (sister?) in arms. ...

2010-03-01T21:18:15.791-05:00

Thanks Spurkalurk, my brother (sister?) in arms. I got my official UMass rejection today too, though I saw a few days ago that my status online was "denied."

That's three official rejections, two presumed, and four pending: Brown, UC-Irvine, Florida and Virginia. Best of luck to us both, eh?

hey there, i've been following your posts a bi...

2010-03-01T21:05:08.185-05:00

hey there,
i've been following your posts a bit. i applied to similar schools (fiction), and got my first rejection today (UMass)...then i read the comments on the MFA blog (http://driftless-house.blogspot.com/2010/02/2010-cw-mamfaphd-application-responses.html) and saw that most acceptances for the schools i applied to have been received by now. looking pretty grim.

maybe you didn't get the letter from UMass (mailed Feb 26th) and you got a more inviting phone call. i hope that's the case! and though i don't know you i wish you the best with the rest of your schools; i'll be checking back to see the final results :)

O no! Don't be discouraged...even if you don&...

2010-02-23T23:00:55.941-05:00

O no! Don't be discouraged...even if you don't get into any of your top grad school choices, you've already written a wonderful novel (well, from what I've seen of it anyway). And THAT's what makes you a writer!