GRAD STUFF UPDATE

[kleenexwoman]

Since my Non-Western Lit class got canceled again today, I have been taking the time to look at grad programs.

WMU actually looks good, although half of their web pages are down, so I can't find much about funding or assistantships. Columbia in NY does too, but the application fee is twice that of most of the other schools (and I can't find anything about funding on their site either; pages aren't down, just no links). Sarah Lawrence looks fantastic, but...no funding? D: Columbia in Chicago has a two-year MFA in poetry but apparently not in fiction, but they do have a tuition waiver for the first year and possible grad student teaching positions. Indiana looks really amazing, but they only admit twelve students per year, holycrap. Art Institute of Chicago has an MFA in "Writing," which looks like it's largely focused on creative writing; Prof. Blake said that one of the girls I went to Poetry Collective with is going there and loves it, so there's that.

I'm looking at this thing right now; it's a NEOMFA, a program that's shared among four universities, all of which are less than an hour away from each other. Scheduling and driving seems like it would be a pain, but it'd mean being able to be in Kent with Seth, and it looks like a good program.

I need to get my shit together for actual graduation, too. Sigh.

Comments

[dormant-shadow.livejournal.com]

Twelve students is actually average as far as acceptances go. MFA programs are absurdly competitive. Here at the University of Colorado, only ten of us got in this year. . . and there were over four hundred applicants.

[josephwaldman.livejournal.com]

Ooh. What kind of cool clothes are you gonna wear under your graduation gown? I was kind of boring and wore a suit (actually, I didn't have a choice there, because the gown was way too short in the arms and legs and I didn't bother trying it on and finding this out until the morning of the ceremony), but I made a point to wear my grandfather Waldman's cufflinks. He wasn't able to finish college because it was in the middle of the Depression and also because he had a recurrence of rheumatic fever, but he was mightily proud to see me off to OWU on a good history scholarship before he died midway through my freshman year. I was extremely close to the man and it really made things rough for a little while there, but I made it through, and I did it for him.

[kleenexwoman.livejournal.com]

Most likely whatever's clean and isn't a T-shirt and still fits, and maybe some nice jewelry. Most of the articles of clothing I own that have any sentimental value, including jewelry, are at home for safekeeping. It doesn't really matter to me, since nobody will see what's under the gown until we go out for dinner or whatever, and I'm mostly concerned about being comfortable, because it will be a long time to sit.

[josephwaldman.livejournal.com]

I seriously considered doing a Harpo Marx/flasher bit but realized I'd already aided and abetted a streaker at our Mock Convention two years prior. As I walked 'cross stage, I raised my left hand in the Churchillian V-for-victory sign (palm inward); then, as I descended the steps, lowered my index finger. Quite an angry young man, I was.

:) Reciprocity

[sighing-echo.livejournal.com]

If you email me so I have your address I will attach my annoying and time consumingly sought out word files on various graduate schools in an email to you.