This is the fourth and final post in a four-part series on applying for an MFA. See part 1 here, part 2 here, and part 3 here.

IV. RELAX YOUR BODY, REFRESH YOUR MIND

At this point in this series, I should mention something that you won’t want to say out loud: you might not get into some of the schools you apply to. Hell, you might not get into any schools you apply to. And that’s ok. If getting an MFA feels right to you, then you’ll apply again. Use the extra time you’ve been given to make your portfolio even better, get more life experience and use that to say to schools, “Look! I’m dedicated, passionate, and positive! I will do wonderful things in your program!”

Throughout the whole application process, from the moment you decide to apply, to the moment the last acceptance (or rejection) letter arrives in your mailbox, keep reading and keep writing. Do this apart from your work on applications and your portfolio. Keep writing because it’s the only way to remember why you want to keep writing.

Here’s what I mean: For awhile while I was applying, I didn’t read a whole lot, and I wrote even less. I mean, there was a ten-day blank in my notebook—I didn’t even write down the weather. Then, after those long days of feeling totally discouraged, I said, screw it and set aside all my application materials, and considered telling my letter of recommendation writers that I wasn’t applying. I was done. I spent the evening reading and feeling relieved. I devoured everything I read. I sat next to my bookshelf pulling collections of essays and poetry and reading at random. I read the latest issue of the New Yorker and fell asleep reading A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin. The next morning I felt invigorated and excited, so I wrote a poem and two more drafts of my personal statement. I had inadvertently reminded myself why I was applying in the first place.

You’re applying to get an MFA in writing, so make sure to remind yourself why you’re doing it. You wrote about why you’re doing it in your statement of purpose, but sometimes you can lose sight of those things, and some of the small things that make you want to be a writer. Keep reading new things and letting yourself be inspired by them. Keep writing new things. It’s easy to spend a few months revising your portfolio, and then simply not write a thing while you wait to go to school. Remember, though: you’re doing this for you not because anyone wants you to, and especially not for the sake of the program. In the end, an MFA program should serve you, not the other way around. Keep writing, keep reading.

And to those of you applying to MFA programs, I wish you a hearty good luck! It ain’t easy, but it sure is rewarding.

This is the final part of this series of advice, but I’m sure I’ve missed a few things. Feel free to leave comments on any of these posts with your own stories and advice. If you’re still feeling lost, you can email me at timothy[at]hazelandwren[dot]com and I’d be glad to share some encouragement. Better yet, contact someone at a program you want to attend and ask their advice.

This is the third post in a four-part series on applying for an MFA. See part 1 here and part 2 here.

III. THE REST OF THE APPLICATION

If you’re applying for an MFA, you probably have some well thought out reasons for doing so. If you don’t, writing your personal statement is the time to stop, reevaluate, and articulate why you want to further your education. If you can’t articulate why, beyond “I just want to write!” then you might not be ready. You can write successfully without getting an MFA (and many wonderful writers have), but an MFA will help you with other aspects of your writing life, beyond simply writing poems or stories.

In thinking about getting an MFA, I read many blogs and articles about why I shouldn’t get an MFA, and many of them were very convincing. Ultimately, I decided that there are certain paths I’m interested in taking that are much easier to pursue with an MFA. I used these goals as the framework for my statement of purpose, and illuminated those goals with past experiences that led me to articulate those goals. This isn’t your undergraduate application essay, however, and the readers aren’t interested in reading about your trip abroad. Write about personal experiences that changed your writing process, and how getting an MFA will continue to help you grow as a writer based on those experiences.

Your portfolio is the main thing that professors will consider when deciding whether to accept you into their program, but your statement of purpose will give them a better understanding of you as a person. Without a solid statement of purpose, your portfolio is just a collection of good writing. Here are some questions to consider as you write your statement (but keep in mind, these questions were what helped me; you may find other ways to approach laying out your statement of purpose):

• What are you interested in exploring with your writing?
• What are you interested in pushing against?
• What experiences do you have that influence your writing?
• What is surprising about your process that might interest others?
• What questions will you be asking of your work and process while pursuing a degree?
• Are you interested in teaching in the future? Why, and how will an MFA help you?

Think of your statement as a chance to introduce yourself to the readers. You can describe what brought you to where you are, why you’re choosing their program out of every other program out there, and what you plan to do once you’re there. This is your chance to stand out from all of the other applicants as a person, not just a portfolio.

Here’s a tip about applying for an MFA: organize. Beyond your statement of purpose and your portfolio, there are a million other things to think about, including transcripts, application fees, letters of recommendation, and, in some cases, GRE scores. Each program you apply to is going to be affiliated with a university, and each program and university is going to have different requirements. Find out what’s required for each program you’re applying to, and write it down on an easily readable sheet. For me, having a ton of checklists allowed me to focus on one task at a time. This is Time Management 101, but it really helped me when I started feeling too overwhelmed. All I had to do was glance at my checklists to know what needed to be done next.

In the introduction to this series I advised starting the process a full year before actually applying, and the above list of additional requirements is exactly why I suggest that. It can take a few weeks for transcripts to be sent from your undergrad, and then you have to follow up and make sure they’ve arrived. All of this stuff takes a lot of time, energy, and planning, so the sooner you can begin organizing the pieces, the easier it will be to drop them into place.

Next week—the last part in this series—is about the intangible things you’ll encounter in applying: being overwhelmed and worried, and reminding yourself WHY you’re applying. Right now, share some organization tips, and share some tricks about writing a great personal statement!

This is the first post in a four-part series on applying for an MFA.

INTRODUCTION

It should be noted that everything in this series is advice I would give to myself if I could go back in time to fall 2009 when I first began seriously considering pursuing an MFA in Poetry. I might be off the mark on some things, but that’s why there’s a comments section. Everything in here are things I would have found helpful when I was applying. My only hope is that someone else finds them helpful, too.

Right. So. You want to apply for an MFA in creative writing. Great! It’s not as easy as it sounds, and you’ll probably feel wholly inadequate for some/much of the time you’re applying. Awesome! With any luck, you’ll look back at the application process as a positive learning experience that will prepare you to actually enter an MFA program. A feeling of inadequacy stopped me from applying twice before I actually managed to pull it off.

I want to say this right off the bat: applying for an MFA takes a lot more time than you think. Give yourself at least a year to get everything done. One of the biggest mistakes I made when I applied was waiting too long to begin. You’ll need a few months to research programs and draw up a list of schools you’d like to apply to, even more time to make sure your portfolio is up to snuff, and you’ll want to give enough time to the kind people who will write letters of recommendation on your behalf.

Consider this: most applications are due between December and February. Giving yourself a year to get ready to apply means you’ll want to start researching in the fall. From that point, it’ll be two years before you actually begin an MFA program. Starting now and assuming you don’t apply this coming fall means you’ll enter a program in the fall of 2014. It seems like a long way off, but an MFA is a huge step, so making sure you’re prepared is what the next 24 months are all about.

So where do you begin?

I. PORTFOLIO

First things first: do you have a portfolio? How much writing would you actually be willing to share with people? When it comes right down to it, your writing sample is what will make or break your application, so unless you have a significant chunk of work you feel shows who you are as a writer, don’t bother looking at schools. Let me say that again: your portfolio is the most important part of your application. Start writing and revising, take a class or two, join a workshop, anything to bolster your portfolio. Of the programs I applied to, the bare minimum I needed was 6 poems, though most asked for 10-20 pages. It’s best to have more than enough (I aimed for about 30 pages) so you can select poems that might appeal to the sensibilities of those reading. Yes, you’re playing to the judge, but that’s the point: you want them to like your work, otherwise you wouldn’t be applying.

Playing to the judge will also help determine what programs you’ll apply to. If your portfolio leans toward the experimental then you probably won’t have too much luck getting into programs that are taught by and produce more conventional writers. That doesn’t mean you should try to write conventional poems if writing surreal prose poems is what you really want to be writing. Just be yourself and find programs that want to support writers like you.

But you won’t know what programs to begin looking at until you have something written. Seriously. Get to work. Go write something right now. Revise it, and put it away, then write another. Revise that one and put it with the first. Do this process again. Repeat as needed. Write a bunch of poems or stories. Then ask people to read them and give feedback. Ask specific questions about what you’re looking for. Here at Hazel & Wren there’s even a monthly Open Mic where you can receive feedback from others (a number of poems in my portfolio were first read in these Open Mics). Then use that feedback. Revise everything again and again until you have a body of work that you feel represents the best writing you can produce right now.

I’ve learned that I often don’t know my own work as well as I think I do. Just when I thought I was ready to submit my applications, I met with my writing professor from college. Over the course of two hours, we picked apart my portfolio and wrote down questions and things to think about and work on. Then I went home and spent another week reassembling my body of work. In the end, my portfolio was much stronger than it had been and I felt much more confident about my application.

So you’re applying for an MFA. That’s great! Before you go any further, take another look at your portfolio. And remember, the next Open Mic is on June 13th.

Check back next week for advice on finding a program. In the meantime, share your tips and questions about revising and compiling a portfolio!

Part Two