0a/1w/0r/5p

Thought I was going to be rejected, so this is a nice surprise!

First gen, queer Afro Latina and non traditional student who dropped out in 2015 but completed BA in English with 3.98 GPA in December 2025. I have 6 published stories, a full manuscript, and have one first prize literary award in Fiction.

Received an email saying that an update was posted to my graduate portal, clicked the provided link to get back to the portal and there was a popup that took me to the rejection letter. At least they used my name instead of "dear applicant" I suppose :/

“Dear Student,” like god forbid you learn how to send an automated email with someone’s name on it..

Dear Student: The Creative Writing MFA Program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has now completed its graduate admissions deliberations, and I am indeed sorry to report that we will not be able to offer you admission for the 2026-2027 academic year. This decision should not be taken as a sign that our readers did not enjoy reading your work or that you would not thrive in study at the graduate level. We receive many applications, and with an incoming class of only three poets and three fiction writers, we must make difficult decisions. We hope that you will be able to pursue your goals for advanced study in another context, and we wish you the very best success in your creative-writing endeavors. Many thanks for your interest in our program.

Moved on to second round

4th year applying, this was a big shock