Want to get into a creative writing MFA program? Besides polishing up your best work, you need to master in a very particular genre--the graduate school application essay.
Luckily, the Creative Writing MFA Blog has some crucial intelligence on the subject lurking in the comments section. I've dug out a few of my favorites. Here, a person accepted at Columbia University offers some advice:
"I would think they'd rather hear an applicant speaking in a fresh way about a more mainstream book than write something vague and uninteresting about a book that they've never heard of ... 1000 words come easily and well when you have something to say."
And here, Columbia MFA student Lincoln Michel reminds the applicant to pay attention to the kinds of classes offered at his school--another key to crafting a better essay: "Unlike some other programs that only ask you to take a handful of classes, Columbia requires more seminars and craft classes so maybe wants to look closer at how students can contribute to them."
Welcome to Dueling Comments, where I print my favorite comments that I've spotted in publishing blogs. There are some smart people lurking in comment sections, so I scrounge around the Internets to find the crazy, the useful, and the crazy-useful wisdom that they leave behind.
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