Catching Up

I did not send my application out well in advance to Bennington. However, I did call Lesley, and learned that they liked my work. Both departments to which I applied, poetry and non-fiction, were actually, apparently, from what they said at least, excited about my work. (Excited!) And so the decision was made that we would begin the B.A. Waiver process.

The way it works, I learned, is that, although I would work in both disciplines (that being poetry and non-fiction) I would have a declared focus. My B.A. Waiver would concentrate on that focus. I believed my focus should be non-fiction, as I felt less confident in that area, in spite of the fact that every writer I know who has read my work critically has indicated that they saw that as my area of strength. However, we decided to go the poetry route as I had a greater number of faculty advocates already in place in that genre. The process is as follows:

• A letter of support is drafted by and signed by two members of the faculty.
• My work is reviewed by estabished poets who are not affiliated with the University.
• Letters of support are submitted by these poets
• My academic credentials are reviewed by two members of faculty who are not in the Creative Writing Department.
• I write an essay that discusses my academic, life and professional experiences that show that I have, through a combination of those experiences, earned the equivalent of a B.A.
• I submit a Professional Vita
• These items are put together in a file that goes to the Dean who then, after reviewing everything, does or does not sign off.
• If I had less than 60 undergraduate credits, the file goes to the Provost. However I do have 60 credits (whew!).
• Once the Dean signs off on the above which represents the Department's request that I be allowed to be admitted for graduate studies, I would get a letter of admittance.

I began to work on my essay right away. I was greatly encouraged by the Director, who indicated that he had already initiated enough of the process to be confident that I would be admitted to the university once the appropriate steps were taken. Thus, for all intensive purposes, I was accepted into the MFA program!

I did it!