pongo
Real men bake bread.
Apr 9, 1998, 12:38 PM
Post #4 of 2528
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Looking for Grads & Students of Low-Residency MFAs
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I'm in my last semester at Goddard. It was the only place I applied,
mostly because I didn't do much research and it was the only low-res
program I knew about. But when I got the information I had some
questions about the place; most of the faculty listed among their
interests gay and lesbian studies, and I was writing science fiction
at the time, and I wondered if there was really a place for me. So I
called, and spoke to Nora Mitchell, co-lead (then lead) faculty of the
program, and she said that the advisors had no trouble dealing with
genre fiction, but if they made me uncomfortable I shouldn't apply.
Everyplace else that I wrote for information is still sending me stuff
asking when I'm going to apply, and Nora suggested that Goddard might
not be right for me. That's what assured me that it was, in fact, the
right place for me. It's a fairly political place, not in terms of
issues but in terms of overall orientation. There aren't a lot of
Republicans, let's say, and precious few Democrats. (This is Bernie
Sanders territory, the only Socialist in Congress; his wife is on the
Board of Trustees and was the interim provost while we were looking
for a new president.) I've worked with three advisors. Some people
work with only two, but you aren't allowed to work with anyone more
than two terms. I've been very happy with all three, and thrilled with
Sarah Schulman, with whom I'm on my second term. Advisors are assigned
to first-term students, but after that you can make requests, which
are almost always honored. There are eight or ten faculty, and about
forty or fifty students, so the workload for the faculty isn't too
bad. Finding time to do the work is the hardest part, since you're not
giving up the rest of your life. dmh
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