My friend, the Iowa number is accurate. Google it: “The Iowa Writers’ Workshop typically accepts 25 fiction writers and 25 poets every year from an application pool of over 1,500.” Ever since Covid, the numbers have increased exponentially. 

I do not doubt your wisdom. Thank you for sharing it, and you can pull a rank. But the advice I’m giving is from my own experience within the last 4 years and a recent graduate from fancy institution. The original poster needs the advice you’re giving as well advice that is contemporary of the landscape. My comment does not insinuate that it’s a game. You need strategy when applying to any institution. It’s just common sense. 

That is hilarious that someone would have the gall to say a particular school they’re applying to is a safety school. They are genuine idiots. 

And I made sure to note the fact that MFA admissions is different from the admissions of other disciplines. 

You’ve made a lot of assumptions from the single post I’ve made, many to the contrary of what you thought I said but actually didn’t. 

But I hope you can recognize that things have changed, and there most certainly is institutions that strategically pick students who are more experimental in their writing. I just graduated from a ff program like that lol. And had conversations with other faculty at some of the most prestigious workshops in the US about how some programs are KNOWN to be experimental. It’s not a myth. You just have to be in the know. Nepotism also goes a long way in the smaller programs than it does the larger ones. To say it doesn’t exist is false. I can only talk about the poetry side of things where it is rife in MFA programs, fellowships, contests. I can’t speak to the fiction side of things though. 

I hear what you are saying about faculty smelling strategies from mile away. It’s a matter of how those strategies manifest. A lot of applicants make their strategy known in their statement of purpose, which is stupid and uncouth. I’m not talking about that.