Bando

It has always been my understanding that unless specifically invited or encouraged to do so, applying to multiple programs at the same university in the same application cycle is seen as big no-no. While you may think you're covering your bases, committees often just as easily see it as you being unfocused or unsure of your interests or disciplinary commitment.

I'm a MAPSS alum, and I just went through my admissions cycle for my PhD. More on that in a minute. The post above with the information from another MAPSS alum is pretty spot on. I'll add some random thoughts to it. Overall, if you have a funded PhD offer, I'd go for it. If you don't have another option, or you have unfunded offers staring you in the face versus a MAPSS funding offer (I had a quite generous MAPSS offer and nothing else, so I had to take it), it's worth looking into. Yes it's a cash cow, but it can also do wonders for you. -Yes, there tends to be cliques that form along disciplinary lines. It's just something that is bound to happen. You have your preceptor group, which will group you with other students who are doing roughly the same things, which then becomes this sort of recurring cast of characters that show up in all of your classes. My MAPSS cohort was unusually large, so we were simply everywhere. After a while, I began to wonder where all the actual PhD students were, because it seemed like all my classes were 75% MAPSS, 20% PhD, 5% random smattering of undergrads and other professional schools (law, business). My preceptor seemed to be steering a lot of people into the same classes, so we kind of formed this little cohort within ourselves, and ended up bouncing our work off of each other as the year went on. That helped. -MAPSS is tough, but keep in mind it's not strictly a 9-month program. Yes, you have 3 quarters to do your 9 courses, but you have a year after the end of your final course term to turn in your thesis and still have a faculty reader. You can take even more time after that (met a few people who were doing just that), but then you don't get a faculty reader. Personally, I came into MAPSS with a fully-formed project that got even better the more I got my ass kicked by my profs, and I turned it in at the exact minimum amount of time. I was lucky. The stats, if I recall correctly, are like 20-25% finish in the 9 months, another 50% finish by the end of summer term (essentially gives you about six extra weeks to write), and the vast majority of the remaining 25% are done within the year. Really, it's not that hard to do, they want you to write a journal article-length thesis. Do good work, but don't get overwhelmed with it. -Do know that MAPSS can be a difficult social experience. You're there for 9 months. It's intense, you're busy, and it's difficult to make close friendships when you're basically all scattered to the wind as soon as it's over anyway. By the time you really know people, you're done. -Now having been through the PhD application process with them, and talking to my classmates about their experiences, it seems on the whole people have been less than pleased with the actual involvement MAPSS has with your applications versus how they sold us on what that support would be. The only thing they will actually do is have whoever the point person is for your discipline write you one of your letters of recommendation. IF, that is, you apply to 8-10 schools, and they approve of where you're applying. You'll go to a meeting during spring quarter where Professor MacAloon will get up and give a really intimidating speech about the process, they give you this document on what to do, and send you on your way. It wasn't the clearest document, I found it incredibly frustrating at times, but I ended up doing most of what they said and got exactly one acceptance (so far, but it's looking like that's it), which happened to be my dream program. I'm lucky. I wouldn't be surprised if some of my classmates weren't. I talked to some folks who were applying at like 15 schools, others as low as 7. MAPSS' reputation speaks for itself, but it still only gets you so far. If you're not ready, they'll tell you. But the odds are, if you do everything, if you're competent and do good work, and you finish your MA by the time the application season rolls around, they'll support you, and the statistics show you'll probably get a funded offer somewhere (remember, MAPSS stats reflect funded offers only). -Do be prepared for the fact that MAPSS has a mixed reputation amongst the faculty. Most of the students are pretty cool about MAPSS folk, but the profs are another story. It took me 4-5 months to find a faculty advisor for my thesis, which was an incredibly frustrating and demeaning experience at times. I ended up finding someone who was absolutely wonderful and helped me immensely, but it was a happy accident to say the least. My preceptor was helpful, but not as much as was possible. I got bumped from a class because I was a MAPSS student, I tried fighting it, and was told basically that the prof was within her rights to do it. Some professors really like MAPSS kids, some of them absolutely do not. -Hyde Park is Hyde Park. Don't worry about living there, it's perfectly fine and has a lot of great restaurants and bookstores and such, but do take the time to figure out how to get out. And allow yourself to do it. Chicago is so incredible, with so much going on, that it's not worth sequestering yourself on the south side. Go and explore. CTA is your friend, as is the weekend UC shuttle bus that stops at the Roosevelt L stop until like 3AM. -I can say, finally, that my MAPSS experience ended up putting me in the position to be where I wanted to be, and I'm 100% glad I did it. But I was a bit of an odd case in that I had a project that was ready to go, and didn't have to worry about things like figuring out a topic and searching local archives to find a project, which is what a lot of people end up doing. I found the program to be incredibly frustrating at times, UC can be an extraordinarily cruel and cold place, but ultimately, it is what you make it. Don't allow yourself to get sucked up in the negativity that MAPSS engenders in some people, make sure you go to all the grad socials and preceptor group nights and milk every last free drink you can get out of it, don't spend too much time at the Reg (the library) if you don't have to, get in, get out, get your degree. Move on with your life. I'll also say that for a lot of people, they go into MAPSS thinking they 100% want to get a PhD, and by the end of fall quarter, that number has probably dropped in half. It's a great way of trying out graduate work without having a 5+ year program staring you in the face. If you find out you hate it, finish up, and go to the real world. If you can't wait for more once you're done, all the better. If I can be of any more help, feel free to ask. I'm a longtime lurker, didn't want to register, but I thought it might help if I did for this.