Trex

Hi PhillyCJ - I was in a similar position to the one you describe, although I was a UK (home) student on a 1-year MA course. I think that if you are looking for something more substantial than a vague good-will endorsement letter then I think you might struggle to put your UK MA to good use by rushing through an application for PhD entry the following year. Typically, and certainly on the course I've just finished, you won't even have submitted any assessed essays by mid-December, let alone have had the opportunity to exhibit your independent research skills to a member of faculty. Also, UK MA's are pretty independent in general. Depending on the course, and as such only generally speaking, your contact time with academic staff will be sparse - particularly during the first term. I went into my MA with a PhD in mind, but it didn't occur to me that I might want to venture an application to American schools until my final grades surpassed my expectations and I realised I could possibly be in with a shout. With that in mind, since graduating in January, I have been steeling myself to face down the GRE (which I hadn't even heard of until a few months ago!) and carefully plot my applications out. Meantime, I'm hoping to find some work that will help me boost my research experience and through which I might also gain a third LOR. We'll see! But I definitely needed this year after my MA completion to leap all the hurdles involved in applying to US grad schools. Daunting stuff! Not sure if that's helpful, but happy to answer any UK-MA questions you may have...