MKEPhil

I can't give advice relative to Canadian MA's, but in general my best advice would be to hit the ground running. 2 year MA's are very stressful, since you only have 2.5 semesters of work to get top quality letters of rec/samples and apps. Don't get 'settled' into grad life for the first semester or two and then start trying to think of sample or letter writers towards the summer. It will help you a lot to have a plan of action as soon as possible for those application materials because the deadlines seem to spring up very fast.

I have spoken to several adcoms about this. It seems that an MA is becoming more and more important for PhD study, whereas it was rare in previous decades. There will always be those who do not need the MA, of course, but that number is shrinking every year and the influx of MA-prepared students is making the standards for incoming classes even higher. Interestingly, however, PhD's would often take double the time in previous decades, so the fact that programs are pushing PhD students out in 4-5 years may contribute to the necessity of an MA program.

I wasn't actually waiting on it. I just never heard a peep from them.

So still no word (at all) from Uconn... Wonder what went wrong. The deadline for April 15th is the earliest date that the original offers can expire. Many schools have later dates.

Congrats! I'm graduating from there, I think you'll love it!

Thanks. Yea that was me in the other thread. Finally made up my mind that I'd choose UCSB over IU even if I did get in. UConn's been very odd. All of the waitlists have been solicited, so I'm just interested in seeing what time they finally make announcements.

I'll be headed to UC Santa Barbara. Accepted at: Rochester Iowa Waitlisted at Indiana No word yet from UCon...

I think what it will really help with is keeping you off a waitlist There's no reason to waitlist a fully funded candidate. This is especially helpful for international students because, as ridiculous as this is, departments pay more to have them study at the school, which gives programs an incentive not to accept international students.

Where else did you apply? Did you go for writing samples? Also, this is kind of included in the 2013 applicants thread.

I vote LMU for one reason: it is the only terminal MA focused program on the list. In the others, you will be fighting for attention with large graduate programs, and you likely will not be the focus of the department. Don't underestimate the importance of having a department be focused on your development (being in a terminal MA, I really have seen the difference). Also, faculty interests are less important in an MA program. You will spend most of your MA developing a breadth of coursework and writing a short paper. Of course, you need people doing what you want to do, but don't focus on rankings/faculty interest too much.

Are any of these funded? I know Boulder says their MA is not funded, so that should be a very important factor in your decision. If any are funded, I'd go with that school.

Full disclosure: I'm on the waitlist for Indiana, though with different AOI. Funnily, our lists look rather similar. I didn't apply to CUNY, partially because I cannot bring myself to live in NYC. That said, they have a remarkably diverse faculty, but only a moderate placement record. Also, if the difference in your AOI is significant, it may be much better to go with Indiana to suit your interests. I would worry about how much the faculty teaches or interacts with grad students with such a large program as CUNY. I'm in a similar boat myself. I was accepted at UCSB with a really nice package. However, I'm waiting on Indiana. Both suit my interests really well (Epistemology/Language/Metaphysics) but Indiana's funding would require 5 years of teaching. Both have similar placement records and I'm just having a hard time leaning toward UCSB mostly because of the rankings. I've heard really good things about UCSB's faculty and atmosphere that haven't been matched by Indiana or other places. If anyone has any insights to my particular dilemma, I'd appreciate it too.

Those are last year's applicants.

Are you intending to pursue a PhD after the MA? If so, you will want to look at which programs you are applying to. For instance, Minnesota explicitly states that their MA program is not for PhD prep. I would look first only at programs that provide funding and focus on placement. I know Northern Illinois, WMU, Houston, Georgia State, VT, and Milwaukee all offer full funding to many of their acceptances and focus on placing into PhDs. Of course, there are many others, but those are the ones I know of off hand. That said, area of interest is less important for your MA considerations. You will be taking a couple years of coursework and writing a short paper. Obviously you want some people who do what you do, but overall focusing on placement and funding is more important. By the way, I went to Michigan undergrad too, Go Blue!

You need an absolutely stand out writing sample to get into Oxford. Not trying to be discouraging, but realistically, they are one of the top programs in the world and every part of an application has to be stellar. That's not to say that your chances are nil, but your writing sample should be top notch to maximize your chances.