Thank you for giving me an excuse to gush about my MA experience. As a senior, I applied to PhD programs and was rejected almost across the board from 13 schools - got waitlisted at one and accepted to the MA program at BC as a "consolation" acceptance. I went to BC and learned a lot - my classes and interactions with faculty helped me find focus (which was previously more or less "I like things that are old and British") and is now much more specific and interesting. I got published, presented at a conference... I think reading so much more scholarship (SO MUCH) is part of what made my academic writing better. Now, I'm out of my MA by two years and applying again, to schools that are a better fit for me, and so far it's going pretty well. If there's anything else, more specifically, that you'd like to know about what I learned, I'd be happy to answer!