I'm also applying to the institute, however I'm agonizing over choosing between MIA and MIS. In another thread some years ago someone says MIS is more intellectually challenging than MIA while MIA is career-focused and not intended for transition to PhD. So basically I think its the choice between work as soon as graduating MIA (best case scenario) vs directly from MIS to getting PhD in a total of 5 years (best case scenario). I think both best cases are pretty awesome, but for a recent grad who wants to accumulate some full-time work experience but might also want a PhD in the future, is MIA the right choice for now? It's kind of painful to think that it MIA might not be intellectually challenging/academically rigorous enough for possible publications, and when it's time to apply to a PhD program only work experience with no journal publication will not be enough. I'm having mixed feelings about this kind of MA+PhD "bundle", is my decision of choosing MIA over MIS the right move?