bulerias

hi, I graduated from MAPSS last year (fall 2009) and I have to say that I am thoroughly satisfied with the program. Like many of you/us, I applied to Uchicago PhD in anthro, but was turned down and referred to MAPSS (opening a big envelope with both rejections and acceptance letters was hilarious by the way). So, like many of you, I never heard of MAPSS and, quite frankly, thought the name sounded hokey-pokey. They gave me money, so that nudged me to visit them. They gave me some crazy numbers on where their alum go after graduation. John MacAloon, director of the program, stated "last year [2007], of the applications that I supported, 20 out of 23 were accepted to PhD programs with full funding and those that did not pursue further degrees were employed 6 mos after graduation (with many of them "very satisfied" with their employment). Moreover, my gf [still at uchicago] over heard a prof in the anthro dept stating "we hold about up to 80% of spots for MAPSS students for our PhD program." Anyways, when I heard MacAloon spit all this out I first thought it was bs, but this was quashed quickly when I consulted with my undergrad advisors (one was an alum from the 60's and was accepted to uchicago PhD anthro after completing MAPPS and the other kept saying that the intellectual atmosphere runs deep (which is very, very true), while the grad advisor told me that they receive and accept many MAPSS students). I committed soon after the visit and, after many sleepless nights and stressful days, I am now apart of MAPSS' wonderful numbers. As of now, I have been accepted, with full funding, to a PhD in anthro and, after just month from graduation, while still in a recession, I was offered a very, very nice job. Now, of course, this is my unique experience but, then again, I do not think my outcome is unique at all. Since MAPSS breaks up its cohort by focus (anthro, psych, sociology, poli sci, history), you stay with the same people throughout the year. Anyways, 2 in my anthro group, that were applying to PhD's in Anthro, were not only accepted to fully funded PhD programs, but they were accepted to multiple, all top 15 (UCLA, NYU, EMORY, CHICAGO, UCSD, ETC). My old roomate, also in my cohort but in a different group, is in another program at Chicago, with funding, and is loving it. Another buddy in the same cohort, different group, is going to law school. So if you were accepted with funding, any funding (which is rare, so you should consider yourself lucky!), I would seriously consider this program. Sure it can be dogmatic at times, but if you listen to them and use their resources, then I am sure you will be quite satisfied with your results. I happy to give you more specifics/details, just pm me. just my 2 cents.