lacroixmosa

So speaking from my own experience, I think you should do it. I applied to various art history programs for fall 2016 and got rejected from all but accepted to the UChicago MAPH and Columbia's EALAC MA (which was my second choice). It felt shitty and was hard to come to terms with, but I ultimately accepted the spot at Columbia. It turned out to be a really great idea. While I was there I took a lot of neat courses that culminated in a very interesting (if I do say so myself) thesis topic and presented at two graduate conferences with different papers. On top of that, I was ultimately able to get what I believe were stronger recommendations than I could after undergrad only. I took a year off after completing the program but it all worked out because I received three PhD offers with funding from two top programs and one very good program. If you do decide to enroll in one of the programs, I would say make sure you're choosing the more prestigious one and the one that makes the most sense for your purposes. I choose Columbia because the program was two years and would allow me to really work on my language skills (which had been a big issue the first time I applied). That being said, your situation is a little more complicated because you already have an MA from a lesser known institution. Was that institution in the US or abroad? Grad programs tend to make a really big deal about their PhD students being used to American pedagogy and academic standards.