Advantages of one-year vs. two-year master's programs?

[smithigans.wake]

Hello all. I was wondering if anyone could share some advice regarding the advantages and disadvantages of being in a one-year versus a two-year master's program. I've been accepted to Chicago's one-year MAPH and SUNY Buffalo's two-year MA in philosophy with a speciality in aesthetics. The two programs are very similar in that they both give you the freedom to "roam," to pick and choose a variety of humanities classes to complete the degree.

Besides the cost, the one thing I am not sure about is the comparative merit of going for one or two years. Going for one year has the advantage of being quick, so you can move on to other things quickly if you find that the program wasn't right for you, for whatever reason. Drawbacks to the one-year degree are the fact that you are at the mercy of the schedule for that one year, so that classes you would want to take from past schedules might not be offered during that one year. Also, the program chairs advise against applying for a PhD for the year immediately after you leave, since you won't have had enough interaction with letter-writing professors at the point in which you would need to send the application, in addition to not having even started the thesis.

The two-year degree has the advantage of giving you a lot of time to mull over your career plans and how the degree will fit into your overall education, but you are also stuck longer if you find that the degree isn't really what you want.

Can anyone think of other pros and cons for each?

[Guest ogo]

i'm overwhelmingly in the support of one-year master's degrees if your intention is to gain additional qualifications to reapply to graduate school next year. if you're shooting for a phd, a master's degree is often purely a screen, as many programs will re-teach you the master's material anyway. and as a screen, it's excellent.

[Guest nibbler]

It seems to me that most 2 year master's degrees are geared towards immediate entry to the workplace, while 1 year master's are a stepping stone to a PhD. Why do a 2 year Master's if you're going to spend 5 + years on a Phd?

[rising_star]

A two year Masters can be useful, particularly if you spend the time correcting deficiencies that you had before. I don't know much about one year MA's but since you're going to have to take a year off anyways, why not just do a 2 year program? Otherwise, what will you do during your in-between year?

Call me crazy but I like being paid to learn

[gradgirl]

I was forced to choose between a 1 year program and a 2 year program as well. I ended up opting for the 2 year.

Yes, with a two-year, not all of your credits will transfer if you switch programs for your PhD.

But, one of the major reasons I went with the two year (aside from the fact that it was funded) was simply that I didn't want to have to reapply to graduate schools AGAIN the first fall I was in graduate school. Where are you going to get 3 recommenders after having been a grad student for only 3 months? My advisor at the time told me that programs would think it odd to still be getting recommendations from undergrad professors after having been in graduate school. Also, I didn't feel like one semester was going to be enough time for me to actually learn what it was like to be a grad student and to narrow my focus sufficiently to be a more competitive candidate. The pressure would've been on to write the perfect writing sample in my FIRST semester of graduate school. It just didn't seem possible to me that I'd be that much better or different of an applicant after only 3 months/one semester of grad school.

With the two-year program, I feel like I've been able to settle myself a bit, get to know some faculty here, and put together the best applications I could after having a year+ of grad school experience under my belt. I was also able to present at a couple of conferences, etc. It was definitely the right decision for me.