MALS opportunity - free tuition, but should I bother?

[slouching]

I'm a senior at a small, midwestern liberal arts college, where I'm currently finishing my honors thesis. I'm also interested in applying to doctoral programs in American studies at some point in the future, possibly as soon as this year. My advisor recently forwarded an email to me about a job/grad school opportunity at my school, but I'm not really sure what to make of it.

 

Here's the deal: my college offers the MALS degree, and while aware of this, I never considered pursuing it, because it doesn't seem like the right fit for me. My impression of these kinds of programs is that they're awfully expensive, generally geared toward older students, and don't train students for anything in particular-- all things I'm wary of. I'm sure lots of people find value in that experience, but I'm not sure it's right for me. 

 

The opportunity my advisor emailed me about is for a graduate assistant position. Apparently, you get paid for your work as a GA, and you get free tuition for the MALS program. In theory, that sounds kind of great; I'd love to spend more time studying things I'm interested in without paying tuition (with the added bonus of having a job). However, I worry that enrolling in such a program wouldn't do much to make me a more competitive applicant for doctoral programs-- or worse, that it might even hurt my chances. And even though the tuition would be free, it's still something I'd be dedicating two years of my life to, which isn't something I take lightly. 

 

Overall, I'm unsure of what to make of this opportunity. As someone interested in doing interdisciplinary graduate work (and not paying tens of thousands of dollars to do so), I'm intrigued. But I still have all these concerns about the value of the MALS, whether it's something that would actually help me if my goal is the PhD. If anyone has any thoughts on this, I'd love to hear them.

[OriginalDuck]

I would apply both for the PhD programs you want to get into and the MALS program w/ GA funding. If you get into a doctoral program you want, it's an easy decision. If you don't, you might get into the MALS program and you can make the decision at that point whether it's worth it, or whether there are better ways to improve your application for the next cycle.

 

There have been a couple of posts discussing whether a MALS degree is helpful for those who want to pursue an interdisciplinary PhD:

 

 

kglad's response)

[slouching]

OriginalDuck, thanks for directing me to those threads. I'd love to follow your suggestion of applying to both the MALS and PhD programs, but unfortunately, it's not possible-- applications for the GA position/MALS are due in a few weeks (the program would begin this fall), whereas I can't really start applying for doctoral programs until the fall/winter.