Has anyone applied directly to U Chicago MAPSS and got accepted?

[Raex]

Hi, everyone! 

I'm just wondering has anyone directly applied for the MAPSS and got accepted, especially anyone with economics background, or does anyone know someone like that? I'm asking because I'm having difficulties with the candidate statement. More specifically, do I have to make my research interest the focus of it like a PHD statement, even if I directly apply to the MAPSS program?

So my situation is like this: I have an economics degree with quite a lot of math and programming from a non-US university with a decent ranking, got pretty good GPA, GRE, English language test scores, some not-so-relevant working and volunteering experiences.

But....I'm not too sure about my research experience and research interest. Sure I did my coursework and group projects and all those stuff. I've written enough essays, and some of the courses did involve research-like projects, and I did well in all of those, but....it's still just a course project, isn't it? Even if I can use them to show my ability to do research, the point here is that I don't have a clear research interest yet...I can think of a few topics that I'm interested in, and probably talk about it for as many words as I need to, but I doubt that it'll sound convincing without relevant research/work experiences to back it up, isn't it?

That leads to my question: if I apply directly to the MAPSS program, do I still have to have a very specific research idea? Do I still have to write my candidate statement as if I'm applying to PHD? I know that this program is for those whose goal is PHD and many are referred applicants from the PHD programs, but..isn't it the point of an MA that one can start searching for a research interest during that and decide whether PHD is right for them? And the curriculum certainly looks like it wants you to do that. So can I be honest about that and just say that I'm still exploring? Besides, since U Chicago is one of the best in the economics field, I believe that the PHD applicants who are just a tiny bit below their admission standard will be legion, and many of them may be offered MAPSS instead. So will they even consider direct applications at all? 

Thank you all for reading so much!