<p>According to Duke’s website, their acceptance rate for a masters in liberal arts is consistently 60-70%.
Isn’t this very high? I feel that I am missing something here but I don’t know what it is.
Is graduate school application for the liberal arts program limited to undergraduates at duke?</p>
<p>As @alicejohnson, acceptance rate often doesn’t paint an accurate picture. You wold need more information to determine how selective the program truly is. I think having a small group of applicants (around 50 to 60 applicants per year) plays a role. How desirable is the program? How self-selective is the group of applicants? etc.</p>
<p>MLA degrees are sort of quirky and self-selecting by nature because they don’t result in a qualification in any particular field of study or directly preprofessional training. And it’s not just Duke; I think Harvard’s MLA program is run though its extension school, which is notably less competitive than most other parts of the university. </p>
<p>@fishfishfish: SomeOldGuy is correct. Further, the MLS at Duke is quite atypical of postgraduate degree programs, throughout the University and beyond. As you indicated, you are clearly “missing something here but I don’t know what it is.” A few distinguishing facts follow:
It isn’t a full-time program, usually taking 4+ years to complete;
It tends to be populated by students well (and sometimes far) removed from their undergraduate experiences, in age groups over 35 (for example, some retirees, including Duke alums from the 1950’s and 1960’s, are/have been MLS students, strictly for their personal edification and to continue the expansion of their intellectual horizons);
Most of these student have (or have had) challenging, full-time professional/career/family duties, in addition to their Duke MAT responsibilities;
Many MLS students are Duke employees and almost all are long-term residents of the Triangle area (these are not youngsters who come to Durham primarily as Duke students; rather; they are generally mature professionals, with families, and so forth);
Many have had distinguished careers and extensive educations (some at the finest universities), which enhances the learning experience and makes it very different (imagine, for example, taking a graduate-level American History course with classmates who may have PhDs in a related field (e.g., political science or economics), or who have held decision-making positions in the precise area under discussion (perhaps an attorney retired from DoJ), or even who may have published books and/or articles related to the subject);
Unlike the vast majority of graduate and professional school programs at Duke, the MLS curriculum really permits one to dig much deeper into the BROAD liberal arts (this certainly is not a intensely-focused MBA, MEM, LLM, MA/MS/PhD, or any other highly specific, frequently professionally-related degree program);
And, no, the Duke MLS is not designed for current (or even recent) Duke undergraduates.</p>
<p>To summarize, unlike other postgraduate programs at Duke, the MLS is principally for individual intellectual stimulation and personal growth, without much consideration of future professional advancement (etc.). It’s a great way to return to the classroom, with distinguished professors and exceptional fellow students, at a first-stature university. </p>
<p>Finally, fishfishfish, much of this information is (I believe) available on Duke’s website. You might want to Goggle MLS and then drill-down. </p>