They have a great website: mtc.olemiss.edu. This program was started the same year as Teach For America - so has a long history, albeit on a much much smaller scale.
MTC makes offers to about 30 corps members a year, with about 5 or so rejecting the offer. So the starting class is usually 22-26 people (as compared to 4,500 in TFA). Because of it's small size, corps members say they feel like a family and every gets a lot of individual attention from staff and trainers.
I also found it amazing that the program's total annual operating budget is about $250,000/year. This supports the cost of housing, training, staff, etc. They really make every dollar go a long way.
I was originally attracted to this program for its lucrative benefits. The program offers summer housing during "institute" (to use a TFA term) on the UofM campus in Oxford, MS, a $1,000 summer stipend, a fully paid Masters degree including cost of tuition, books, fees, and cost of motel room on weekends when corps members must travel to Oxford for classes. Also, corps member receive a free Mac book, courtesy of Morgan Freeman's Rock River Foundation.
I think that the challenges of a MTC corps member are very similar to those of a TFA Missisippi Delta corps member. They may even teach in some of the same schools. I emailed a number of MTC corps members and many were honest about their struggles. In some cases, corps members felt like they were part of a horrible education system with no ability to effect change and often one's experience is determined greatly by luck of placement and the administration of the school they are placed in. One corps member said, that unlike TFA, she received a lot of critical training on class management and was placed in her school early in the spring - while TFA focuses more on data tracking and some TFA teachers were still searching for placements into late summer. One MTC corps member flat out told me he would not recommend the program (it sounded like he was dropping out after his first year), while a few others did say they felt their work to be rewarding.
The application process is simple. Maybe too simple. They have four application deadlines throughout the year and they tell you what date that you should expect to hear back. They do not require an in-person interview. I've heard from accepted corps members that they didn't really have much of phone interview either. When the program director called it was mostly to say they had been accepted and any questions were mostly cursory. It sounds like they mostly accept corps members based solely on the application, so it important that your written application be impressive.
I can't personally attest to how the acceptance process works past the application step, because on the date they said I would hear back, I received a generic rejection letter. They said they received over 100 applications for 8 spots. They indicated they preferenced candidates who could teach Math or Science (did not have an undergrad degree in that area) and those that could coach a sport (did not play any college level sports). So, it's pretty clear why I wasn't accepted.
I still think it sounds like a great program. If I were to apply again, I'd first spend a semester volunteer coaching a sport to pump up my resume for the MTC application.
