Absolutely agree. You need to be clear about why you want this experience (aside from the credential, whose only immediate value is that it lets you apply for teaching jobs), and you won't know that until you have some sense of who you are as a writer.

Many people come into these programs too soon, IMO. Maybe I'm an extreme case, starting mine at 66, but 50 years of writing experience (and voracious reading) and a 30-year career in psychology prepared me to take advantage of the program in a way my younger classmates couldn't.