<p>Hello, I'm currently a High School Junior from WI. My grades are good; I have a 4.3 GPA this year, with a 3-year cumulative GPA of around 3.8/3.9. My ACT was 31 with Writing. I'm the first one from my household to ever go to college, so I really don't know much...</p>
<p>Well that's enough about my background. I have a few questions concerning the major that I've been thinking about.</p>
<p>I've been looking at an Anthropology/Archaeology major in college. It's something that I was introduced to a few months ago and it seems very interesting. I want to do something that I love for the rest of my life. I'm not worried about making tons of money, but I need enough to get by... I know Anthro/Archae is a small field, and I'm worried about finding a job after school. I would ideally like to go into CULTURAL anthropology/doing field work. I'm good with foreign languages (Spanish right now) and enjoy it, so I was thinking about Linguistics also. </p>
<p>Both my parents and I are worried about me finding a job in this field, so here are my main questions:
1) Is this a stupid college major choice? (I mean this as a serious question)
2) If I choose an Anthro/Archae major, what kind of jobs could I get?
3) What are the chances that I actually get one of those jobs?
4) Would I be able to make a living off of one of those jobs?</p>
<p>I'm having trouble picking a major, and I'm scared of going into college undecided (I don't want to pick a school and then have to transfer...)</p>
<p>I’m not an expert (you’ll probably receive better info from others) in this field, but I do have a S who is an anthro/arch major so we’ve done some research. To make any real money you’ll need a grad degree. With your stats my suggestion is to pick undergrad school with a decent program that will give you tons of merit aid* and that it will be easy to keep a high GPA and use that to your advantage for a grad program with a tuition waiver and a stipend.</p>
<p>My S has not gone this route (long story) but wishes he had. Now he is looking at a double major just to be able to broaden his job prospects with only an undergrad.</p>
<p>*I don’t know what all you are looking for in a school (location, activities, etc) but using CC’s college match lets you search for schools where you stats would be well above the standard, possibly giving you more merit aid. I would think at both MS (Ole Miss & State) as well as OR (U of and State) schools you would fall into that group plus I’m sure there are many others.</p>
<p>Well, I was thinking about a grad degree, but we don’t have much money here…
And I really wanted to go to a University of Wisconsin school (Oshkosh [if I want an Anthro major] or La Crosse [if I want an Archae major]). That, again, is because I don’t have tons of money to go out-of-state…</p>
<p>Since you are In-state for WI that might be a great choice, especially if you are NMF - if you search on CC you will find a good number of options for free rides for NMFs. If you are not a NMF then many of those same schools also give partial to full OOS tuition waivers plus additional merit aid for your stats.</p>
<p>I will also point out, that of all my friends who have Masters/PhDs only 1 is working in a field semi-related to their degree - but all VERY well employed. The <em>most</em> successful of the lot attended a local commuter tier 3/4 school for undergrad and paid zero for masters and phd so…</p>
<p>Archaeology is seriously not as exciting as you think it is.</p>
<p>You go to the field to dig for maybe 1 week or something. The rest of the time you’re running instrumental analysis like radioactivity, HPLC, etc. and crunching numbers on Excel. Otherwise, you’re writing and running computer programs to either crunch numbers or decode a language. You might as well take Chemistry or Computer Science and just take the anthro/archae classes as GEs.</p>
<p>Sorry - forgot you were new to CC (we really need an acronym thread on here…there are still some I haven’t figured out!)</p>
<p>Interficio answered a couple</p>
<p>merit aid is scholarships or grants based on your gpa/act/sat/etc that is “free” money.
ie - many national merit finalists choose univ of AL because they go there for free. A couple schools my D (daughter) applied to waived the extra out-of-state tuition fees because of her grades (Plus some add’l aid) so she could look at OOS schools with good programs for basically what she would pay for an in-state school.</p>
<p>And by well-employed, I mean both loving jobs and decent income. One friend with a PhD in History has had the COOLEST jobs at the COOLEST companies in the COOLEST locations…never related to History.</p>
<p>I also agree with LastThreeYears - Arch can be much more boring and limiting (career-wise) than general Anthro…I mean many anthro majors go on to law school. But I also know that my friends who focused on their interests in school instead of following the quick money (business, computers, accounting, etc) are MUCH more satisfied than the ones who didn’t.</p>
<p>My S goes back and forth every couple months on what area of anthropology he likes best, last semester it was all about cultural and this semester it is all about archaeology. maybe because he is working in the arch lab this semester and preparing for his field school this summer. But in the fall when he has a forensic anthropology class, I’m guessing forensics will be the new fav. </p>
<p>I will also suggest you look at a double major or complementary minor such as Poly Sci, History, GIS, Cultural Geography, museum studies if offered, or area studies certificates, etc.</p>
<p>But then again, A LOT can change before you decide on a school. At the same stage you are my S was only focused on schools with good Chemistry programs, so…</p>
<p>We’re rolling on the Ant/Arch road with my daughter right now. She’s enjoying it (and that’s important to her and us). The opportunities have been pretty impressive to us as parents, since we are basically clueless.</p>
<p>Last summer, she was in New Mexico, for free and just came back from an Arch. conference where she gave a presentation of her findings. I like the experience she gained from giving the presentation and learning how to network. And yes, the trip to Sacramento was paid for also.</p>
<p>This summer she is in a program with the University of Illinois, funded by the National Science Foundation to do another dig (5 weeks) and then whatever associated museum work (5 weeks) and is getting paid (room and board included in addition to being paid).</p>
<p>At this point, we’re seeing where it’s going. She is majoring in Anthropology and minoring in Spanish, but has 3 semesters of Chinese under her belt and 2 semesters of German.</p>
<p>As far as jobs, I briefly read thru one of her SAA publications and they focused on careers. Most involved advanced degrees, but not all were get in and get dirty digging jobs. Included, were teaching, research positions, writing, contract firm consultants - and this was just from the Arch side.</p>
<p>Good luck. Our position was and still is, college should be work, of course, but not a chore and we are willing to roll with what she wants and see where it goes. However, she still has to keep an eye on future income potential! (The mommy and daddy bank will be closing soon)</p>
<p>Thanks everyone.
One thing I’m nervous about:
I don’t want to go to school undecided, because I want to avoid transferring. I don’t want to go to a school for a year, find out they don’t have the program that I want, then have to switch, and end up doing that multiple times…</p>
<p>You are smart to think about that. My kid went in undecided. The school had a decent program, but because the number of students who majored in it was small, it is being phased out. Her class would have been the last class to major in Anthropology at the University.</p>
<p>She bailed. The good news is, she is involved in the programs at the original university because of her mentor and the new school. She is getting recommendations from both. Wrapping my head around that is wild, but it’s working. </p>
<p>Update: Had a campus visit at UW-Oshkosh yesterday. The admissions counselor to whom my family was assigned was actually an Anthro major! We got info about Oshkosh’s Anthro program (they have the major) and about jobs in general (she said they were fairly numerous). Next visit is UW-La Crosse to check out their program. They have an Archae major and Anthro minor. Thanks, everyone, for all the help.</p>
(The mommy and daddy bank will be closing soon)</p>