Hello everyone. DS and I have been visiting many schools this summer in search of a good fit. He is leaning toward Anthropology with a science-archaeology concentration as well as a small LAC atmosphere and active outdoorsy community. We visited Hamilton, Skidmore, Dickinson, Gettysburg, Wesleyan, Washington College (MD.), Muhlenburg, Franklin & Marshall, and Drew. We are in NJ and he is really hoping to leave the state but we will also be looking at Stockton U.
Although he doesn’t want to be too far from home, he is interested in seeing Bates because of the campus culture, (inclusive, outdoorsy, no frats) and he researched that the archaeology professor runs a field school in Alaska (a big bucket list item!). This school may be a reach for him, though, with a 1380 SAT but strong GPA with rigorous courseload. Not sure if we will be able to get to Maine in time, however. Will this count against him?
DS liked Hamilton when we visited last year but he realizes it is a reach as well. Dad and I liked Skidmore and Dickinson but their estimates were higher than the others since they are considered “need aware”. F&M is a strong contender but some concerns about Greek culture.
I would like to consider another safety, if possible, that may be less expensive or give merit aid and be within a 6 hour drive of central NJ?
Thanks so much! We are hoping to wrap up the visits in the next month or two!
Check out St. Mary’s College of Maryland, the state’s public honors college.
In the recent past, they’ve apparently been awarding merit scholarships ($15K or more) to all OOS freshmen.
St. Mary’s City is the site of one of America’s earliest colonial European settlements.
Excavations have taken place nearby the college.
http://www.smcm.edu/anthropology/archaeology-lab/
It’s farther away than you’d wish but look into Beloit - easier to get into because of Midwest location and very strong (nationally-known) Anthropology curriculum.
If your son is willing to consider Bates, then the slightly closer St. Lawrence would seem to make sense as a school to research.
I would second Beloit. With a strong GPA, you can likely get the net cost down to $30k/year. Go run their NPC it gives merit award estimates.
I’ll second that St. Mary’s College of Maryland should be on your list for a small, inclusive LAC. In addition to a strong anthropology dept. and direct access to the archaeology field school at Historic St. Mary’s City, it meets your son’s interest in a school that has no Greek life. I’m not sure what kind of “outdoorsy” activities your son is interested in, but St. Mary’s is located directly on the beautiful St. Mary’s river and students take advantage of free sailing, SUPs and kayaks, as well as generally congregating on the docks and beach. Students are very environmentally aware and the school has been ranked as a top Green College by the Princeton Review. St. Mary’s should also come in as one of the most affordable on your list since it is a public school that also gives merit as @tk21769 mentioned.
If you like sailing, or would like to learn, you could hardly pick a better school for it than St. Mary’s College of Maryland. If you’re “outdoorsy” but don’t know anything about sailing, you might want to visit the campus boat house and talk to a few sailors there about what it’s like.
Thirding Beloit. If your son has the stats to get into the schools you’ve listed, Beloit will probably be most generous with merit money, if that’s a concern.
You’ve already considered most of the usual suspects, it seems. Wooster in Ohio has a small but very solid program in archaeology. I agree with the posters above that Beloit is also worth a look.
Mercyhurst in PA is an excellent option in the NJ area for those who want a strong archaeology program at a small school (2500 undergrads).
Check the course listings from recent terms - not the course catalogs, which contain classes that haven’t been taught in years - to see which, if any, methods courses are taught on a regular basis (zooarchaeology, archaeobotany, ceramic analysis, lithic analysis, etc.). It’s much better to develop skills as an undergrad than to try to catch up as a grad student. Most LACs have no more than two or three archaeologists on faculty, which obviously restricts the number and variety of courses they can offer.
For the science side of archaeology, I strongly recommend adding at least university to the list. (Rutgers? The SUNYs?) The liberal arts colleges with proper archaeological research labs can be counted on one hand with fingers to spare, as the equipment is not cheap and there is rarely sufficient student interest to justify the expense.
I recommend you look into Bard College. They have an archeological field study program in the Hudson Valley: https://www.bard.edu/archaeology/about/. And here is info on the anthropology program http://anthropology.bard.edu/.
Thank you all for your suggestions! @tk21769 and @BayMom3 - we will definitely check out St. Mary’s. As a state school I didn’t think it would give much $$ to out-of-state students. Beloit sounds fantastic and one that I have heard of before but he just doesn’t want to be that far. @merc81 St. Lawrence is one that very recently started sending him lots of brochures and it looks beautiful and outdoorsy, plus he would love being so close to Canada. May have to visit in the Fall! @warblersrule totally agree that he should add a university. We will be visiting SUNY New Paltz next week and possibly Binghamton as well (although Bing might be too large for his liking). We visited University of Richmond last week and he felt it was a little too large compared to the colleges he already visited. Sheesh, this has been an exhausting summer and I’ll be happy when we are finished with the visits…thank you again for your suggestions!
@SpiritManager - thank you for the Bard suggestion. I’ve noticed they offer Archaeology and he would love this location but I’ll admit, I was a little intimidated by some of the reviews on Niche. He is not artsy and doesn’t really lean to the left (or right for that matter) and thought it might be a little too angsty for him. I apologize if I am totally off-base with my assumptions but that was the impression I got from some of the reviews. If I am wrong, please let me know because we can see it when we visit New Paltz next week.
@beachma - the Niche reviews, as always, will be from young people who have strong feelings they want to broadcast publicly. Think about your own son - would he post there? I know mine wouldn’t. As for whether or not Bard is artsy - yes, there are lots of students passionate about the arts there. As there are lots of students passionate about the social sciences. And more in recent years passionate about the hard sciences. The key word is passionate - Bard students tend to be passionate about their education. It’s not a great place for students who just want to skate through college to get a degree to get a job. It’s better for students interested in diving down deep into the subject matter - and sharing their interests with their friends.
As for Bard’s political leanings - yes, it tends toward the liberal side of things - but not in a dogmatic way. The raison d’etre for Bard is intellectual discourse - which includes questioning one’s beliefs and never accepting anything just because it’s expected of one.
In terms of the student body - yes, there are angst driven hipsters there. But there are also athletes (they started recruiting and putting more focus on their sports teams a few years ago.) And I believe the student body is around 14% international. And there are Posse students from Georgia. And students interested in science. So some of the old stereotypes are just that.
I can verify that the professors are amazing. My son never took an archeology course - but he got his degree in Classics so took many ancient history courses. Fabulous teachers. And there is an actual dig that belongs to Bard and is run by the department. So I do think it’s worth considering - especially if you’re in the area!
With all due respect to @SpiritManager, who admittedly has more firsthand experience with Bard, I would be hesitant to recommend Bard for a student with a serious interest in archaeology. The course listings in anthropology indicate that no archaeology courses are offered except Anthro 211, a precursor to the field school.
http://anthropology.bard.edu/courses/
Bard’s summer field school is interesting but no substitute for nonexistent course offerings. Virtually every anthropology program worth its salt is associated with at least one excavation, and there are field schools in countries around the world open to undergraduates from any college. There are many sources of funding for such field schools from organizations like the AIA, ASOR, and BAR.
https://www.archaeological.org/grants/708
http://digs.bib-arch.org/scholarships/
http://www.asor.org/fellowships/excavation-grants-fellowships/
The Research Experience for Undergrads (REU) programs are especially noteworthy, as all costs are covered, students receive a stipend, and each student completes a personal research project. For example, there is an REU in southwestern archaeology in New Mexico, and UGA runs a bioarchaeology REU in Sicily.
https://www.archaeologysouthwest.org/things-to-do/field-school/
I’m sure @warblersrule is right that Bard’s archeology department is limited compared to a university or certain liberal arts colleges with a larger division. However, it would seem to me that specializing in archeology - versus studying a broad range of subjects as an undergrad such as Classics, history, scientific inquiry, ancient languages, anthropology, & art history would all serve a student well as preparation for grad school where one would specialize more - and one could also supplement with summer programs in this country and abroad. Which would open up the range of acceptable choices for undergrad. But is that not the case, and to get into a reputable archeology grad program one must specialize in depth in the specific subject as an undergrad? I do know many Classics majors go on to become archeologists with further advanced study.
One other to consider is Colorado College. Their anthropology department is relatively small, but the block schedule opens many opportunities. When working in the field, they are not distracted by other classes, because they take one class at a time.
@warblersrule thank you for the excellent links to the grant and field school sites. Although we have told him to keep an open mind on his major until he has a year of college under his belt, he seems determined to study archaeology so a school with good course offerings is important to him. Anthropology, as opposed to Classics, is the route he prefers to take but he also values the well-rounded education an LAC will give him.
@SpiritManager - You made an excellent point about asking myself if my son would ever write a Niche review! DS and I are both big fans of the variety of courses you get at a good LAC. I, myself, am a high school art teacher so I am always preaching to him about the importance of art and design for all students. I also agree with you in that a well rounded undergrad education will prepare you well for grad school. He is leaning toward schools with solid Archaeology departments within the Anthropology major. Some great advice I was already given here on CC was to look for programs that have at least two full time archaeologists on the faculty, which we have been trying to do. Thank you for telling me more about Bard, though, and for clearing up my misconceptions!
Hands down Beloit! My daughter just transferred there and wished she went there all 4 years. She is a junior. She got $30,000 merit, $12,000 more then her other school. Beautiful smaller campus. They are very connected to University of Wisconsin that has a world class department. Interesting Beloit fact… They are like in the top 20 schools that send kids to get their PhD…
Have you considered St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire for a safety? I have no personal experience, I just remember thinking their Archeology offerings in Italy seemed cool when my son was researching colleges.