anthropology departments?

College Search & Selection
21

<p>Michigan, Berkeley, Yale, UChicago, Harvard and UPenn are probably the best programs out there these days. Of these, I'd say Chicago, Yale and Harvard are strongest at the undergraduate level. For archeology in particular, Chicago, Penn and Yale are usually considered the top, and fund a ton of expeditions (Arizona is also great in archeology).</p>

<p>There are also a few LACs with good undergraduate programs, such as Wesleyan, Wellesley, Hamilton, Oberlin, and Vassar, but do a lot of in-depth research if you're interested in the LAC route, since the course offerings and quality can be very small and vary from year to year depending on whether faculty members leave or not.</p>

<p>Other top university programs in anthropology:
Arizona, Stanford, UCLA, UCSD, Florida, UTexas, NYU, Illinois, UC-Santa Barbara, UC-Davis, Columbia, Wisconsin, WUSTL.</p>

22

<p>We were told that the undergrads get over looked at michigan. It is also too large. She really wants a school where all her profs know her name.</p>

23

<p>I think Chicago would be ideal, in that case.</p>

24

<p>I would suggest you direct your question to more knowledgable people. For example, there are many internet listserves where anthro faculty and students communicate. They often receive question of this kind and will answer you.</p>

<p>Here is a link from the American Anthro Association:
<a href="http://www.aaanet.org/resinet.htm#lists%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.aaanet.org/resinet.htm#lists&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

25

<p>do you know how the physics dept at Chicago is ranked?</p>

26

<p>thanks ivyalumni!</p>

27

<p>I'm an archaeology and biology double major & geology minor at Duke, which is a great place for archaeology (although UNC might be better). If your daughter has an interest in historical archaeology, here are some things to consider.</p>

<p>1) Does she have a particular field of interest? ASU is great for Native American archaeology, Johns Hopkins is superb for Egyptian archaeology, Texas A&M rules supreme in underwater archaeology, etc. </p>

<p>2) Choose colleges with a geology department. Courses in stratigraphy, petrology, geomorphology, and GIS will be a tremendous benefit. Most excavations have to complete an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), and a background in geology would be quite helpful. Basic courses in botany and zoology will also prove helpful.
<a href="http://www.usd.edu/esci/geodepts.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.usd.edu/esci/geodepts.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>3) Keep in mind that historical archaeology is a relatively small field and can be hard to break into. This holds true for anthropology as well, although it's a broader field. Taking art history, economics, history, computer science, and foreign language courses can broaden your scope and options. You are highly unlikely to get wealthy in this field. </p>

<p>4) There are plenty of schools great for undergrad in archaeology or anthropology. The "top" schools (Penn, Chicago, Yale, Berkeley, Michigan, etc.) are best saved for grad school. For historical archaeology, I would suggest slightly less selective schools with a better undergrad program. </p>

<p>Washington & Lee, UVa, College of William & Mary, UNC Chapel Hill, Wake Forest, Penn State, Brandeis, Boston University, Washington, Bowdoin, George Washington, Hamilton (offers an interesting geoarchaeology major), Haverford/Bryn Mawr, Maryland-College Park, UT Austin, Washington U in St. Louis, Wesleyan, the College of Wooster, Cornell U, and NYU immediately come to mind.</p>

<p>5) When evaluating departments, ask lots of questions.
-What graduate programs do students get into?
-How big are classes?
-How many courses are usually offered?
-Are the classes a mix of undergraduates and graduates (common in archaeology)?
-Does the college offer a field school?
-How many faculty (especially tenured) are in the department, and how many students major in the subject?
-Does the department have significant funding? Resources? Facilities?</p>

28

<p>Great post, but I have a minor quibble. You wrote, "The "top" schools (Penn, Chicago, Yale, Berkeley, Michigan, etc.) are best saved for grad school. For historical archaeology, I would suggest slightly less selective schools with a better undergrad program." This makes a good point, that the big powerhouse schools are not necessarily the best place for undergraduate work. I fully agree, of course, as I am a huge proponent of LACs. However, you can not generalize to the extent you do. Among the "top" schools you've identified, Yale happens to have the strongest and most selective undergraduate program in the country and actually has one of the smallest undergraduate programs of any top research university. Chicago is also on the smaller size. </p>

<p>You just can't lump together places like Caltech, Yale and Princeton - which have small undergraduate programs but also happen to be among the top universities in many areas - with places like Berkeley and Michigan, which also happen to be top universities but which are well-known for giving much less attention to undergrads (i.e, not as many fellowships, not as close advising, larger classes, fewer opportunities per student in general). Just look at academic support spending per student, as measured by COHE - Caltech, Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth, etc., are at the very top of the list along with places like Swarthmore. Large universities like Michigan, Ohio State, Penn, Penn State, Cornell and the like are far, far down the list.</p>

29

<p>I was a Dartmouth anthro major. </p>

<p>It is an AMAZING department with total focus on undergrads. It starts sophomore summer when anyone with over a 3.2 gets to work one-on-one with a professor for what is called a "presidential scholarship (paid to boot)." THEN Dartmouth offers a grant to anyone in the dept (up to 10K) if you prepare for your thesis (I got 10K for my thesis research and did independant cultural research on a pacific Island!), a great thesis program which many students elect to take (I had TWO advisors). The culminating seminars usually have less than 10 per class (two of my final classes had THREE people). I literally had 5 classes with practically one-on-one instruction and tons of one-on-one time away from class (I had dinner with my professors families and went to dinner with them...)</p>

<p>To top it off 100% of the 6 or 7 majors who got their PhD in my class right after school went to top 5 grad schools like Berkeley, Chicago, and Harvard. Many more elected to do further international research, which their professors were instrumental in getting. I think the difference is that students graduate from Dartmouth with incredible recommendations and actual research experience.</p>

<p>Oh yeah, AND there is a Dartmouth anthro study abroad program in New Zealand.</p>

<p>Its amazing. Not to mention the fact that Dartmouth is one of the best schools anywhere AND is a terrific social experience. Interestingly, I (a person who only wanted anthro for undergrad) leveraged my experience into getting into a top 5 business school as one of the youngest in my class. </p>

<p>People WAY overrate graduate department ranks. While a Michigan student is probably sitting in a class with 100 people, I was out at my professors house meeting his family and eating lasagna. THAT is what makes your career.</p>

30

<p>Yes, Dartmouth would be a fantastic choice as well. Just as slipper pointed out, the top schools (the ones that like I said above, have the most academic support spending per student - namely Swarthmore, Dartmouth, Yale, Caltech, Princeton) offer grants and attention to their students like you won't find at a typical large undergrad program like Penn State or Berkeley. That gives those undergraduate students an ENORMOUS advantage when it comes to getting into the top graduate programs in anthropology. If you look at the composition of such programs, you'll find that many of the students come from "top undergraduate programs" like the ones I listed a few posts above.</p>

31

<p>
[quote]
You just can't lump together places like Caltech, Yale and Princeton - which have small undergraduate programs but also happen to be among the top universities in many areas - with places like Berkeley and Michigan, which also happen to be top universities but which are well-known for giving much less attention to undergrads

[/quote]

I certainly agree with you (since I'm a student at a small research university!), and that wasn't really what I meant to say, so permit clarification. What I meant to say is that it would be wise to choose a college with a better undergrad program <em>in historical archaeology</em> for undergrad rather than the traditional archaeology powerhouses, since that's her interest. Chicago is all very well and good, but it has limited excavations and courses outside the Mediterranean/Near East area. Similarly, Brown's archaeology department has the "Old World" title attached, with good reason.</p>

32

<p>Beloit is very well noted for its anthropology department for an LAC.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.beloit.edu/%7Eacademic/fields/majors/anthropology_overview.php%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.beloit.edu/~academic/fields/majors/anthropology_overview.php&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

33

<p>Could not agree more with PosterX
Its too bad so many high schools focus on graduate ranks. There is a reason why the schools poster mentioned do so well at graduate placement. A strong overall undergrad brand (like Princeton, Dartmouth, Williams, Amherst, etc) + a rich school (Ivies and others) + undergrad attention (the LACS and smaller schools) = the best undergraduate experience in many areas.</p>

<p>The big graduate focused schools are better in "vocational" areas like engineering, computer science, film, etc.</p>

34

<p>My friend at Dartmouth is majoring in Anthro and the summer after her freshman year she was invited by her prof to accompany her on an archaeological dig in South America. She said it was an amazing experience. I don't think Dartmouth suffers by not having a separate Archaeology department because many Anthro courses encompass archaeology as well. Dartmouth seems like a great match for your daughter because it is small and rural, and she will get to know her professors very well.</p>

35

<p>Thanks everyone! We will get to looking at all of these schools right away!</p>

36

<p>Gourman Report ranking for undergraduate anthropology:</p>

<p>Michigan
Chicago
Berkeley
Penn
Arizona
Stanford
Yale
UCLA
Harvard
Northwestern
Texas Austin
New Mexico
Cornell
Illinois UC
Columbia
UC SB
U Washington
U Mass Amherst
Wisconsin
U Fla
Penn St
Pitt
Duke
Rutgers NB
Indiana Bloom
Hawaii Manoa
UC Irvine
UNC CH
UVA
SUNY Buffalo
Arizona St
Brandeis
UC Davis
Colorado Boulder
Tulane
NYU
Princeton
Washington St Louis
U Conn
Bryn Mawr
U Oregon
UC Riverside
U Minnesota
Brown
Southern Methodist
U Kansas
Missouri Columbia</p>

37

<p>I think Gourman is a bunch of ++++</p>

<p>This means nothing, its basically a list of grad ranks. Note the absence of all LACs, most of which are incredible feeders with incredible programs.</p>