<p>Hello everyone,
Which of the following universities (Cal, Harvard, or Stanford) offers the strongest medical/socio-cultural anthropology graduate program?</p>
<p>Isn’t that your job? Ask your professors as well. We don’t really have any regular posters who are in anthro on these forums.</p>
<p>Ticklemepink: Thank you for the response and information. I was unaware of the deficiency of Anthropology posters “here,” however, it is a simple question. I am simply seeking the opinion of other individuals, is that a problem? Or by asking such a simple question am I “not doing my job?”</p>
<p>no one here knows the answer to your question. it really is “your job” as an applicant to do this research yourself. google is your friend.</p>
<p>Go to the websites of each of those 3 programs. If they put their placement rates up, see where their graduates end up. Do they have “well-known” faculty in the field? Ask professors in the field if your professors don’t particularly know.</p>
<p>Strangelight: So you speak on behalf of every single member of the page? It strikes me quite odd that you possess such insightful information regarding everyone’s knowledge regarding the question I posed. </p>
<p>It seems that a few of the respondents have mistakenly inferred that the initial poster (myself) has not checked the university sites for himself. It was never implied that the poster did not check out any of the web pages, nor speak to experts in the field. </p>
<p>In my initial response to the first respondent it is made explicitly clear that my post was a simple question directed towards no person in particular, but rather seeking a general OPINION. Again, is there a problem with asking such questions to students on a website such as this one?</p>
<p>I can’t speak authoritatively on the issue, but I would assume that Harvard is very, very good. I was in a course this past semester taught by Arthur Kleinman, Paul Farmer, Salmaan Keshavjee, and Anne Becker. All of whom are medical anthropologists. Kleinman taught all three of them, and I understand that he taught many other top scholars in the field. However, I don’t know how much longer he will be managing dissertations.</p>
<p>OP- Look, every field has its own “rankings.” That’s why your question is better answerewd by someone doing anthro, not people in history, psych, sociology, or whatever. We don’t want to give wrong information. So no answer just generally means that there’s no appropriate person on the board.</p>
<p>And SOMETIMES questions like that (naming the top of the top schools) implies that you haven’t done your research. Someone who HAS done research will generally name some non-top 10 schools where they might have a shot at.</p>
<p>honestly, if you have checked the university sites yourself, then you already have the answer to your question. so yes, it is fairly safe to say that you haven’t done the work yourself yet.</p>
<p>Ticklemepink writes “And SOMETIMES questions like that (naming the top of the top schools) implies that you haven’t done your research. Someone who HAS done research will generally name some non-top 10 schools where they might have a shot at.”</p>
<p>I take it that my mention of Cal, Harvard, and Stanford alluded your analysis? My question was regarding the strongest of the 3, meaning that quite contrary to your erroneous inference, research may have led to the question at hand in order to understand other student’s opinions regarding THEIR criteria in judging the strongest of the 3. </p>
<p>Strangelight: I have an acquired opinion, yet apart from my own notions I am also curious as to the opinions of other students regarding the question and the criteria they use to establish “strength.” </p>
<p>Refer to the initial question, I ask for the strongest program(s) offered in 3 particular universities. Any poster is free to devise their own notion of strength in order to provide their opinion. </p>
<p>Again, it is a simple question that has caused an unnecessary backlash. Ironically, there are those that not only possess the ability to respond to questions they have not thoroughly read, but also peek through computer screens and determine whether or not a person is doing their job.</p>
<p>Forget about which is the strongest. It’s about where you will fit best. Apply to all three, apply to some decently strong programs, and apply to some backup programs. Once you know where you are accepted, weigh your options and make a decision. Nobody cares who has the strongest program. Where you will succeed and develop into the best scholar you can be is more important.</p>
<p>Kawicha, ranking graduate programs is not a simple task, especially since there are subtleties even within something as specific as medical anthropology. Although I know nothing about the field, I can imagine that one program might have a focus on shamanism in the Americas while another may be famous for archaeological analysis of pre-history self-medication. And still another may look at societal constructs that enable or prevent epidemics. I agree with Student35 – apply to all three to see where you get in. When you have your choices, look carefully at the profs to determine your own evaluation of which is strongest/best for you. The more faculty members that are working on topics that excite you, the more you’ll love the program.</p>
<p>I think people are being prickly because most of us on the board tend to look at graduate programs in tiers rather than as numerical ordering of strength simply because it’s too difficult to rank individual programs. The best example of this is another site (which I won’t name) which ranks programs based on criteria, such as student funding and faculty citations, that you select and assign relative importance. You can have radically different rankings depending on what is most important to you, although the top 20 grouping is pretty much stable.</p>