Hello,
I’m curious what your opinion is on both the likelihood and practicality of a couple of graduate school routes.
I’m currently a student at UCLA, majoring in anthropology and history. I have good, not great grades (3.5), and I will be graduating in 2017. My dream is to get a Phd in archaeology and eventually work as a professor in an American school.
Recently I have become curious about the 1 year UK and Irish masters programs. I would likely only apply to Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh, St. Andrews, Trinity College Dublin, and University College Dublin. Oxbridge is my first choice. When looking up the Archaeology grad school acceptance rates for Oxbridge, the percentage seems high at around 65%. Does this seem accurate? What are my chances? Also, I would complete the program, then apply for a Phd in America. If I do the foreign program does it hurt or help my chances of getting into a top phd program? I’m not sure if the American Phd program would start from scratch, ignoring my masters (not ideal, but not a deal breaker for me).
Please assume money is not a factor. I am interested in this route because I think (though possibly naively), that it will help my career as an anthropologist interested in non-North American Archaeology. I have also attended archaeology field schools, worked with grad students in arch labs, and have fairly solid letters of recommendation.
One last thing. If I get my masters in classics (history) instead of archaeology, would that hurt my applying for archaeology later in America? In this scenario I’m assuming the American Phd program ignores the masters.
You don’t need to go to England to do non-North American archaeology. The Agora excavation in Athens is run by a professor from Randolph-Macon College in Virginia. UC Berkeley runs a dig in Nemea. I think Stanford has a marine site off Italy – or maybe Turkey. The list goes on.
Masters is different than undergrad: you want to have a bit better of an idea of where your interests lie, and choose the grad school with that in mind. For example, @alcibiade’s daughter just graduated from Cambridge undergrad with an Arch degree- but chose to go elsewhere for grad school, b/c the other university is stronger in her field.
Oxford requires a minimum GPA of 3.5, but most successful applicants have a 3.7; the rest will be happy with your 3.5. If you are self funding and write a credible statement of purpose I would fancy your odds at most of the unis you named, with the obvious caveat that Oxbridge would be the toughest nut to crack.
As for whether a masters will count, etc., it is likely to vary by program. You have UCB - one of the top Arch grad schools! right there- toddle over to the Archaeology department and introduce yourself! (iirc, they want an Arch Masters before you start their PhD, but do a little homework for yourself before you go over).
@collegemom3717 : You can’t just “toddle over” to UCB from UCLA but thanks for the laugh.
OP: check out the AHMA program at Berkeley if the Mediterranean is your area of interest. [You do not need a Masters from elsewhere to apply to the PhD program, although some do.]
You should know that the academic job market in the humanities is abysmal right now. Just truly awful.
You should go in with the knowledge that odds are you will not be a tenure-track professor. Are you okay with the idea of studying for 5-8 years for a PhD that you may never use? and
Have a solid plan B in the very likely event that you do not get a tenure-track job as a professor
If you go to a top program in the UK or something, it shouldn’t hurt your chances. The department just needs to be well-recognized in your field in the U.S. You might have to start pretty much from scratch or you might get some credit for your MA - it depends on the PhD program you end up in.
Eh, not necessarily. You can just as easily study non-North American archaeology here in the U.S.; you just have to go to a department that supports that.
That depends on the classics department and your focus. In some places the archaeology program is tied more tightly to the classics department than the anthropology department, or is tied to both. Some classics MA programs may allow you to focus on anthropology and archaeology of antiquity, and that will probably be a good primer to a PhD program in archaeology. But some MA programs in classics may have more of a historical bent. I don’t think American PhD programs will completely ignore that kind of MA, but they won’t consider it the same as an archaeology MA. It kind of depends on the MA program though.
Thanks for the info! I understand that the job market is horrible, and I know that I can learn non-North American archaeology within the U.S. I’m only curious about the 1 year masters abroad. To be more specific, my area of interest would likely be in medieval/bronze/Iron age within UK/Ireland/Gaul. I would love to attend any of these colleges (especially Oxbridge) but I do admit part of my interest is to hopefully do well and be able to get into a top 20 American Phd program. I should be able to pull my 3.5 up to around 3.7, but those grades won’t show up for American schools unless I take a year off. I’m already 27 so I’m trying to avoid this. This my interest ( I don’t think top schools will take the 3.5 in America)
Also, I know that (almost all) American archaeology grad school programs are Phd programs, not master. This is part of the reason I’m asking if this will hurt my chances.