Best non-ivy colleges for people going into Archaeology as a major

Look at each program offered at each college and see if they offer subspecialties or if one college specializes in a type of archaeology that appeals to you.

I think your question is appropriate, but premature. Anthropology already consists of four sub-areas: cultural and social, linguistic, and biological anthroplogy and archaeology. By having expressed an interest in archaeology, you have in some sense already determined a specialty branch, at least to the extent that would be appropriate for an undergraduate.

In addition to your undergraduate archaeology courses, you would be encouraged to take supporting courses in geosciences, chemistry, biology and statistics, to the extent that these aligned with your interests. This all would be in addition to the unrelated courses you would be taking. Your determinstion of which archaeological sub-specialty you would like to pursue further would develop naturally during this process. Choosing your undergraduate college with too specific criteria as relates to archaeology could be counterproductive; the purpose of your undergraduate studies would be to give you the foundation that would allow you to both choose and transition into any sub-specialty with ease.

From a more direct perspective, as you peruse course catalogs, look for a school with at least a dozen or so archaeology courses that seem of interest to you. Even at that, you still might not have the time to take all of them.

A friend’s ds had a fabulous experience as an undergrad archeology major at Wooster. His overseas summer fieldwork training was top notch under excellent researchers.

http://www.wooster.edu/_media/files/academics/catalogue/areas/archaeology.pdf

Sounds lovely. I have as a matter of fact heard of Wooster before; thanks again!