<p>A few thoughts: </p>
<p>Firstly, don’t worry about your GPA-- A 3.7-3.8 is TOTALLY fine. Seriously. </p>
<p>Secondly, don’t worry much about coming from a less prestigious program. The fact that your school has placed students into strong grad schools is a good sign. However, do know that most of your peers in grad school will be coming from more elite places.</p>
<p>Your modern languages are great, but having only three years of one ancient language and two of the other will put you at a disadvantage. Ideally, you want to have four years of one and three of the other. And frankly, the more you have before you start, the better. If your languages are weak, it is going to hold you back and cause a ton of stress.</p>
<p>Additionally, you don’t mention anything about fieldwork, but you really need to do some, either in Europe or in the States, before you start a PhD. Fieldwork can be grueling and often unpleasant, and you need to make sure that you actually like doing the work of archaeology! Additionally, grad schools expect that you come in with some field experience. Browse the bios of students posted on most PhD program websites, and see the type of work students were involved in during their undergrad years. Fieldwork in Europe can be expensive, but there are grants and fellowships that you can apply for. And, if that’s not possible, there are many field projects in the states that are considerably more affordable, and still let you get your hands dirty.</p>
<p>If you want to pursue archaeology as a career, you really have to get your PhD from a good program. And, honestly, all of the ‘good’ programs are really competitive-- the ones that aren’t, aren’t a good bet. </p>
<p>Furthermore, in archaeology, ‘Ivy League’ doesn’t really mean anything. Yes, Brown and Penn have strong programs, but Columbia and Yale and Princeton (for straight archaeology)-- not so much. And, just to cover the other programs you discussed, NYU doesn’t really have an archaeology PhD at all-- they have IFA (art history) and ISAW-- both of which are (or seem to be, in the case of ISAW, which is really new) very competitive, while Buffalo is a fine place, but as far as I know, funding can be hard to come by there, which is bad. You should absolutely not do a PhD at any program that doesn’t fully fund you. </p>
<p>So, you need to figure out what programs are strong for your set of interests (either geographically, temporally or whatever), and then consider whether you have the preparation (particularly in languages and fieldwork) to get in. </p>
<p>One option worth considering is getting a MA from a strong feeder program: FSU and Arizona both have funded or partially-funded archaeology MA programs that send many students on to top PhD programs, and there are more options for MAs in classics, rather than archaeology (which would be a great way to get your languages up to speed, as well). A feeder MA program might be a good bet, also, to give yourself some time to get fieldwork experience, and to figure out where exactly your interests lie. If you look through the bios of students at programs strong in your chosen interest, you’ll likely see that many received MAs before beginning in the PhD program, or did post bac years (though post bacs can be expensive). </p>
<p>But, most of all, you should trust your faculty and advisors, as they know your work directly and can give you the best advice about how to proceed. Good luck!</p>