Hi all
I graduated from my college, which is a very small public liberal arts school with an undergraduate thesis and a very good reputation for sending students to grad school, with a BA in English.
I did a handful of classes in anthropology, although it was exclusively in cultural anthropology which is my area of interest. I didn’t pursue it more because I was told repeatedly that if I did want to pursue Anthropology, an anthro major in undergrad isn’t critical.
Now, one year after graduation, I want to apply to Anthro PhD programs with a hope to focus on Cuban culture, maybe Cuban children’s literature, and Latino studies as a whole, particularly research into women’s issues and leftist or anarchist movements.
But I’m seeing so far that only ivy league schools actually have fully funded programs - is this really the case or am I not looking hard enough?
Secondly, given that it appears my only option for a fully funded program, which is all I’m interested in, are ivy league schools, how realistic could it possibly be for someone with an English BA to apply for an Anthro PhD at an ivy league and get in? What could they be looking for?
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No, that’s not true. Most of the top programs in anthropology will have fully-funded programs, which will include the Ivies and other elite private colleges as well as top public universities. For examples, Duke, Penn State, Michigan, Emory, Stony Brook, and Berkeley offer full funding for their anthropology PhD students. Generally speaking, you can cautiously assume that a good/well-reputed PhD program in anthro fully funds their students in some way - but of course you can always first peruse the website and then ask if you don’t find anything there.
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I’m not sure why someone told you not to pursue anthro more. I mean, theoretically speaking you don’t need to major in anthropology to get into an anthro PhD program, but realistically speaking those with a major will be the most competitive applicants. Graduate study in any field assumes a base, foundational knowledge in a specific area and builds upon that. Professors may fear (rightfully so) that students without the appropriate background won’t have the theoretical foundational knowledge necessary to do well in the graduate coursework and the research. Some programs will care more about this than others. Penn State, for example, says you don’t need a major and students who come in without one are required to make up the missing coursework in their first year or so.
Do you have any anthro research experience? That will also be important in gaining admission.
Also, have you considered comparative literature programs or interdisciplinary programs (something like American studies, which combines many humanities and social sciences fields, even if American studies is not necessarily the appropriate program to pursue)?
There are Latin American and Hispanic Studies departments out there.
Or a Spanish department?
^One caveat I do want to add to that is that the kind of degree that you get will in some ways determine the kind of ob you can get later. For example, if your goal is teaching university/college students - there are more jobs for anthropology PhDs than for Latin American studies or comparative literature PhDs). Anthropology PhDs typically don’t have issues getting into an anthropology department or other interdisciplinary departments like Latin American studies. But a Latin American studies PhD might have a hard time getting hired at an anthropology department. That’s a little less true for comparative literature which has become a discipline in its own right, and I think comparative literature jobs are actually slightly less competitive than American or British literature.
Still, when it comes to studying what you want to study - an interdisciplinary department may be the way to go, given that it sounds like your work is at the intersection of literature and culture/anthropology.