<p>Hello,</p>
<p>I am currently thinking about applying to Anthropology(archaeology focus) M.A. programs this winter, however, I am a little concerned about how my background and lack of experience in the field will affect my chances for admission. I don't have a lot of research experience because I did not study anthropology or archaeology in college(I studied the liberal arts). I didn't even realize I was interested in archaeology until about my last year of college and even then I hadn't thought about going to grad school. </p>
<p>I have talked to every program I plan to apply to and they all say that they have accepted students into their program with backgrounds other than anthropology. This is great, but I can only assume that those students probably made up for their deficiencies in ways that showed in their applications.</p>
<p>I am not completely devoid of any experience though. I graduated college about a year ago and since then I have taken a few archaeology courses at a local college and attended a six week archaeology field school. This last week I got a volunteer position at museum where I work with their archaeology collections as well. </p>
<p>However, I am concerned mostly about my letters of recommendation. Obviously, it is best to get professors who know you well and who you have done research with. But the problem is, with the exception of my field school director, I don't know anyone else who can fit that criteria. Depending on the program, I need 2-3 letters of recommendation and I am at a loss on who else I can ask. I have thought about the few professors who taught my archaeology classes, but one was an online class, simply because the teacher was doing research out of the country(so I didn't really get to know him) and the other teacher I had, I never really liked. Even in a class of fifteen, he never seemed to know who anyone was and he never took roll. Any time I would see him outside of class I would smile at him but he never liked making eye contact(maybe if I was thinking about graduate school at the time, I would have tried harder though...). The third and final person was, until recently, a graduate student. I have thought about talking to her, but while I did well in her class, it's not like she really knew me and I never thought about asking if she was working on any research.</p>
<p>And even worse, I can think of a dozen college professors I had who know me well and who I had interacted with outside of the classroom. But I don't know if they would make for very strong candidates because they can't say much about me and archaeology.</p>
<p>I feel like not being able to produce 2-3 good letters of recommendation will dramatically affect my chances of getting into one of my M.A. programs.</p>
<p>Any opinions or advice?</p>