<p>Background:</p>
<p>My wife has her undergrad degree in elementary education with a history minor, ~3.7gpa and ~1300-1400 GRE. After staying home with our youngest daughter for a few years she has decided that she no longer wants to be a schoolteacher - it was her mom's job and she went into the field because of job security, not passion. Her preferred field: Historical Archaeology.</p>
<p>She is currently trying to prepare a plausible application package for next year, for Ph.D. if she can swing it. We cannot afford for her to take classes at a reputable college right now so I suggested that she volunteer to work with archaeologists in the MD area - they would get the extra hands and she would get references down the road. It is going well, and she is heavily involved in a couple of publishable projects under well-respected archaeologists(according to her - how would I know?), spending about 20-30 hours per week. She also is about to spend a few months working as a part-time docent for the Smithsonian, more for fun than anything else but it provides more contacts and resources.</p>
<p>We will be moving in August to IL. She is going to reduce her workload with the MD projects (keeping only what she can do remotely) and try to hook up with some local professors under a similar arrangement - gain experience as an unpaid assistant in lieu of coursework. If we can swing it, she may be able to take a few courses at that time, but probably 1-2, certainly not more than 4. She will realistically be limited to the schools in our area (either Urbana-Champaign or Chicago), but she will have a year of MD work and hopefully a semester of IL work under professors in the prospective department</p>
<p>Question:</p>
<p>What else can she do, and does she have a reasonable shot at pulling this off? I want her to do what makes her happy, but this is not my field (I'm an engineer) and I have no idea what to suggest to her as additional steps. She is pursuing this on her own, I am just trying to help.</p>