Graduate school options for a history major?

[Winter27]

This is my first time posting so I apologize if this is in a wrong spot or anything, I’m not familiar with forums. I just have a quick question on options for graduate school for a history major? Is it possible to have a history undergrad and go to graduate school for archaeology or anthropology?

Thank you to anyone who helps out! I really appreciate it!

[warblersrule]

Yes, but you should have at least some classes in archaeology and/or anthro, and writing an anthropologically oriented senior thesis would help. For archaeology, you should also have at least one season of excavation experience.

[juillet]

^To elaborate - to go to graduate school in one of those fields you’d want to have at the very least the equivalent of a minor (~5-7 classes) in that field, and ideally about the same as a major (7-10 classes). You’ll be competing primarily with majors. More importantly, you’ll be expected to have foundational knowledge in the field - to know the theories and techniques of anthropologists, know historical anthropologists and what the field was built upon, etc. If you’ve never taken any coursework you can’t build on it.

From the FAQ:

There’s a reason they call it graduate school. For academic programs at least (programs in a discipline - like English literature, philosophy, physics, computer science, math, etc.) as well as some professional programs (like engineering and nursing), the expectation is that you have a foundational base of disciplinary knowledge that you learned in college that you will build upon in grad school. The way things will be taught in your graduate classes will assume that you have a basic shared knowledge of the theories and research/scholarly techniques of your field. For this reason, most academic MA and PhD programs expect a major or the equivalent of the major in the field.

Is it possible for people with a BA in an unrelated field to get an MA in a different one? Well, sure, but with a few caveats. First of all, you have to do the work to get up to speed in the discipline. That usually involves taking some coursework, sometimes as a non-degree or post-baccalaureate student. How much you have to take will vary - 5-7 courses is usually a bare minimum, with the equivalent of a major (10-15 classes) being the ideal. It’s not just any 10-15 classes, either; you need to build some breadth and depth in the field. Some programs will have prerequisites posted on their website. If not, you should probably model the classes you take upon a major in the field, perhaps scaled down a few classes.

Do also note that prerequisites are often minimum standards. For example, a competitive economics PhD program might say that you only need three semesters of calculus and linear algebra to be admitted, but the most competitive students may have also take differential equations, real analysis, and advanced econometrics before admission. Or a program may say that they sometimes admit students with a major in a different field, but they have a specific definition of that (e.g., an MA program in physics may take a math major but not an English major; a comparative literature program might take a classics major but not a biology major). Or “sometimes” could mean “once every five years, if they are also Einstein/Chomsky/Hawking/Bandura/[insert other disciplinary genius here].”