<p>Thanks. That looks like an interesting program and the price is definitely right.</p>
<p>At some point she needs to learn how to read French and Brown only offers that in the summer. So I don't know how that will get fit in ... I guess she will be the one to figure that out!</p>
<p>When I was up at Brown one of the profs told me that students can take classes at any university in the "Brown Learning Community" or "Learning Consortium" or something like that. He rattled off a list of schools including several in Boston as well as (I think) Providence College, which does offer French.</p>
<p>I've heard that Monticello is good, but am not familiar with programs outside the country. I've found it very difficult to compare field schools; every professor has heard reviews of a small handful of programs led by their friends or attended by their students, but there is no comprehensive ranking system or established assessments available for fieldschools in general. The best solution, then, might be to compare the quality of the university departments managing the digs, since good archeology professors should run better digs. While that isn't necessarily true (good field archeologists can be lousy academics and vice versa), it may be the only measure available. I imagine it's also acceptable to ask your question directly to the people running the expensive digs: What extra training or resources do you offer your students, that would not be available from the cheaper options we've seen?</p>
<p>It's hard to say why cost varies. I'm more familiar with U.S. digs, and for these it sometimes looks like price variations are not tied to quality. Some of the difference might depend on genuine differences in cost of living at the site (hotel vs. tent, expensive city vs. farm village, etc.), some depends on how much the principals were able to get funded through sources other than student tuition (grants or government contracts, etc.), some depends on the ratio of paid staff to students, and much of it is tied to the regular tuition rates charged by the sponsoring university. I wonder whether the universities increase their price when they are able to secure a very attractive site, too, though that's just my own speculation. Most of my friends talk about "where I attended fieldschool" (that is, the site) rather than the university or program that sponsored it.</p>
<p>You ask whether the extra cost for Harvard's dig would be "just for the name." Even if it were only for the name, that name (that is, contacts made in that department) might be worth it depending on the student's future plans. Geographic sub-fields of archeology are very small worlds and contacts can go a long way. Without knowing the program, though, I wonder whether these contacts would be worth it to you personally: South American specialists are going to be best able to connect their students with opportunities in South American specialties. Personally, I would choose the dig most similar to the geographic/temporal/cultural interests I hoped to pursue later. </p>
<p>Was there a specific underwater archeology project that interests your daughter, or just learning the process in general? Most folks say that learning underwater archeology is a significant time commitment. The underwater program most often mentioned is Florida State University.</p>
<p>I guess the French is just something my daughter will have to work out. Yes, Providence College has regular French, but so does Brown. What my she wants is the course that teaches French for reading professional literature. It doesn't seem like Providence has that and Brown only has it in the summer. But I've already told her that she'll have to work that one out herself. Perhaps a group of students will have to get together and request it. Brown tried to cancel the German reading class last fall and the students successfully petitioned for it to be offered. Her department (Egyptology) says that candidates should learn to read German and French early in their careers, and of course she needs to take all the Egyptian and get some Arabic as well. A long conversational French sequence isn't going to work ... I'll tell her to look into the different schools where she might take classes. She's still practicing the German so it hasn't been a high priority to work this out yet.</p>
<p>No, she isn't interested in South American archaeology per se; it just looked, from the description, that the Harvard program provided a very good program in teaching the basics of field work.</p>
<p>I'll tell her everything else you've said. Thanks for taking the time!</p>
<p>I was told to learn French and German also for Classics, but it was recommended to me to wait a little while, like early grad school/late undergrad to worry about it. I got the impression that there wasn't really any rush, as long as you learned it in time for your exams.</p>
<p>I think it may be different for Egyptology. The undergraduate web site says: "There are no prerequisites, but students are encouraged to learn German or French early in their college careers because so much of the scholarly literature is written in these languages." My daughter found that her rudimentary German knowledge (taking the German reading course at the time) useful in doing a paper for a class in her first semester.</p>
<p>I know it says "German or French" but dd is the type that will do both in circumstances like this. She has found already that it would be useful to know how to read French as well.</p>
<p>Even if a journal article or book is in English, sometimes an author in Egyptology will quote something in German or French without translation.</p>
<p>I didn't see similar language on the Classics web site. Perhaps the scholarly writing differs?</p>
<p>Oh well, as I said, my daughter will have to work this one out. I mentioned to her that she could self-study (I've seen texts for learning to read French) but she would prefer a class. Either she will have to find a convenient class somewhere or be convinced by her advisor that she can hold off on French until grad school.</p>
<p>Of course, now she has her fingers crossed she will get into the Pompeii field school. If she does she wants to self-study Italian before she goes ...</p>
<p>It really annoys me that all the scholarly work is done in German and French...maybe the difference is that Egyptology is relatively obscure (compared to Classics). Also, most the first years of Classical study is usually learning Greek and Latin, for which you don't need to read journals or books, until you're at an advanced level.</p>
<p>Someone once told me that the #1 reason people drop out of PhD programs is the language requirement - that is, trying to learn a new language(s) while keeping up with a full load of grad classes/assistantships. I can't verify that this is true, but it seems like getting a handle on languages during the undergraduate years could only be a good thing...</p>
<p>what's the max score on the GRE exams?</p>
<p>Q: 800 (92%)
V: 800 (99%)
AWA: 6.0 (I forget!)</p>