Hello, I would really appreciate recommendations for schools that specialize in Mesoamerican Archaeology, specifically Mayan Archaeology.
Your best bet is to look into who’s doing research in Mayan history/culture (these are the folks you want to study and work with), and determine which schools they are teaching or have taught.
For example, look at Richard Hansen.
He’s currently an Adjunct Professor of Anthropology at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City and is the director of what is probably the largest archaeological excavation in the world, the Mirador Basin Project.
In the past he was at the Institute for Mesoamerican Research in the Department of Anthropology at Idaho State University.
Check out UT Austin and the career of David Stuart (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Stuart_(Mayanist)) if you haven’t already. Also check out Tulane, the University of Arizona, Boston University, and the University of Colorado (Boulder). These schools have employed Mayanists in recent years. Top research universities with perennially strong anthro/linguistics (whether or not they currently employ Mayanists) include Berkeley, UCLA, UChicago, Harvard, Michigan, Stanford, and UPenn.
Are you a HS student?
If so, you may want to keep in mind that you’re talking about an interdisciplinary field.
A college with strong undergraduate programs in linguistics/anthropology and good financial aid, even without any specialists in Mayan, might be preferable to some universities with specialists who rarely teach undergrads.
Your own state flagship may be a good choice
^
Great suggestions. I cannot recommend Tulane enough, which is arguably the best place for Maya studies these days. UT Austin, Arizona, and BU are also very good, and the rest of the above suggestions have strong archaeology programs overall. (That said, I think there are significantly better options than Chicago for Mesoamerican archaeology, however excellent its resources in Near Eastern archaeology.)
Brown, Vandy, SUNY Albany, Arizona State, UNC Chapel Hill, and to a lesser extent UC Riverside, SMU, U Pitt, and Wash U have also traditionally been quite good for Mesoamerican archaeology and linguistics. Alabama has a very good, up-and-coming program as well.
There are fewer strong archaeology programs among liberal arts colleges, but the College of Wooster and Lycoming both have thriving archaeology programs with Mayanists on faculty. Check out Bryn Mawr and/or Haverford as well, especially due to their proximity to Penn.
Anyone interested in making a career of archaeology (a very questionable life choice, to be honest!) needs to have a PhD in the subject, so you don’t need to attend a top program for undergrad. Your flagship public likely has pretty good offerings in archaeology.