<p>My freshman daughter is majoring in Egyptology. Since are only a handful of colleges in the US with many relevant undergraduate courses in the subject (and only one with a major!) and they are all selective, we also did research into archaeology in coming up with her application list.</p>
<p>U Wisconsin - La Crosse looks good initially. However, read what the web site says. You are in the college for a year and then compete for any slots that open up in the archaeology department. There may not be slots or you may not make it.</p>
<p>Have you looked at U Missouri - Columbia? It has an archaeology program and was my daughter's safety. It also has rolling admissions, which means you can have one in the bag while waiting on the others. It was a nice feeling.</p>
<p>Don't go to a school just because it has a particular dig or field school. For most places, applications are taken for slots from all interested individuals, not just those at the school. My daughter submitted her first such application today. (If she goes to this one, the credit granting institution will be Northern Illinois -- perhaps there's another one to look at!)</p>
<p>What I found we had to do is get a list of places that SAY they have archaeology (from <a href="http://www.petersons.com%5B/url%5D">www.petersons.com</a> -- it is a subcategory of social sciences I believe). Then I went through the list, checking web sites and course offerings. Some places only offer a particular type of archaeology; others have maybe two courses in total and you wonder why they are listed at all.</p>
<p>You can play with the search function at Peterson's, putting in your stats and other criteria, which might give you a more manageable list, too.</p>
<p>The other pure archeology schools we came up with were Wash U St Louis and UNC - Chapel Hill, but both of these are very selective (if you aren't in state NC), also Bryn Mawr (classical and near eastern archaeology), UNC - Greensboro, and Appalachian (didn't apply to the last two, because Missouri seemed the better program and my daughter only needed one safety).</p>
<p>I think U Chicago is a reach for about everyone (the admit rate is higher than other places with students with similar stats, but I think the applicants self-select; it is a challenging place academically), but you don't have ACT or SAT scores yet, and only have three semesters of high school grades. So it is hard to really tell at this point what WILL be a reach or not.</p>
<p>Try to visit some colleges if you can. Then you might get a feel for whether you like big or small, city or small college town, etc.</p>
<p>warblersrule86, where did you see the Egypt dig for University of Arizona? It must not be a field school, because we've been going through all those. The only field schools we saw in Egypt were Penn State's, which were rejected because they were only three weeks long and very pricey. My daughter's department said she would do better to find a longer general field school. Also digging in Egypt in the summer? Ah, we were just there and around Luxor it was hot. I can't imagine digging there in June!</p>