Hey everyone, I’m doing a college search and I’m looking for the best schools for Anthropology. My focus will be on Cultural or Linguistic Anthropology, and I really like Harvard’s Medical Anthropology PhD program. I couldn’t find any current posts on CC about it but I may well be blind. Thanks in advance!
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You are currently a high school student? University of Arizona is one of the top anthropology schools, as is the University of Tennessee.
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Beloit College has always been good for anthro
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The overall strongest departments will be those that offer courses in the four major anthropological subfields: cultural and social, linguistic and biological anthropology and archaeology. You may also wish to favor those schools at which the anthropology and sociology programs operate through separate departments.
For specific suggestions, look into Vassar, Hamilton, Wesleyan, Barnard, Pitzer, Connecticut College and Bryn Mawr.
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Providing some preferences in terms of size (2000 students? 5000? 15,000?), location (urban? rural? which region of the US?), and especially cost constraints and selectivity will help quite a bit. What are your stats (GPA, test scores, etc.), and how much merit/financial aid will you need?
Your flagship public university may well have a very good anthropology program. Cultural anthropology is by far the most common of the four subdisciplines of anthro; you have far more options than you would for bioanth.
As a general rule of thumb, I recommend avoiding schools that combine anthro and sociology into a single department.
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Yes, I’m a junior in high school.
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I prefer smaller schools but not very small schools. I prefer the East Coast. Selectivity doesn’t matter to me. I’ll need as much financial aid as possible. I got a 34 ACT, and I have a 4.5 weighted GPA. I’m most likely going to apply to QuestBridge’s College Match program, so that limits my options quite a bit. I live in southern California, so UCIrvine and UCLA are the closest UCs near me.
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Beloit is very well-known for Anthropology. It would be a safety and they have good financial aid.
Do express interest (fill out the Request info form, click on the emails they send you, communicate with the Anthropology dept).
Most colleges in #3 are in Questbridge.
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Based on your academic achievements, many of these top-notch schools will be open to you:
Btw, are you female or male?
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Here’s one ranking:
https://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/university-subject-rankings/2016/anthropology
This may be skewed toward graduate program strengths, but presumably the undergraduate programs also are strong at most listed research universities. LACs that sometimes are mentioned for strong anthro programs include Bryn Mawr (women only) and Beloit.
Note that even the largest, strongest university programs are likely to have relative strengths in specific anthropology subfields. A few CC threads already have cited these differences. See below; browse the online course listings and faculty profiles.
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/18995716#Comment_18995716
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/17810479#Comment_17810479
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/16743128#Comment_16743128
Keep in mind, too, that many students change majors. So, issues common to all programs (such as net cost) may be at least as important as specific department strengths. You may see a ranking (such as the complex NRC ranking) that gives high marks to, say, Penn State or NYU. That doesn’t make either school a great choice if you hate the location or if your family can’t cover the net costs.
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What you want to check are the profs, their backgrounds, research interests, and continuing professional activities. Then, the course offerings. Ensure anthro classes are taught by anthropologists, not other subject specialists. And that the profs do regularly teach undergrads. Then you’re off to a good start.
In my mind, no sense going with a “top rated” program (whatever that may mean,) if it doesn’t match your own curiosities.
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I’m a female, so Wellesley and Barnard are open to me.
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To be clear, that was the coeducational Wesleyan that I recommended in reply #3. Barnard and Bryn Mawr are the two women’s colleges I recommended.
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Oops, you’re right. I was already planning on applying to Wellesley; it must have been a Freudian slip. My mistake.