The School of Anthropology admits students to the PhD program in Anthropology and the MA program in Applied Archaeology. Most students admitted to our programs have been in communication with potential advisors prior to submitting their application. Prospective students are therefore strongly encouraged to contact potential advisors via email to share your interests and confirm that they will be accepting students. Faculty expect and welcome this contact.
The School of Anthropology offers one stand-alone Master's degree. This is a Master's in Applied Archaeology. To find out more about this program please visit our website.
All other applicants should apply directly to our PhD program. If you don't have a Master's degree, you will earn one on your way to your PhD. The School of Anthropology offers a general program and special track programs (related to the subdisciplines and concentration areas) leading to the Master's degree. A minimum of 33 units of graduate work is required for a Master's degree.
Requirements for the special track programs are the same as those for the general program plus 3 to 9 additional units, including appropriate internships and practica. A thesis or paper, reporting substantive and original research, is required for the MA. The MA paper or thesis is written with the guidance of a committee of three members of the faculty. The final examination for the Master's degree is an oral examination, administered by the faculty committee. The oral examination is individually scheduled in the candidate's last semester of study for the degree. It is based on the required and elected coursework and the MA project or thesis.
For the MA degree, no more than 6 units of graduate work may be transferred for credit from another institution. The Graduate College requires that the cumulative grade point average for all work taken for graduate credit be at least 3.00 (on a 4.00 scale). There is no foreign language or statistics requirement for the Master's degree in Anthropology.