bioarch_fan

You should also look at University of South Florida. They have an MA and PhD in Applied Anthropology with a track in Medical Anthropology. Like UW, they also offer you a chance to get your MPH at the same time as either the MA or PhD. I have a couple of friends there and they enjoy it. You might also want to look at Johns Hopkins. They're obviously known for the MD program, but it might be good to look at their anthropology program. They have a couple of medical anthropologists on staff that you might be interested in working with. Finally, while it's not my specialty, you might want to look at Mississippi State University. It's only have a MA program, but they try to only accept students that they can fund. Currently there's a professor who does research on HIV/AIDS in Africa, but she's leaving at the end of next semester and they're hiring for her replacement right now. This individual will still be working on medical anthropology, so you'd still have that connection. But sadly there is no clear replacement yet to tell you what their research will be on.

Check out Mississippi State University. We are hiring a new medical anthropologist to begin next year because we're losing the one we have right now. I know that's not the best situation but that's all I know for sure. Plus the department usually tries to fund all of the students that they bring in. And we're losing 2 of our graduate students that are TAs for the cultural class. So they would likely give funding. Plus we definitely need more cultural because we will only have 1 cultural grad student that is taking classes regularly. Let me know if you have any questions about the department!

Look at David Hoffman from Mississippi State University. He's a cultural anthropologist who does a lot of fieldwork in Central America, specifically Costa Rica. He mostly looks at how humans and their environment affect each other. This is my program but not my advisor since I'm bioarch. But still something to look at.

Right. Mentioning that stuff is correct but they don't expect you to have in text citations on anything at all. I think I mentioned other work that would be beneficial for my possible thesis.

No, a bibliography isn't needed because you shouldn't have anything in them to reference. What you should be stating is what your interests are and the type of project that you would want to work on. They don't expect you to have a full proposal written out, so references would be highly unordinary. So if you don't have any...that is 100% okay.

Honestly my paper that I submitted with my applications was a paper written for my history department in undergrad. So just as long as it's your strongest writing sample that's all that really matters.

Definitely not too late because some deadlines don't happen until next semester, whereas others happen in the next month or two. It truly depends on when the deadline is for the specific programs you're looking at. I'd say start contacting POIs now though so at least you have been in touch with them and know whether it's a good fit or not.

The only problem would be if you want to work in Latin America. Depending on your specific region of interest, I would suggest learning that language. I believe David Hoffman could still advise you on tourism and environmental anthropology even if it's not in Latin America, but I would suggest contacting him before applying. He's currently on sabbatical this year, but should still be accessible via email since his sabbatical is strictly in the US.

Well if you're interested in tourism and environmental anthropology, then you should look at Mississippi State University and look directly into David Hoffman. He works in Latin America looking at both tourism and environmental anthropology in the region, specifically Costa Rica. So it might be a good opportunity to look into. Plus a lot of our students are funded, usually they won't accept anyone that they can't fund.

You're right. The applied anthropology field is using anthropological theories and framework to solve real world problems. I just started my MA program and it's an Applied Anthropology MA program, but my focus is bioarchaeology, so slightly different. It really all depends on what in anthropology you are interested in. Our faculty interests range in topics, as do many other programs. So it's best to narrow down what exactly in cultural anthropology you're interested in.

It truly depends on what your interests are when it comes to bioarchaeology/osteoarchaeology. It's such a HUGE subfield that there are so many possibilities for graduate school. You'd have to narrow down your interests a lot. I just started my MA program for bioarchaeology and I absolutely love the program. If you want some help with finding schools and to talk about your interests, please PM me. I'm more than willing to help you out. I looked at every possible school in the US with specialties in bioarchaeology, so I definitely can tell you where to apply, especially with funding.

And don't forget that you CAN bring in outside committee members or readers. A committee member can be from anyone outside of your department (at least that's usually how it is). So you could choose someone in the biological sciences, history, or if your school has an agricultural studies program even that, to help cover all of your bases. And not all departments allow for outside readers from another university, but that's always a question you could ask your POI at the school your applying to when you get accepted. Maybe with something like your interests you would want someone from biological anthropology to help with any biological constructs of this relationship, a cultural (environmental) anth for another part, and another cultural for the regional area. There are ways to work it out to where you'll have more than one person that does something similar to what you want to do. I'm adding an archaeologist more than likely that focuses a lot on statistics since my proposed project will center heavily on stats. But again, you won't have more than one POI more than likely for your study of interest, but don't forget that anthropologists change their research interests readily, so email POIs and talk to them about what you want to study. See if they're interested in the research and if they, as well as the department, can help you with this research topic.

The only problem is that it depends on your subfield in anthropology. While both TakeruK and rising_star are correct that you should have other options in case your POI can no longer serve as your advisor, it is sometimes impossible in anthropology to have more than 1 POI in the department. For example, my subfield in bioarchaeology is a relatively small field and most anthropology departments (if they have a bioarchaeologist on staff) only have a single professor I can work with. I am lucky because a new bioarchaeologist came on staff the same year I started (this year), so if something goes wrong with my first POI, then I have a back-up. But sometimes that's not possible for some people. If you're in the same situation as me, you might want to just make sure that department is where you are meant to be. Talk to your POI a lot, that's what made my choice for me. My POI and I talked on the phone a couple of times, sometimes for more than 30 mins to an hour. That sealed the deal on me coming here. If you have any questions at all about this then please let me know because I can attest that the majority of departments only have a single professor that works on similar things that you want to.

Honestly, your GRE scores aren't that bad. I did about the same on mine and I still got in. It really depends on the school and if it's a PhD or MA program. I'm doing my MA at Mississippi State and they only wanted to see that you did it but didn't care about the scores really. Most departments don't anymore because they understand how horrible of a test it is and it doesn't show how well a student will do in a department. Where are you planning on applying to?

7 years for a MA+PhD isn't really that bad actually. The average for a PhD in Anthropology in the States is about 8.5-9 years. So I wouldn't cross it off just because it's a long time to be in your program. Plus, you can also get done with your PhD sooner if you get through your coursework quickly and do data collection and dissertation write up quickly. Just some food for thought about the matter.

I am but I've been told by numerous professors to not dwell on regional similarities and to actually focus more on methodologies and research similarities because usually regions can adapt with methodologies. Plus there are very few Roman bioarchaeologists in the world. So I have to look at others too.

Oh ok...that's cool then. I looked at doing a MD/PhD but decided against it. And I still haven't found the Andean bioarch guy there. I was going to look more into Cornell when it was ready for my next application season. But I have time to figure that all out for now.

One question...why Harvard? Do they have a bioarchaeologist on staff finally??? I know Cornell just hired one to start this year but I don't know who that person is yet. Waiting for them to announce it on their website. Lol. Thankfully I have 2 years until I have to worry about applying for a PhD school now. Though I was told by my advisor this past week that we're going to meet this coming week to talk about thesis topics and I'm going to start my proposal right after that so I can do this in two years instead of the normal 3 for my program. Lol. Gonna be a rough semester with beginning my graduate career (more coursework at least), preparing for my thesis, AND working on a project to present something at the Paleopathology/Phys Anth meetings in April. Lol

Sorry everyone. I was in Europe for most of the summer after I posted this...I left like 2 weeks later for an archaeology field school. I got back and had to rush down to Mississippi for training. I decided on having a roommate this first year and see how it goes. She's a cool roommate so far and we get along well so far. I usually leave the apartment by like 8 every morning and don't get home until after 6 or 7 most evenings. So I'm very rarely home. And when I am home I'll sit in the living room for a little while and talk to her before going to my room to do more work and then sleep. After this year I might re-sign the lease and keep the entire apartment to myself. It's $700/month for a 3 bedroom. So it's a little more than I'm comfortable with, but we're in the SEC for football and a lot of people come into town for the games. So I could rent the extra room or two for people coming into town for the games. This would give me extra income by a lot...I know people that charge over $150-200 per weekend for games. So I guess we'll see how that goes. Thanks for the insight everyone!!!

I am starting my first year of graduate school at Mississippi State University in the Fall and I have been searching constantly (literally daily) for housing in the area. It's a cheap town to live in compared to many other college towns ($600 for a 2 bedroom), so I don't mind the living alone part if I stick with rent being about $600. But I have been thinking it might be better to get a roommate, at least for the first year, to save money that could be used for other things. My predicament is that I LOVE my privacy. I don't usually like to have roommates because I plan on having a life outside of grad school too; meaning that I will be having people over to visit or to stay the night and as a member of the LGBT community many people aren't okay with that. So here's the thing: Have a roommate and save a lot of money that can be used to pay off bills and loans from undergrad and also make a friend outside of the department. Or live alone spend a little more money and have all the privacy I want. What would you all suggest doing? I have someone that's already emailed me looking for a roommate for next year and he seems like a cool guy but I don't want to just jump into it yet. I'm not in Mississippi right now and won't be until August 1 or so, so meeting him early isn't a possibility.

Did you have to do this type of class and certification? If so, do they have you make your own mini-lecture prior to the class on your subject matter or do they have you make one on a topic of their choosing that anyone can accomplish? Just trying to figure out what to expect.

Thanks. I'm hoping that it won't be too bad. I'm just worried that if I do horrible during the small lecture portion that they won't pass me and I won't be able to TA or something. That's mostly what I'm worried about at least. Lol.

So I will be a TA for my first semester of graduate school at Mississippi State in the fall. I have to attend a TA class the week prior to the fall starting. Part of this class requires me to present a small lecture to a group of faculty members. I'm slightly worried about this because I've never taught anything like this before. Has anyone else had to go through this type of situation of presenting a lecture to professors before???

I'm actually surprised that any PhD programs don't require it. I know of a MA program that doesn't require it but that's only 1 program. I should look into that because I'll have to retake the GRE when I go on for my PhD to make my application stronger.

I'm not too sure on too many PhD programs but I can tell you that University of West Florida has archaeologists that focus on maritime archaeology and Spanish colonization in Florida. However, I do know that it would be best to look at universities in Florida, Georgia, and Texas if you're wanting to look at the colonization of the Caribbean and Latin America. University of Florida has a PhD program and I know they have a professor that work on this topic/region (Moseley), University of South Florida has professors that work in the Caribbean, Tulane has professors that work on colonization, and some professors at University of Texas look at the colonization of Latin America and the Caribbean. Obviously this is just a small selection of schools and I would say that you can find more outside of these specific states if you search a little more but I would start with these schools and branch out from there. Look at papers they've written and see if they have any co-authored and see where their co-authors teach. Honestly, what I did was I went through every single school in every single state that I could stand to live in and looked through their anthropology departments intently. I looked at every single professor and their interests and looked through their publications. That's probably the BEST way to do it so you're not missing any major school that you might have overlooked otherwise. Hope this helps!!!