bioarch_fan

Your POI's research doesn't have to match yours exactly. Sometimes just as long as they study within the same region of interest or maybe the same topic but different region then that'll be fine as well. Just look around for professors that study around the same topics that you want to.

Daisy123, Dr. Larson is a very busy man. If you haven't gotten a response back after 72 hours from your initial email, then try emailing him again. I'm not sure how good it will be to attempt to work with him though because I do know that he has a lot of grad students right now and he might not be accepting students right now. OSU has a lot of different bioarchaeologists or professors that work within the field. Check out a couple more professors there!!!

Yeah, it does sound like we have a lot in common. Most of the schools that you put on your "applying to" field I actually looked at and crossed off my list. The only one that remains is UNLV. But here's the caveat with that school. I talked to Dr. Debra Martin, the main bioarchaeologist there, and she said that unless your topic is centered around violence, then it might be harder to get in there. I saw her at the AAA conference last year and she warned me against applying since most of my interests stray away from that topic mostly. But I'm still planning on applying because I'm also interested in evidence of violence in the Roman Empire, especially how the violence differed in geographical ranges, i.e. Britannia and Rome. Is there no way for you to contact OSU and tell them your situation? I know sometimes they'll be more lenient because of things that are out of your control, like a professor going out of the country.

Oh ok...that's cool. That's sort of where I'm leaning a little towards as well. My main specialties include paleopathology, paleoepidemiology, and paleodemography. But I'm also interested in stable isotopic analysis to study diet and migration patterns. Do you know what region or time you're more interested in? For instance, I'm more interested in Ancient Rome and Greek, but my specialty spans all of antiquity through the middle ages. Actually, Columbus isn't as straight edge as people would think. There's a small portion of Columbus right off of OSU's campus that is called the Short North. It's more of the artsy district and they have a lot of antique shops and art studios. That's also the main location where the gay population hangs out since there's about 5 gay bars in 1/4 mile radius from each other. Lol.

That's actually very uncommon. It all depends on the department, but since you haven't had any classes there and they don't know how you work, they probably won't offer money for this coming summer. Best thing to do is apply for grants, especially through the AIA.

I'm not, though they do have an amazing bioarchaeology program, but my advisor received her PhD from OSU. I only live about an hour and a half from Columbus. However, I really want to get out of Ohio. Been here long enough. Lol. What do you want to focus on if I may ask?

Just wanted to state that a couple of your schools are top schools in the field, i.e. Arizona State and UT Knoxville. They are extremely competitive programs so before you apply I suggest talking with professors there and at your previous institution. See what everyone says. Competitive is nice, but that also means that funding might be minimal. Vanderbilt is a great university and they should be able to offer reasonably good funding because it is a private university and from my experiences, private universities can usually offer better funding and stipends.

I agree with what AKCarlton stated. It is one of the best programs for bioarchaeology. I have looked into it but I decided against it because of how competitive it is. Funding probably won't be easy to come by because of how many grad students they have. I'd say talk to POIs at the school and see what they say. But I definitely suggest using it as one of the reach schools if you're interested in it. However, there are other great programs for bioarchaeology. Look into Ohio State, they are a great program and have some leading biological anthropologists, including multiple bioarchaeologists, on staff. What region of interest are you looking into?

Hmmm...who is the grad student that you are talking about? One of my POIs graduated from UNC Chapel Hill and she's a Roman bioarchaeologist. I've found a couple schools that sort of have my interest, but most of them are North American, Andean, Incan, Mayan, etc bioarchaeologists. I'm trying to find schools that have a classics department so that I can draw from outside of the department as well if I have to. May I ask what school you go to? And that is very true. But the good thing is that my main POI teaches at a MA school. So I'd have to go to another school for my PhD anyways. So I shouldn't have to worry too much about the "clone" portion of graduating.

Nice to sort of meet you? Lol. I wouldn't say that you're older than everyone here. I'm actually older than the normal undergrad (26 years old). But you sound like you have a lot of your interests pretty narrowed and nailed down. I was thinking of getting my MPH because of my interest in infectious diseases (it's combined with my interest in Roman bioarchaeology, specifically paleopathology and paleoepidemiology, and forensic anthropology). I'm still debating on it because being able to have that option of working in the public health sector seems like a rewarding career as well. Just not entirely sure if I'll do it or not yet. I love Roman bioarchaeology SOOOOO much more. Lol. But I have a lot of friends that want to do medical anthropology and public health. So maybe they'll join in on this conversation too.

Yeah, I'm actually planning on applying to McMaster in Canada (they have a couple professors there that I'm interested in working that specialize in Ancient Rome and infectious diseases. And I'm also looking into Durham, University College London, and Edinburgh all in the UK. I just don't want to apply to too many international schools because usually if you're accepted you have to prove that you can support yourself before they'll give you a visa to study in their country. So that's why I'm in a conundrum for my POI search. I have almost all of them narrowed down, wanted it done by last Friday but that didn't happen because I was busy all week last week with it being the first week of classes and all. I'll probably email professors this week and see what their responses will be. I hope that it'll be good ones because I have done a lot of research on each individual professor I'm looking at and most of their research is somewhat related to mine.

Thank you so much for you response. I was talking about Dr. Verano. But he's not the only professor I'm worried about because I have a lot of other schools that I want to apply to but they don't have a professor that does Roman bioarchaeology. There are only a couple schools that specialize in that, so it's really hard to find some that matches. That's why I wanted people's opinions on if the specific region has to be the same as the professor. Guess it'll probably just be best to email the professors and see if my region and subject is enough to be accepted or not.

Maybe this is a question that someone in here can answer for me. I have most of my schools narrowed down, I'm applying to more than what people say I should because I want to cast my net wider, but all of the schools I have chosen so far have professors that work in my area of interest. But the question is, I am doing primarily Roman bioarchaeology, but there aren't many Roman bioarchaeologists out there. Does the specific region of interest have to be spot on with your POI or does the specific area of interest have to coincide with your POI's research area? For instance, there's a professor that I know from Tulane that does Incan bioarchaeology, but I have no interest in Incan bioarchaeology. Should my region of interest match up with his? I have heard conflicting things from different people. Haven't had a chance to ask my advisor yet because she's out of the country right now and I wanted to have my schools picked out by the end of this week.

Looks like our interests are very similar. But I'm not as interested in South American bioarchaeology. My main area is Ancient Roman and Medieval bioarchaeology. Looks like we're also applying to at least 1 school similar, Durham. But I'm also looking a little more into Tulane. Not sold on it yet though. I'm taking my GRE next month, so good luck when you take yours as well.

Honestly, I've seen some schools with MUCH lower acceptance rates than those. That's nothing to be afraid of really. I have a couple schools on my list that are around the 10% acceptance rate, but my interests match up pretty well with the department's and with a couple faculty members. Just go for the schools that you feel most comfortable with. Read the professor's articles, maybe even a thesis if you can find it. Talk to the professor via email, Skype, or a phone call. Visit the school and see if you could actually see yourself attending that specific school. This is something that you should probably start no later than September, except the reading part, that you should start right away, if you haven't done so already. Just get yourself acquainted with the school before spending all of that money applying to the school and you not like it once you do apply.

Personally, I have about 15 schools that I am choosing from. Once I finish narrowing it down, which i plan to do this week, then I'll have no more than hopefully 10 schools to apply to. All of them I have done pretty decent research on and need to do a little more to see what the prospects are for post-doc work. But I know some people say to not apply to more than 5, but I disagree with this statement. I would rather cast my net wider and have a better chance of getting into a good program with funding than not getting in at all or getting into a place w/o funding. That's why I'm doubling the amount of schools I'm applying too. Plus, I'm also thinking about applying to a couple history or classics MA programs as well, which will lead to me getting my PhD in anthropology.

But you are correct in assuming that a lot of TT jobs are slowly being replaced by adjuncts because they don't have to pay them as much and they don't have to offer as good of benefits. This is the sad truth in academia all around in the social sciences and humanities. This is one reason why I have been thinking of doing a MA in history or classical archaeology and a joint MPH/PhD in anthropology. Just spread my interests a little bit and I'm fine. Maybe if this is something that is feasible for you to do then it might be worth trying if you're afraid of the potential job market in 7-10 years.

I do want to note that what maelia8 said isn't entirely true. Most of the time it is a better thing to contact the POI before applying to make sure they are accepting students for your admission year. You don't want to spend the time applying to a school if they aren't actually accepting students, and it also lightens the admission committee's load a lot if you don't apply when the professor isn't accepting anyone. I have NEVER had a professor, or anyone for that matter, say that it is bad to contact a POI before you apply. It is usually suggested that you do contact them ASAP. Every professor that I have contacted has been open and receptive to me. Maybe it's different in anthropology and I haven't written any history professors yet since I'm not sure if I want to get my MA in history first, but this is just from my experience so far.

Along with looking into good intro to classical archaeology textbooks, you should also look into regular archaeology textbooks. Those will normally have all of the information associated with archaeological methods and theories. I say this because while classical archaeology texts will have more information pertaining to the classical world, you won't have any actual archaeological foundations. My school uses the Greene & Moore textbook Archaeology: An Introduction. ISBN: 9780415496391 If you have any other questions pertaining to archaeology I might be able to help. I'm actually an anthropology student, so I can help a little more with archaeology related questions.

I've been trying to find schools that have both an anthropology grad department AND a history grad department so I can at least take classes in the history department if I didn't end up getting my MA in history or classics. I haven't thought of looking at interdisciplinary programs, and now that I think of it I haven't thought of looking at programs that have dual degrees for these two fields either. Might have to check that out. Thanks. I have looked at UNC-CH for their anthropology program, but not their history or classics. I know one of my potential POIs got her PhD from Chapel Hill. So that could always be a positive if I decide to go to her school because of her specialty in Roman bioarchaeology. But now that look at their history department, it does look pretty good to me as well. Thanks for mentioning UNC-CH

Thank you Powder for your advice. I didn't think about the idea of having to add scholars from outside of the department to make up for any shortcomings that the department might have. That actually helps me a lot with my search. While most of the schools I am looking at have at least a bioarchaeology professor on staff, most of them are either Andean or Incan bioarchaeologists, with a couple South Asian ones added into the mix. So adding a professor from history, classics, or biology would help me a lot. Gotta get back to the search now.

I saw this thread and I thought I might try and introduce myself. I'm actually an anthropology student specializing in Roman bioarchaeology (which is the study of human remains in an archaeological context) and forensic anthropology. But I am also a history and classical civilizations minor. I've been really thinking of also obtaining either a history or classical archaeology MA. When it comes to history I am obviously considered a classicist because of how much I love anything to do with Ancient Rome. But I am also a medievalist as well. My interests span from from antiquity to late antiquity to the late middle ages. I am extremely interested in the Black Death and how it may have differed from other plague outbreaks throughout the world, i.e. the Plague of Justinian. I'm not sure what schools I'm looking at for history since I just decided to start thinking about doing a history minor, but I want to find schools that also have PhD anthropology degrees so that I can finish both degrees at the same institution. If anyone knows good schools for my areas of interest I'd be happy to hear.

Thank you both for your comments. This is something I've been thinking of for a while now. There aren't really that many Roman bioarchaeologists in the United States, really there's only one that I know of for sure and she's only at a MA school, and there's a school in Canada that has 2 bioarchaeologists specializing in ancient Rome. So I was trying to think of other possibilities for after the MA if I went there. Also, is it strange to go to a MA school with a different area of interest than where you go to get your PhD? For instance, if accepted to the MA school I could do Roman bioarchaeology with her, but I'm also interested in the Black Death and I know another school that has a PhD program that has a professor specializing in that. Would it be more difficult to get into the PhD program if I had a different area of interest for my MA?

I know this is a bit early to start a discussion on this, but I thought since some people are preparing for applications now it would be a great time to talk to other people drudging through the same thing. I thought it would be nice to introduce ourselves talking about our area of interests, where we want to apply to, and where you're at in preparing for grad school. Maybe this will give other people the ideas of what they should be preparing for as well. I guess I'll start since I'm the one starting the thread. I've done quite a bit to prepare myself for grad school. I've been on a research project with two of my department's professors, one of which is my advisor, but I've recently dropped out of doing it because I'm also starting my senior thesis this summer. I am working on a thesis, by my own choosing, on a subject that is interesting to me. I'm looking at prison records at two of our penitentiaries from the 1918 influenza pandemic and seeing how the flu affected the prison's population and hopefully how they differed since they are different types of prisons. I am finishing my BA in the 2014-15 school year and will be graduating Spring 2015 with a major in anthropology and a double minor in classical civilizations and history. My main area of interest is in Roman bioarchaeology. I want to learn more about the health of the general population, not just the aristocracy. I think gladiatorial health would be interesting to learn about because we mostly hear about how they died, mostly in combat, but we don't hear much about the diseases that some of them might have had. But along with that, I'm also interested in a paleopathological analysis of the Mediterranean area as a whole. Part of my interest lies in the bubonic plague/black death and I'm interested in how the Italian strain of it is different than the London strain, not just the 14th century plague, but also the plague of Justinian (6th century CE) as well. I'm actually planning on applying to quite a few schools, approximately 10, so I'm hoping my recommenders don't mind. :/ I just want to keep my options open and have a better chance of getting into a good program that offers funding. Masters only schools: University of West Florida, University of Central Florida, and East Carolina University. PhD schools: University of South Florida, University of South Carolina, Michigan State University, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Notre Dame, University of Nevada Las Vegas, Durham University, McMaster University, and Edinburgh University. Told you a lot of schools. Currently, I'm just studying for the GRE, I plan on taking it in July or early August before fall semester starts. This will give me time to retake it if I really need/want to. I've already talked to a couple recommenders and asked if they'd be willing to write some when classes start up again and I told them I'd ask again once fall semester started. I've also been in contact with a couple POIs, some via email and some at national conferences. I plan on going to a total of 3 conferences this year so I can network a little more. Starting next week I'm also going to start writing my SoPs. I want to give myself time to work on them before classes start again so all I have to do is touch them up a little bit later. Sorry for such a long thread but I rarely post on here and thought it would be nice for us all to talk about our interests and where they are eventually leading us in our future endeavors.

Go with where you have a connection with the department and with the faculty. Don't go off of the rank or cost because that doesn't show what the department is truly like. If you have faculty at both types of schools that you would like to work with, then apply to some from both sides and see which ones you get into. If you get into more than one and one of them doesn't offer funding then go with the one that does offer funding. If you get offered funding from more than one then go with the one that you have the best connection with your POI.