swampghoul

I recently got accepted to a super rad master's program in archaeology in England (consistently ranked in the top 10 in the world [brag brag blah blah]). I was so happy and proud of myself and absolutely psyched to go until I started talking to my sister about it. For some context on all the confusion I'm about to express: I had probably one of the worst career centers for archaeology at my undergrad institution. There were literally no resources and nobody in the office knew anything about getting started in archaeology. On top of that, there were only two archaeology professors in the entire college, and they were massively overworked and therefore unable to sit down with any of us and talk about what we should expect from grad school. My sister is currently doing her PhD in evolutionary biology in the States, and we started talking about my program and possibly deferring to next year due to COVID-19. I understand that there are major differences in terms of resources and procedure between our fields, and major differences between British and American grad school structure, but she mentioned that she was paid to do both of her degrees-- they were fully funded (?terminology?). In contrast, I would be paying roughly $30,000 for my one-year degree. This is, I'm sure you would agree, a whole heck ton of money. I thought it was normal. Now I just feel like I'm being scammed by a system that I don't understand. Everybody I've talked to (fellow grads) from my college indicated that I would also be paying a lot of money in the US, but now I'm not sure. Are there programs at home that would be fully funded or where tuition would be covered by my contributions to the department? Is it usual or even possible to be paid for my masters degree in archaeology? What is your understanding of what is normal to pay or be paid for an archaeology masters degree? This seems like something that should be totally obvious, so I'm feeling unbelievably stupid right now and am considering pulling out of the program completely. Additional facts because I feel like it might come up: 1. I understand that the UK higher ed system is known for being predatory when it comes to international students who will pay higher fees. It's generally understood that they have lower admissions standards for us and I was fine with being one of those putzes as long as I was getting a really good education. 2. I wanted to go to the UK because I want to study British/insular pre- to early-medieval archaeology specifically, and I want to be able to work in the field during my program. It wasn't a frivolous travel-oriented choice and I genuinely thought being there would be the best move for my career.