Adding undergraduate experience?

[InkyLetters]

Hi all,

I'm a little early to the party I know (I plan on graduating spring of 16) but I'm starting to look into various outlets and options. I'm looking to go to grad school in forensic anthropology and while we do have a biological anthro and anatomy classes at my school we don't have any osteology classes specifically so I was looking into taking something over the next couple summers, not even necessarily for credit to get my feet wet. I know mercyhurst has short courses but I wasn't sure if those would be appropriate for an undergrad or if there were other options available to me. Any suggestions would be great!

[bioarch_fan]

If I could give you a word of advice, expand on your interests.  This is the same thing that my advisor told me when I started at my current university.  I'll be graduating Spring 2015 and I am applying to grad schools this Fall.  My advisor asked me what I was wanting to do with my future and I told her forensic anthropology.  She told me the downright truth about academia and the job market for forensic anthropology.  There just isn't enough jobs for all of the people that want to do it.  That's why I'm doing bioarchaeology AND forensic anthropology.  It gives you more experience and makes your CV look better for future job markets.  Plus, there aren't that many schools that offer a degree in forensic anthropology, and the few that do are extremely competitive to get into and if you do get in the funding is limited.  So expanding on your interests to include bioarchaeology (if you don't know what that is, it is the same thing as forensic anthropology, but looking at human remains in an archaeological context) would be a good interest.

 

On another note, there are many Summer field options that you can do to get the experience that you are looking for.  The Mercyhurst courses are good for anyone, but it might be ideal to have the osteology experience since they are extremely short.  You might also look at University of West Florida because they have a forensic anthropology field school and osteology isn't a prereq for it, it is just recommended.  So that means you'll more than likely be learning osteology in the field as well.

 

If you have any other questions about what to do to prepare for grad school message and ask away.  I have been planning for grad school for the past year and a half.  So I'm pretty prepared for whatever comes my way in that department.

[InkyLetters]

Thanks for the response! After looking over my previous post I realized that I didn't articulate myself at all. Whoops. My primary interest is remains retrieval for military, disasters, or human rights violations (think mass graves). But as I'm researching POIs and more about the topic I'm finding myself VERY intrigued by the study of disease and epidemics with skeletal populations and plan on looking more into that- because you are right. The list of schools that do straight up forensic anthro total to less than 10 and are super competitive.

I will look into Floridas field school. OSUs is too early for me since my university doesn't let out until mid may. I was considering "leading" the short courses that I was looking at with one of the very basic intro osteology courses they offer and then seeing if I could follow up with another later in the summer.

Thanks again for the reply!

[sarab]

I don't know anything really about forensic anthropology, but my undergrad department didn't have linguistic anthropology, so I minored in applied linguistics, and that really helped me. Maybe doing a minor ir biology would help. I definitely second Inky's recommendation: expand your interests. Plus, you've got plenty of time to learn more about other topics. Maybe doing an internship would help (a lot of anthro students here in Atlanta get internships at the CDC), or doing an undergrad thesis. Talk to an advisor in your department, they could probably give you additional input and information that would be applicable to your university.

 

Good luck!

[PowderRiver]

Add a minor or certificate: biology, chemistry, statistics, technical writing, or some sort of justice minor all look good on a biological anthropology application. Second (and third) languages are also a fantastic addition. All of these allow you to expand your interests and help fill out your CV and personal statement. You can also look for internships, depending on your current school, in any related areas; anything that gets you in to a lab of some sort looks good. You could also look within your own department to see if there are fieldwork opportunities available, even if it's volunteer work and not for credit.

 

As far as summer programs, there are a ton of field schools that offer bioarchaeology programs. If you can afford one of these, they look good on a CV and save your future department the time and effort to teach you how to dig and document remains. The AIA website has a pretty good list of programs that are typically announced in the fall and early spring, and most of the schools you've looked at will have their own listed somewhere on their own website. The upside of these courses is that they go on your transcript and are applicable to any physical anthropology student, but the downside is the cost.

 

Short courses and workshops may not end up on your transcripts, so you will need to showcase these somewhere else in your application, but they are typically cheaper and much easier to fit into a summer schedule.They're also great networking opportunities (Texas State just posted a 3-day workshop on the AAPA Facebook page, for example).

[InkyLetters]

Thank you all for being so helpful. I'm not minoring in chemistry because Calculus and I just don't mix, however I am planning on taking Chem 1 &2, possibly O chem (depends on how I do in chem 1/2 and if my GPA could handle it) bio 100, and Anatomy and Physiology in addition to some geology and GIS classes. I also have a psychology minor (at my school the departments overlap a ton so it was only like 2 extra classes). I'm currently completing field school (non-bioarchaeology, just historical) and I do the departments annual battlefield surveys. I've completed a few cultural anthro projects and presented those. This summer after field school I am completing an independent historical archaeology field project that I hope to present to a couple places to showcase that even though I'm not trained in bioarchaeology exactly, I am very good at field work in general. 

I'm looking in bioarchaeology field schools but the average cost of $5500 is a major hit so I'm not sure if that's feasible which is why I'm looking at short courses as they are less expensive and I could work between them to save the money. I am planning on going to the Phys Anthro conference in March this year, and possibly BARFAA as well. I'm reading a ton of journal articles and books to get abetter idea of what I like beyond "diseases and bones" and I hope to try to intern with a pathology lab since our school is a huge criminal justice school so we have good relationships with surrounding law enforcement agencies. I plan  on speaking to the department professors in the fall about how I'd go about interning with them and if it's possible.

 

DOes this sound like a good start? I go to a smaller school so I've just kinda hodgepodged the concentrations I know will benefit me since anthro/archaeology degrees aren't a huge amount of credit hours at my school.

[PowderRiver]

It sounds like you're building a solid foundation. Every program is different, so any experience you can build can be helpful depending on where you apply.

 

As far as field schools go: I think that experience is key. As long as you know how to excavate, you'll be fine and will want to emphasize this on your applications. It may be particularly helpful in larger departments, since other subfields may have a say in your acceptance and you'll benefit from a broad range of experience within the field. No one will look at a forensic/physical applicant and frown upon their ability to excavate and run a site.

Edited June 15, 2014 by PowderRiver