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MAKING DECISIONS ABOUT GRADUATE SCHOOL

Graduate study in archaeology is a challenging but very rewarding adventure. It is a fundamental rite of passage for archaeology students interested in pursuing academic careers. Graduate studies are increasingly valuable as a background for archaeologists interested in public interpretation and education and in cultural resource management. People should make decisions about what they are interested in doing after grad school before they make the decision to apply to grad school in the first place and before they choose the graduate programs to which they apply. Certainly, plans change and sometimes unforeseen opportunities arise. Nevertheless, graduate school demands significant commitments from grad students and their professors and potential applicants. Studying archaeology or other fields of knowledge in colllege offers chances to explore ideas. Grad school certainly offers these kinds of opportunities, too, but also demands specialization and the commitment necessary to create and finish an original project.

Choosing Graduate Programs

Successful graduate applications will convince their readers that those students belong in their department. An application should make it clear that there are broad thematic interests and specific professors in a department who will contribute directly to the success of a student.

• Choose departments whose interests match yours. Yes, it can be nice to have an advanced degree from a prestigious anthropology department. However, the much more significant consideration for a prospective graduate student is whether he or she will be able to pursue the kinds of graduate studies in which they are interested. Look at the list of professors in each department to which you may apply to learn what their interests are, and visit web pages of departments to learn what their graduate programs are like and what major themes are of interest to them. Ask your teachers and colleagues about departments they might recommend to you for graduate studies, and consider visiting your chosen departments before sending in your applications.
• Apply to several graduate programs. The decisions that departments will make about your applications are very much out of your hands, and for that reason it is wise to apply to several different graduate programs. Decisions that departments make are closely related to the pool of applications they receive in any given year, and many different considerations influence the decisions that members of those departments will make. University funding for anthropology and archaeology programs can vary from year to year, which affects the numbers of students and the numbers of funding packages a department can offer to its incoming graduate cohort. Professors cannot accept more students than they can advise, and professors need to devote a great deal of energy towards their own research and writing.

The Application Process

Start compiling your application materials early. The application timeframe and the process itself vary from one department to another. However, many departments set deadlines in January or early winter. Therefore, it is wise to begin asking specific departments for their application materials by October or even earlier. Take the Graduate Record Exam early in the fall, and consult the GRE web page for schedules and guidelines. Ask for transcripts from your college or university well before you need them to send with your application materials. Write several drafts of your application essays, each of which should convince your readers that you fit in the department to which you are applying.

• Meet all the deadlines. Graduate programs receive applications from many more students they can accept each year, and narrowing the applicant pool down is often a challenging task. Whether deserved or not, your application is easier to reject if any part of it arrives after a deadline.
• Write your application essays or statements of interest well before application deadlines. This gives you an opportunity to set them aside for a while and to look at them later with a fresh perspective on what improvements you might be able to make. Applications are a difficult form of writing and you may also benefit from comments on drafts of your essays by teachers and friends.
• Ask for written recommendations well in advance of application deadlines. It is helpful to your referees if you send them copies of your application essays. This allows them to make specific reference to your interests in the letters they write about you and your potential. Meanwhile, it gives them an opportunity to give you their own feedback about the way you have written your essays or statements of interest. Furthermore, it is a good way to give your referees a tangible reminder of what letters of recommendation they need to write for which schools by which dates.
• Follow all the instructions on the application forms. Every department has its own process for evaluating applications, and their application materials are tailored to that process. Make it easy for them to review your application, and make sure they have all the information they want right where they want to find it.

Making Your Decision

Applicants will receive letters from department admissions committees about the outcome of their applications. Most departments receive many more applications than they have spaces in their graduate programs. Often, several applicants are accepted and several more are placed on a waiting list. Eventually, those on the wait list may be accepted if other applicants choose to go to other universities. Admissions committees generally identify faculty members whose interests relate to those of accepted applicants. These professors often will contact prospective students directly to invite them to join a department and to give prospective students a chance to ask questions about any given program.

• Ask what graduates of the department have done after graduation. If graduates from a department are doing what you would like to be doing after graduate school, that might be the program for you.
• Ask what funding is available to graduate students at different stages of their graduate careers. Find out what funding opportunities are available to first year and more advanced graduate students, because funding does become a major consideration not only for grad students but their advisors and departments.
• Find out what courses are required of and available to graduate students in your chosen department and related fields of study. Would the required courses interest and challenge you? Are there readings courses and other electives in the anthropology and related departments that interest you?
• Find out the schedule of grad school rites of passage at your chosen department. What kind of graduate exams will students need to take and when? When and how do students present and defend proposals for their theses and dissertations?
• Visit the department. Chat with professors and students. See what the library and archaeology lab space are like.
• Visit the town. It could become your home for several years or longer. You might want to learn what kinds of housing are available and what the costs and benefits of living there are like.

Pursuing Graduate Studies

Many graduate programs have an advisor for all first year grad students. Students are then encouraged to choose the professors whom they would like to invite to serve as their own committee chair and committee members. Choose your committee whenever your plans crystallize, and as with many tasks in graduate school, the sooner the better. Get your coursework done, and ask professors to lead readings courses in topics that you want to pursue but that are not covered in specific courses in the catalog of the university at which you are studying.

• Be focused. Concentrate on what you want to do and where you want to go in grad school and afterward. Your advisors are a great source of guidance on how to define your goals and achieve them.
• Be calm. Graduate school will present both intellectual and organizational challenges. Take them all one step at a time.
• Keep moving. Grad students are like sharks. They need to keep moving by reading and writing and getting grant applications done and maintaining a research program that will lead them towards graduation and the opportunities that will arise after that rite of passage.
• Keep reading. Graduate courses demand lots of reading and writing. But keeping abreast of the literature in archaeology and especially your chosen subfields is a valuable and rewarding practice.

This page was originally compiled by Chris Rodning, but thanks to Tiffiny Tung and Patrick Livingood for their contributions.

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