How Your Application Is Reviewed
Decisions for admission to the graduate program are initiated by the individual faculty who will potentially serve as mentors. Primary considerations for admission are quality of the student and fit with the department. For this reason, successful applicants declare a particular field, provide relevant information on their prior education, work-related experiences, and other training, and describe their research interests (topics and area) in order to demonstrate a good fit with faculty research interests. Successful applicants typically name the faculty members they wish to work with on their application, and contact those faculty prior to submitting their application. The department is less likely to admit students with only general or underdeveloped interests in anthropology, or those whose research interests do not match current faculty.
Applications must be complete by the deadline, December 15, to be considered for admission. Applications are organized by field (archaeology, biological, linguistic, sociocultural). Faculty with principal research in that field read and evaluate only those applications. However, applications from students whose research spans two fields (e.g., bioarchaeology, historical ecology, biocultural anthropology, ethnoarchaeology) will be read by faculty in both fields.
The faculty in each field meet separately to rank the applicants for admission. Admission is selective, and the number admitted in any year varies according to availability of faculty and resources. To be admitted, any applicant must garner the support of at least one faculty member to chair the supervisory committee, another faculty member to take secondary responsibility (filling in if the chair cannot serve), and at least one other faculty member to be a member of the supervisory committee–a minimum of three faculty committed to the applicant. High-ranking applicants usually have more than the minimum number of faculty supporting admission.
The Graduate Admissions Committee, composed of faculty representatives of all fields, reviews the ranked admission requests of each field on behalf of the department and ranks all applicants for department-controlled fellowships. The Department Chair makes all final decisions on admission and financial aid.
