Admissions

The Department of Anthropology’s unique graduate program is focused on the social relations, culture, biology, and history of past and present peoples. Geographically, our research foci lies within Latin America, North America, and the Caribbean. The graduate program in anthropology provides intensive training and research opportunities to a select group of graduate students with the objective of producing scholars who will be successful teachers and scholars, and who have the theoretical breadth to teach and produce work that is of significance beyond their specialization. We have an excellent track record placing our graduates in career positions that require a PhD, with especially strong performance in tenure track position placement.

Applying to the Program

We only accept students we can fund for our full six year funding program. This enables us to provide students with targeted faculty attention and resources and setting our students up for success. This restricts our cohorts to generally three or four students per year. Applications received by December 1 will be considered for enrollment in the subsequent fall semester.

The department accepts only students who seek the Ph.D.; M.A. students are not accepted. Doctoral students receive a master’s degree in passing after they satisfy language and course requirements and pass comprehensive exams. Students who do not pass the comprehensive exams may, at the discretion of their exam committee and the DGS, have an option to receive a terminal master’s degree, which may require additional exams or written work.

The application process to apply for the Ph.D. program in anthropology is completed online, and it is administered by the Graduate School. Complete applications are due December 1st of the year before you want to enroll (e.g., if you wish to start in fall 2025, you must submit a complete application by December 1, 2024).