Admission Requirements

In addition to the criteria below, applicants must meet general graduate admission requirements .

• Three letters of recommendation
• Personal statement. PLEASE NOTE: The personal statement required for our program differs in structure from the general template included in the general admissions application. We seek only ONE essay (not two) totaling about 1,000 words covering (1) your personal, academic, and professional experiences that have prepared you for our graduate program; (2) your research and career interests and how these relate to our specific graduate program’s coverage and participants, and (3) the ways our training and degree will advance your career aspirations. Please be sure to obtain feedback from a faculty mentor on your draft of this statement, as these can be challenging to write.
• We also highly encourage, although do not require, the submission of a writing sample(s) that might help the Graduate Committee evaluate applicant writing, research, or analytical ability. 
• We expect applicants to have a strong background in archaeology, which is normally provided with a baccalaureate degree in anthropology or archaeology and usually some fieldwork experience through university field schools or post-graduation work in cultural resource management or other contexts. These comprise the bulk of our successful admissions. However, undergraduate or graduate degrees in historic preservation, history, American studies, art history, classics, Egyptology, sociology, and allied fields are accepted if the applicant demonstrates sufficient background, potential, and understanding of the disciplinary approach in which they seek graduate training. We realize that archaeology/anthropology may not have been available to all undergraduates except as a minor field of study or as only a few courses and that some students “find” the field too late to have changed their undergraduate major anyway. Students seeking admission with these kinds of backgrounds will be competing for a slot in the program with those who have the requisite undergraduate training; therefore, we recommend boosting their background beyond the ongoing or already-awarded bachelor’s degree by taking undergraduate archaeology courses, especially an accredited field school, before applying.