Anthropology - M.A. Download to print

Students in the Master of Arts in Anthropology receive training in three fields: cultural anthropology, archaeology, and biological anthropology. The research-oriented program encourages students to develop their own projects or participate in existing projects by their second semester. The program provides students with the training to either continue study in a Ph.D. program or obtain employment after graduate. More than 80 percent of M.A. graduates continue for the Ph.D. or find employment in an area directly related to their training.

Official transcript(s), 3.0 GPA, GRE, goal statement and three letters of recommendation.

Minimum total 36 credit hours, 30 hours of graduate credit and 6 hours of thesis work.

THESIS
By the end of the first semester of graduate work, students should select two members of the graduate anthropology faculty in addition to their principal advisor to constitute a thesis committee. This committee must approve the thesis before it is submitted to the College of Arts and Sciences. Students should arrange for the appointment of this committee with the graduate coordinator for anthropology. A completed written thesis must be unanimously approved as a work of professional caliber as to content and form by a thesis committee of three graduate faculty. This thesis will be defended orally by the student. The defense is not to be considered a mere formality. The committee may range beyond the actual content of the thesis to questions about concepts, methods, theories upon which the thesis is based, and about the content of relevant studies included in the bibliography of the thesis.

NON-THESIS OPTION
In cases in which the faculty believe that a student’s career would be better served by additional coursework rather than a thesis, 6 semester hours of additional coursework may be substituted for the thesis. The additional courses should compose an intensive investigation within the student’s specialty. Permission for using the non-thesis option must be arranged through the graduate coordinator. In the very rare cases where a student is granted permission to use the nonthesis option, special written comprehensive examinations will be required.