Expert: Ralph Salier - 2/2/2009

Question
I'm also a sophmore in high school and I've been fascinated with archaeology since my parents bought me a book about ancient egypt when i was a little girl and loved learning about ancient cultures especially egypt ever since. I was wondering how I would prepare myself with taking the right classes and maybe some advice since I'm still young. Please and thank you :D

Answer
Hi Krista,

Take Biology and Chemistry + Organic Chem.  Take the highest level of Math you can and Hisory.  Be sure to work on your writing skills s this is one of the most important skills you can have.  Statistics would be good and of course other language skills are always good to have.  

If your high school has AP or the International Baccaloriate (IB program) try to get into it and work your rear end off to get the best scores you can.  

Some advice that a well known archaeologist once gave me:

" Study archaeology with all of your heart but also some thing to back it up with.  get a teaching certification in history, study economics, or even plumbing. so that if you can't find work as an archaeologist, you have something to fall back on"..... (Mary Leakey).

SO I pass this same advice along to you.

Good luck!! Have fun and do archaeology!