Expert: Ralph Salier - 4/6/2009

Question
QUESTION: I am currently finishing up my junior year in high school and have been prepping for a future in archaeology for a while now. I have been looking into a few different schools that offer archaeology majors (including Boston University and Cornell) but would like an opinion from someone who may have gone through a similar collegiate program. They all look good just from visiting their websites, so an outside opinion would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Michael

ANSWER: Hi Michael,

What kind of archaeology are you interested in?  That can make a big difference.  Let me know what your areas of interest are and I will try to give you some direction as to schools to investigate.

One other thing.  This is a quote from M. Leakey:  "Go ahead and study Archaeology but also study some thing more useful.  Become a teacher, a plumber, ecocnomics etc... This way if you can not find work as an archaeologist, you have some thing to fall back on."

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks for the reply.

I am wondering if a well-rounded program exists that covers Classical Archaeology, Biblical or Middle East Archaeology and possibly Eastern (Asia) Archaeology. It would be good to know if any combination of those areas exist or if a particular school specializes in one or the other.

I am not looking to do just archaeology, but would like to go into education as well with a goal of becoming a professor.

Answer
Hi Michael.

To get this range of coverage, you will need to attend one of the traditional US East Coast Ivies.  U of Penn, Columbia, Yale or in the UK, Cambridge or Oxford.  (Cambridge would be my choice).  

However, although these would give you an excellent education, they, as a group, do not do as good a job in teaching the scientific aspects of the field as I would prefer.  (U of Penn may be the exception).  

So the questions I must now ask are:

1) are you interested in the linguistic aspect of the cultures
2) are you interested in the development of these cultures
3) are you wanting to get your hands dirty digging sites to gain a better understanding of these people from a day to day perspective
4) Do you want to know what makes them "tick"
5) can you narrow it down and focus it to a specific place,  time, group?
6) do you wan to be a generalist?

Once you have answered these, lets see if we can narrow the field for you.