Expert: Ralph Salier - 2/12/2010

Question
2 questions
1. what college would you recommend for a doctorate?
2. do you have to get a bachelors degree then transfer for the doctorate.

Answer
Hi Timothy,

Well, the normal order of things is a Bachelors then a Masters degree and finally the Doctorate.  Typically, during the Bachelors, you are learning the basics, including doing archaeology on sites, working in the lab and the materials excavated etc... Then during the Masters program you begin to look at specializing into a specific cultural zone or specific culture like the Maya, Aztec, Kahmer or Zimbabwe cultures.  And  then in the doctoral program, you get into this culture in great depth, do excavations on  their sites etc... And then your Doctoral Dissertation would be on the work you have done t o recover the information about the study culture.

As for what colleges or universities I recommend, that is totally dependent on the cultural area you are interested in.  However, for a Bachelors program where you are learning the basics, I would be happy to recommend the U of Arizona, U of Florida, U of Chicago, U of Illinois, UC San Diego, and many other schools have good beginning programs.