Expert: John J. Shea - 3/11/2010

Question
Hello,

I have known I wanted to be an archaeologist since I was 9.  I have a 3.857 GPA, am quite involved in extracurricular activities, and live in the northern midwest.  I will be attending a 3 or 5 day field school at the University of Wisconsin La Crosse this summer.  I am a sophomore in high school currently and have 3 questions for you.

1.  My class scheduling is quite tight for my whole high school career.  However, I will have two semesters open my senior year.  I am planning on taking: Band, Choir, AP Calculus, AP Lit./Comp., German 2, and Govt./Econ.  What other class(es) would you suggest?  My school offers some college science classes, but I have been told previously from a professor at University of Wisconsin La Crosse, that one of the basic requirements for an archaeology and/or anthropology degree usually incorporates or involves the college science credit/class.  Is this true for all schools, and if so, then what else would you suggest I take?

2.  I understand that your graduate degree is when you narrow your major focus for your major.  I also understand that most colleges have an undergraduate degree of anthropology, not archaeology.  If I know I want to be an archaeologist for my actual career, should I get an undergraduate degree of anthropology or archaeology?  What's the big difference, and how important is it?

3.  I know I want to get my graduate degree at the University of Chicago, because of its connection with the Oriental Museum and its focus on Egyptian archaeology (which is my first and main interest in archaeology).  I have absolutely no clue where to go for my undergraduate however.  Everywhere I look, it seems like they have a degree for archaeology and/or anthropology.  I want to go to a good school but I can't tell the difference between the good and bad archaeology/anthropology schools.

I have been receiving information from at least 2 colleges a week for the past 2 months and I'm getting quite overwhelmed.  Please answer my questions, I would appreciate very much.

Sincerely,
Ariel

Answer
Ariel
I don't usually do college advice, but I'll make an exception for you because you've clearly done a fair amount of preparation.
1. Take science classes.  Bio, Chem, Physics, Geology if possible.  Archaeology is an increasingly scientific discipline.

2. The best preparation for grad study in archaeology is a good liberal arts undergrad education with some classes in anthropology.
Anthropology combines social anthropology -study of living humans, biologial anthropology (human biology, evolution, behavior of nonhuman primates)
, linguistics (its own field in many colleges), and archaeology (study of past human behavior).  Much of archaeology's method and theory originates in anthropology, so that
field is a good one for an aspiring archaeologist.

3. If you want to do Egypt, Chicago is definitely a good place -for GRAD school, but be aware that your interests in archaeology will almost certainly change
as you go through college.  (I wanted to study European Iron Age, ended up doing African Paleolithic.)  In short, worry about grad school later. Go to a good
undergrad college first.  Univ. of Wisconsin Madison is a good school, but with your GPA,
you ought to give the Ivies and Seven Sisters a look, especially Bryn Mawr.  Check out NYU -very strong in archaeology/young faculty, and located in the heart of Manhattan.
My school, Stony Brook University, is also pretty good for anthro and archae, though we don't offer classes specifically on Egypt and we emphasizes the more
quantitative and scientific aspects of anthropology more than most.
The best way to rate anthro departments is by looking up their rankings by the National Reseach Council.  Your guidance counselor or a good reference librarian ought to be able to
steer you to this information. New rankings are due out soon. Ignore the US News and World Reports rankings for academic departments, they are based on
subjective rankings.  NRC ratings are based on data -grants, publications, etc.

I hope these answers help.  As far as coping with the flood of college info, go to the websites of their archaeology/anthropology departments.  Look
at what the faculty list as their areas of expertise and look to see how they show up in the NRC rankings.  Ignore the lists of classes taught, these nearly always
list more classes than are actually taught in a four-year cycle.
Another strategy = go to webpages of top-ranked Anthro and Archaeology departments, look up undergrad and doctoral institutions at which the faculty went to school.  Focus application
on these.  Yet another strategy =write/phone famous archaeologists and ask what they think are good undegraduate colleges/universities.
Cheers,
John Shea