Expert: Ralph Salier - 7/4/2010

Question
Hey Ralph,
I am currently a sophomore at one of the best state schools in America. I just finished up my first field school and have decided that archaeology is what I want to do with my life. So what I'm wondering is how to set myself to be admitted to a good grad school. As of now, I'm thinking about trying to get my masters somewhere in England so that I can graduate in one year. I plan on doing at least one more field school before I graduate. Basically, I would like to know what type of GPA and GRE scores would be needed to be a competitive applicant. Thanks!

Answer
Hi Ian,

So, you want to be an Archaeologist.  Are you ready for a life of poverty and hard work?  Moving from place to place each season?  Barely able to meet your school loan obligations?  Now you want to add to this burden and study over seas as well?  Why not do your Junior year over seas and do archaeology vs. doing grad school over seas?

Why am I asking these questions?  I want you to thing about this carefully.  You had fun on a dig.  Did you do the lab portion with curation of the materials found?  Did the site supervisor feel that your data collection conformed or exceeded standards?  Did they photograph every item in-situ?  Was it mapped in-situ as well?  

What area or cultural time frame do you want to study? North American Natives?  Inca, Meso-America, arctic?  Romans, Greeks, Gauls? Sub-continental Africa, India, Aborigines? China, Japan, Polynesia?  Why do I ask, well when you do a masters program you need to begin focusing on a cultural area of study which then follows through to a PhD which you may need if you hope to teach at the University level (and make money).  With a masters, you can find work in the field as a consultant working for one of the environmental firms.  But these positions are highly competitive and mostly in North America or Europe.

I once spoke to Mary Leaky who was quite blunt, she said "study archaeology by all means  but make sure that you have a back up plan, study economics, plumbing, carpentry something that will allow you to find gainful employment if you can't find work as an archaeologist."  

I listened to her advice and I'm happy I did as I've had few times of unemployment.  

So, answer my questions tell me more about your interest and what cultures you want to study and I will provide more feed back and help you find your next step.  Also join www.shovelbums.com and start reading the job descriptions so that you will understand what kind of course work you need.