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Program Details

Graduate Program: Anthropology (MA)

General Information

Request Information
Program/Degree
Anthropology (MA)  
Program Description

The School of Anthropology admits students to the PhD program in Anthropology and the MA program in Applied Archaeology. Most students admitted to our programs have been in communication with potential advisors prior to submitting their application. Prospective students are therefore strongly encouraged to contact potential advisors via email to share your interests and confirm that they will be accepting students. Faculty expect and welcome this contact.

The School of Anthropology offers one stand-alone Master's degree. This is a Master's in Applied Archaeology. To find out more about this program please visit our website. 

All other applicants should apply directly to our PhD program.  If you don't have a Master's degree, you will earn one on your way to your PhD. The School of Anthropology offers a general program and special track programs (related to the subdisciplines and concentration areas) leading to the Master's degree.  A minimum of 33 units of graduate work is required for a Master's degree.

Requirements for the special track programs are the same as those for the general program plus 3 to 9 additional units, including appropriate internships and practica. A thesis or paper, reporting substantive and original research, is required for the MA. The MA paper or thesis is written with the guidance of a committee of three members of the faculty. The final examination for the Master's degree is an oral examination, administered by the faculty committee. The oral examination is individually scheduled in the candidate's last semester of study for the degree. It is based on the required and elected coursework and the MA project or thesis.

For the MA degree, no more than 6 units of graduate work may be transferred for credit from another institution. The Graduate College requires that the cumulative grade point average for all work taken for graduate credit be at least 3.00 (on a 4.00 scale). There is no foreign language or statistics requirement for the Master's degree in Anthropology.

 
Department/Academic Unit(s)

School of Anthropology

History

The School of Anthropology traces its roots back over 100 years. It was founded in 1915 as the Department of Archaeology, with the appointment of Byron Cummings as Professor of Archaeology and Director of the Arizona State Museum. It became a broadly-based, four-field Department of Anthropology in the 1940s under the direction of Emil Haury, and soon after emerged as one of the leading Anthropology programs in the United States.  The department was reconfigured as the School of Anthropology in 2009. 

The School of Anthropology currently consists of five divisions: applied anthropology/BARA, archaeology, biological anthropology, linguistic anthropology, and sociocultural anthropology, with multiple faculty affiliated with each. A number of recognized program strengths crosscut these division: Anthropology of the Southwest, Anthrozoology; Community Based Research and Cultural Heritage in Arizona and the Southwest; Ecological and Evolutionary Anthropology; Health, Medicine, and Discursive Practice; International Migration, Borders, and Refugees; Mediterranean Studies; Sex, Gender, and Sexuality.

More information about the school can be found here: https://anthropology.arizona.edu/

 
College

College of Social & Behavioral Sciences

 
Campus where offered

University of Arizona - Main - Tucson

 
Contacts
Admissions Contact
Zotero Citlalcoatl
520-621-2585
Graduate Program Coordinator
Zotero Citlalcoatl
520-621-2585
Director of Graduate Studies
Steven L Kuhn
520-626-9135
Graduate College Degree Counselor
Kristi Davenport
520-626-1930
 
Tuition and Fees
Please refer to the UA Bursar's Office Tuition and Fees Calculator for up-to-date information about tuition and fees. 
Please refer to the UA Registrar's's Office Special Course Fees for up-to-date information about special course fees. 

Admissions Information

Admissions Requirements
  • We offer a two-year Master's program in Applied Archaeology. For all other subfields you will need to apply to the PhD program. If you do not have a Master's degree you will earn it on the way to the PhD.  Please make sure you are applying to the correct program!!!  View materials on all graduate degrees at http://anthropology.arizona.edu/graduate-programs.
  • GPA 3.5 (recommended)
  • TOEFL 550 for paper-based exam or 79 for internet-based exam.
  • Optional:  GRE 90+% Verbal (recommended), we do sometimes accept lower percentages.
  • Writing Sample (required)
  • 2 letters of recommendation
  • On-line application (Graduate College) including statement of purpose
 
Standardized Tests

Recommended tests:
The GRE is optional to students whose native language is English.  If English is not your native language, please take TOEFL.

Required test(s):
TOEFL is required of students whose native language is NOT English.

Minimum GRE Verbal:  Optional; no minimum, but most successful applicants will have scores in the 90th percentile 
Minimum GRE Quantitative:  Optional; no minimum 
Minimum GRE Written:  Optional; no minimum, but similar caveats as GRE verbal above
Minimum GMAT:  N/A
Minimum MAT:  N/A
Minimum TOEFL:  550 for paper-based exam or 79 for internet-based exam.

GRE Institution Code (University of Arizona):  4832

 
Funding Opportunities
The Academic Unit has not provided this information. 
Admissions Deadlines

Domestic Applicants:

  • Fall: December 1
  • Spring: No spring applications

International Applicants:

  • Fall: December 1
  • Spring: No spring applications
 
International Conditional Admission

International applicants will not be considered for conditional admission by this program.

Other Information
The GRE Institution Code for The University of Arizona is 4832

ETS Major Field Code(s) for this program: 1700, 1701, 1799

Completion Requirements

Minimum Credit Units

33 

Core Coursework Requirements

A minimum of 33 units of graduate work is required for a Master's degree.

ANTH636–Foundations of ArchaeologicalInterpretation-3
ANTH637–ArchaeologicalMethodology-3
ANTH608B– History of AnthropologicalTheory-3
ANTH540A–CulturalResourceManagement-3
ANTH562–ArchaeologicalQuantitativeMethods-3
ANTH595A– ProfessionalSkillsandEthics-3
ANTH 606–Archaeology with Descendant Communities-3
ElectiveinNorthAmerican Prehistory (1)-3
ElectiveinLaboratoryMethods (2)-6
ElectiveinHistoricalArchaeology (1)-3
ANTH593‐Summer Internship-3
ANTH909 or 910–Master’s Report or Thesis-3

Requirements for the special track programs are the same as those for the general program plus 3 to 9 additional units, including appropriate internships and practica. A thesis or paper, reporting substantive and original research, is required for the MA. The MA paper or thesis is written with the guidance of a committee of three members of the faculty. The final examination for the Master's degree is an oral examination, administered by the faculty committee. The oral examination is individually scheduled in the candidate's last semester of study for the degree. It is based on the required and elected coursework and the MA project or thesis.

For the MA degree, no more than 6 units of graduate work may be transferred for credit from another institution. The Graduate College requires that the cumulative grade point average for all work taken for graduate credit be at least 3.00 (on a 4.00 scale). There is no foreign language or statistics requirement for the Master's degree in Anthropology.

 
Elective Coursework

Elective Areas:  Courses Potentially Fulfilling Elective

 

North American Archaeology

ANTH 518 - Southwest Land and Society

ANTH 547 ? Anasazi Archaeology

ANTH 551A - Archaeology of Eastern North America

ANTH 552R ? Southwest Archaeology

ANTH 561 ? Paleoindian Origins

ANTH 696A – Anthropology of Native North America

ANTH 696A ? Southwest Borderlands Archaeology Seminar

 

Laboratory Methods

ANTH 505A – Introduction to Archaeological Conservation

ANTH 512A – Geoarchaeology

ANTH 514 – Quaternary Geology

ANTH 539A – Introduction to Dendrochronology

ANTH 568 ? Human Osteology

ANTH 569 ? Ethnobotany

ANTH 572 ? Zooarchaeology and Taphonomy Lab

ANTH 574 ? Archaeometry

ANTH 596f ? Ceramic Analysis (Practicum or Seminar)

ANTH 596h – Experimental Archaeology

RNR 517 – GIS for Natural and Social Sciences

ANTH 696A – Lithic Analysis

ANTH 696A – Quantitative Zooarchaeology

ARC 597J - Documentation and Interpretation of the Historic Built Environment

 

Historical Archaeology

ANTH 558 ? Historical Archaeology

ANTH 638 ? Culture Contact and Colonialism

ANTH 696A ? Material Culture in Historical Archaeology

 

Special Topics

LAW/ANTH 595k – American Indians, Anthropology, and the Law

ANTH 595A – Archaeology Special Topics

ANTH 696A – Archaeology Seminar

 
Additional Requirements

N/A

 
Student Handbook

Please refer to the Graduate Student Handbook for students who are pursuing this program of study.

 

Program StatisticsInformation about these numbers

Program-level Information
Application Acceptance Rate 71.43%
Avg. Time-to-degree (years) 1.99
 
Department-level Information
Enrollment Percent Male 30%
Enrollment Percent Female 70%
Enrollment Percent International 25.56%
Enrollment Percent URM 15.56%

Back to statistics
  • All application, admit, and enrollment data are from Fall 2022.
  • Average Time to Degree calculates how long graduates in the last 5 years (2018-2022) took to complete their degrees, counting back to the first semester entering their program.
  • Underrepresented Minorities (URM) includes domestic students of ethnic groups traditionally underrepresented in higher education: African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, and Native Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders.

Persistent link: https://grad.arizona.edu/catalog/programinfo/ANTHMA
Last revised 27 Aug 2021
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