Mar 28, 2024  
2018-2019 Graduate Catalog 
    
2018-2019 Graduate Catalog [Not Current Academic Year. Consult with Your Academic Advisor for Your Catalog Year]

Anthropology, MA


Return to {$returnto_text} Return to: Graduate and Professional Fields of Study Listed Alphabetically

College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences  > Department of Comparative Cultural Studies  > Anthropology, MA.

The Anthropology program in the Department of Comparative Cultural Studies offers a Master of Arts that allows concentration within the Cultural Anthropology, Archaeological Anthropology, and Biological Anthropology subdisciplines, according to the student’s interests. Anthropology is a holistic discipline studying humans past and present and teaches students how to navigate our multicultural world and add to the knowledge of humanity today and in the past. The typical student that pursues this degree has an interest in doing research in prehistoric or historic populations or in working in contemporary agencies and businesses who need expertise in multicultural situations. Our graduates typically enter a PhD program for further study, teach in community colleges, or work as applied anthropologists in a variety of fields.

Please see: http://www.uh.edu/class/ccs/anthropology/graduate/.

Admission Requirements


An applicant should have completed a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science degree, preferably with a social science background but many majors are acceptable.  An anthropology undergraduate major is not required, but the student should have a GPA of 3.0 out of 4.0 in the last 60 hours of the undergraduate degree. Anthropology can usefully be added to many career paths because of its broad subject area. The applicant should submit an official transcript with degree posted, three letters of recommendation, a writing sample, and GRE test scores, plus a $50 application fee for domestic applicants/$125 for international applicants.  Information on additional requirements for international applicants can be found on the Graduate School website. Recent graduates from the main campus with a GPA of 3.4 are currently exempted from the GRE requirement.

Degree Requirements


Credit hours required for this degree: 36.0 (30 credit hours and six credit hours of master’s thesis)

Subdiscipline Option (6.0 credit hours)


It is expected that students will concentrate on one of the subdisciplines of Anthropology that are offered by the graduate faculty. Complete six credit hours from one of the following three lists:

Archaeology/Bioarchaeology


Physical (Biological) Anthropology


Elective Course Options (15.0 credit hours)


The remaining 15.0 credit hours can be taken as electives from other graduate-level courses offered in anthropology. Six credit hours can be taken outside the department, if approved by the graduate advisor and relevant to the student’s thesis research. These may include courses in Biology, Geographic Information Systems, Sociology, and graduate anthropology courses at Rice University that do not have equivalents in our program. For information on requesting permission to take courses at Rice, visit Inter-Institutional Agreement .

Besides course work, students must pass a three-part comprehensive exam based on anthropological theory and two of the subdiscipline courses listed above. This comprehensive examination is given in Fall and Spring in the 5th week and involves a three-hour period to answer a question posed by the graduate faculty.

Return to {$returnto_text} Return to: Graduate and Professional Fields of Study Listed Alphabetically