IDefineCool

Where's the best school for Anthropology, excluding the Ivies.

Alexandre

The Ivies aren't necessarily the best in Anthropology. In fact, the top 2 Anthropology departments in the US are located in the Midwest...The University of Michigan and the University of Chicago.

http://www.stat.tamu.edu/~jnewton/nr...gs/area35.html

That ranking is slightly dated (1995 I believe), but depratments of 50+ professors don't change that much over 10 years.

Cal and Penn are also excellent, as are Harvard and Stanford.

The University of Arizona also has a very strong Anthropology program.

warblersrule86

Universities: Michigan, Chicago, UC Berkeley, Harvard, Arizona, U Penn, Stanford, Yale, UCLA, NYU, Wisconsin, Columbia, UT Austin, Johns Hopkins, UNC Chapel Hill, and Illinois

LACs: Bryn Mawr, Beloit, Grinnell, Reed, Pomona, Wesleyan, Vassar, Haverford, Oberlin, Davidson, Swarthmore, Kenyon, and Carleton

MaryCeleste

Are you interested in anthropology in general, or a specific sub-discipline/geographic specialty within anthropology?

IDefineCool

sociological anthropology is what im really looking at.

How is Washington University in St. Louis?

slipper1234

Dartmouth's anthro dept is amazing. I was a major. No grad students, and of the 6 major who went to grad school in my class, 2 are at Chicago, two at Harvard, one at Michigan, and one at Cal Berkeley for grad school. Part of the reason is almost 50% of majors receive the goodman grant, which is basically a free passport to do your thesis research (during your off-term) anywhere in the world. I got an 8K grant to do my cultural anthro research in the marshall islands. Then senior year I had TWO professors working with me directly on my thesis. Its amazing. BTW- Dartmouth's Goodman grant program has something crazy like a 5 million endowment for only 30 majors annually, so if you want to do anything, it can get done. I have a friend (at Chicago PhD now) who lived in Haiti for his research, then got a fulbright to keep pursuing it after college before he started chicago.

T/As? No way. And most classes have less than 25 students, many with 10 or less.

I would say go to the best overall ranked school with the greatest opportunity.

HermioneTapper

I don't mean to leech on IDefineCool and MaryCeleste, but in addition to IDefineCool's sociological anthropology and WU in Saint Louis question, would you know of any good linguistic anthro schools?

Once again, my apologies. =)

warblersrule86

http://www.stat.tamu.edu/~jnewton/nr...ngs/area7.html

Alexandre

IDefineCool, if you are asking about top Anthropology programs, Wash U isn't one of them. However, even schools that do not have top ranked Anthro departments can have excellent Anthro programs. Just look at Slipper's post. He majored in Anthropology at Dartmouth (not ranked since it does not have a greaduate program for Anthropology) and got into Columbia's top 7 or 8 MBA program. Six of his fellow Anthro majors went straight to Anthro graduate schools...all 6 of them got into top 5 graduate programs. I realize that 6 doesn't sound like much, but it is considering the fact that fewer than 50 Dartmouth undergrads graduate with a BA in Anthropology on an annual basis. At the undergraduate level, you are going to focus primarily on the basics. As such, it does not matter whether you go to the #1 Anthropology department or the #100 Anthropology department, as long as the university overall fits your definition of ideal.

IDefineCool

Thanks for your help!

Chomsky1488

HermoineTapper....Grinnell College

collegehelp

Gourman Report Undergrad Anthropology ranking:
Michigan
Chicago
Berkeley
Penn
Arizona U
Stanford
Yale
UCLA
Harvard
Northwestern
Texas Austin
U New Mex
Cornell
Illinois
Columbia
UC Santa Barbara
UC San Diego
U Washington
U Mass Amherst
U Wisconsin
U Florida
Penn St
Pitt
Duke
Rutgers
Indiana U
Hawaii Manoa
UC Irvine
UNC Chapel Hill
UVA
SUNY Buffalo
Mich St
SUNY Bing
Arizona St
Brandeis
UC Davis
Colorado Boulder
Tulane?
NYU
Princeton
Wash U St Louis
U Conn
Bryn Mawr
U Oregon
UC Riverside
U Minn
Brown
Southern Meth
U Kansas
Missouri Columbia

slipper1234

Once again, that is for grad programs. For undergrad this is much less relevant.

Alexandre

Slipper, although it is less relevant, it isn't irrelevant, especially at schools like Michigan, Chicago and Penn, where the resources availlable to graduate students are also availlable to undergrads. For some undergrads, those resources are a must.

slipper1234

I agree, but I think as you mentioned before some combination of top school with unranked undergraduate focused programs or top school with graduate-based top program works. Amherst anthro is going to get you in the same grad schools Penn will, and it will open the same doors.