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Actually, that depends entirely on the subfield. Archaeology isn’t a generic, common field like biology, English, public health, history, psychology, or what have you. </p>
<p>It’s not at all uncommon for one university to corner the market. Chicago has produced about 75% of Egyptologists in academia, and Penn has produced a fair percentage of the rest. Virtually every working nautical archaeologist has at least a MA from Texas A&M and often a PhD as well. All of the best archaeometry and dendrochronology work is being done at Cornell and to a lesser extent Arizona. I could provide many other examples. </p>
<p>runfun, this depends a lot on your interests and the university in question. If the university is far and away the best for your subfield, it might make sense to apply only there. There’s no point in applying to programs you wouldn’t want to attend! If there’s many other options, however, there’s some advantage to apply to a few other programs. </p>