Hey everyone, I’m a Cultural Anthropology major who’s currently in his second year at Foothill College in California. I hope to transfer to a school in the New York, Massachusetts area because I’ve always had a great love for the climate and environment there and I thought that being in close proximity to so many historically significant areas would really help with my immersion in the subject. I currently have 54 credits, though it will be 61 after this quarter is over, with 8 of those being earned through AP test scores back in high school, and 12 mor of those being earned during field work with my professors at Ballintubber Castle in Ireland this last summer. Currently, my cumulative GPA is a bit on the low side with a 2.9 due to a course in non-transferable math last year (it has been in an upward trend ever since so it shouldn’t stay that way for long) while my Major GPA is a 3.75 (I don’t know if this is important or not). If there is any university out there that offers good lab work and opportunities for fieldwork as well then I’d be more than happy.
I really appreciate any advice that can be thrown my way here, this is my first time applying to a 4-year ever so any help is welcome.
Doesn’t Foothill College have a reciprocity agreement with any schools in the CSU or UC systems?
You should be able to transfer into a public university in CA more easily, and at much lower cost, than if you aim for a school (public or private) in the NE.
If you’re determined to study in NY or MA, then check out the SUNY schools (Stony Brook, Binghamton), Syracuse, UMass Amherst, Boston University, or Brandeis. These are listed in the NRC/Chronicle rankings of graduate anthropology programs. Presumably, they have respectable undergraduate anthropology programs, too.
Trying doing a search for previous posts by warblersrule on anthropology programs. Some of them may refer specifically to cultural anthropology at schools in the NE.
Point: You can always move to NY or MA after you graduate from college and seek a job there.
I say that because transferring can be expensive. The best financial aid goes to first-time freshmen. And especially with your GPA being a bit low, the kinds of schools you could successfully transfer into are unlikely to offer you great financial aid.
What can your family afford? There are lots of great public universities in NY through the SUNY system that have good anthropology departments that probably have fieldwork, and SUNY colleges are relatively inexpensive for OOS students - total CoA estimated at around $32K a year. Stony Brook and Binghamton have excellent anthropology departments, and SUNY Albany and the University at Buffalo have good anthro departments too. Some of the smaller undergrad-only campuses may also have good anthro options. SUNY New Paltz has a field school every summer. CUNY campuses also have good anthro departments - Hunter College has labs and a field school, and the CUNY Graduate Center (whose resources you can access for professors, centers, research, etc.) is one of the top anthropology departments in the country.
Also, what about your home state’s four-year universities? Anthropology is one of those ubiquitous majors; if the university is a good solid one, they probably have a good solid undergraduate department.