Department of Anthropology

Admissions

Undergraduate

• How to be admitted to UAF as an Anthropology Major

If you are a high school senior, you should apply for admission during the first semester of your senior year. If you are a transfer student, you should apply six to nine months before the beginning of the semester in which you plan to enroll. At the latest, your application should be received by August 1 for the Fall semester and December 1 for the Spring semester. All application materials should be sent to the UAF Office of Admissions.

Specific Undergraduate Admission Requirements can be found online at the UAF General Catalog site. An Undergraduate Application Form is available online through the UAF Admissions site.

• How to Declare a Major in Anthropology (for current UAF students)

The Anthropology department offers two degrees: the B.A. in Anthropology and the B.S. in Anthropology. Students interested in majoring in Anthropology must first decide which degree program they would like to select. To compare the B.S. and B.A. degrees in anthropology, check the UAF catalogue. Please note that if you opt for a B.A. degree, you must also complete a minor.

To declare a major in Anthropology, stop by the Anthropology Department's main office in 310 Eielson Bldg. and get a Change of Major form from Karen Kosiek, the department's friendly administrative assistant. You may also wish to make an appointment with the Undergraduate Coordinator to further discuss the requirements for anthropology degrees - Karen can help you with that as well.

Please note that if you do not personally notify the Anthropology Department of your decision to major in Anthropology, the department may not become aware of your existence - Change of Major forms filed elsewhere are not regularly forwarded to the department. We would like to include you in our many department activities, but we cannot do that unless we know you are "one of ours."

Graduate

Deadlines for application to the anthropology graduate program are February 15 for Fall admission and October 1 for Spring admission. (You may notice that these departmental deadlines are different from those listed on other UAF web sites. Be sure to use the deadlines listed here when you submit your application for the anthropology graduate program.) All application materials should be sent to the UAF Office of Admissions. It is a good idea to contact one or more Anthropology Department faculty members before you submit your application.

The department receives many applications for graduate studies and admits the most qualified students in the applicant pool. Due to an increasingly large number of applications, our faculty has developed the following priorities for accepting students into the graduate program:

• Students should have a BA or BS in anthropology.

• Students with undergraduate degrees in fields other than anthropology should have some course-work in the discipline (15 or more credits), e.g. a minor. If this requirement is not met, this does not automatically preclude admission, but you should expect to take background courses in anthropology over and above the basic requirements of the graduate program. In addition to the course-work in anthropology, we also weigh courses taken in disciplines related to your anthropological interests (e.g. biology courses for a physical anthropology emphasis, social sciences courses for a cultural anthropology emphasis, linguistics for a language and culture emphasis, geology courses for an archaeology emphasis).

• The student's GPA should be at or above 3.0, although there is some flexibility here (given the quality of universities attended and the nature of courses successfully completed).
  
• Test scores (GREs, TOEFLs where appropriate) are important, but we have no specific cut-off point for acceptance.
  
• Letters of recommendation are very important; most highly regarded are letters from anthropologists, especially those well known in their field. In general, letters from university professors (any discipline) are more useful than letters from non-academic employers and/or associates.

• Your statement of goals is very important; it should not only explain your background preparation for graduate study, but also your ideas for research - you may not have a specific project developed at this point, but you should have some fairly specific ideas about the direction you want to go. The statement should also show a compatibility with the expertise of our faculty. The department, for example, has a strong focus on the peoples of the circumpolar north (language, culture, biology, prehistory and history).

After browsing the UAF Department of Anthropology web site and the one for the University of Alaska Fairbanks, you should be in a position to make an informed decision on the appropriateness of our university and its programs relative to your own areas of interest. Should you decide to apply for admission to our graduate program, see the Graduate Admission Requirements and the UAF General Catalog sites for specific application information. A Graduate Application Form is available online through the UAF Admissions site, or you can request one by contacting the UAF Department of Anthropology. You may also apply online (if you do so, please confirm submission of your application with a brief message sent to fyanth@uaf.edu).