Dione
Snowy Owl
Joined: Jan 24, 2011
Posts: 133
Location: A house in a galaxy far far away
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 Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2012 1:23 pm Post subject: Going Back to School Advice? |
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| I am considering going back to school to get an anthropology degree. The problem is, I have the option of getting a BA or a BS in anthropology, and I have not found anything conclusive about which is going to be more lucrative to getting employed down the line. I do know that so long as I get good grades, I can write my ticket as far as employment goes, but that's about it. Are there any anthropologists or college advisors on that can give me any advice? |
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Sherman247
Raven
Joined: Apr 10, 2012
Age: 21
Posts: 100
Location: Longmont, CO
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| Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2012 10:57 pm Post subject: |
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| my advice like what im doing right now is doing something similar to what i eventually what like to do which is surgery or pediactric medicine but im persueing emergency medicine right now which would be a stepping stone as well as a resume builder because jobs will not hire you if you do not have experience in something similar those are my thoughts |
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Stargazer43
Scruffy-looking Nerf Herder
Joined: Nov 07, 2011
Posts: 1328
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| Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 12:02 am Post subject: |
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| I am neither an anthropologist nor a college adviser, but I did want to comment. I would recommend, before going back, to make sure that you research what kind of jobs you can get with an anthropology degree, and how much demand there currently is in the field. The only reason I say this is because it strikes me as one of those degrees where you can't do a whole lot aside from teaching, so it's a good thing to make sure you'll have a good amount of career options if you do decide to get the degree. And trust me, that's a situation I have far too much personal experience with lol. |
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Dione
Snowy Owl
Joined: Jan 24, 2011
Posts: 133
Location: A house in a galaxy far far away
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| Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 11:21 am Post subject: |
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| Stargazer43 wrote: | | I am neither an anthropologist nor a college adviser, but I did want to comment. I would recommend, before going back, to make sure that you research what kind of jobs you can get with an anthropology degree, and how much demand there currently is in the field. The only reason I say this is because it strikes me as one of those degrees where you can't do a whole lot aside from teaching, so it's a good thing to make sure you'll have a good amount of career options if you do decide to get the degree. And trust me, that's a situation I have far too much personal experience with lol. |
I've done a bit of research, and if I want to work in anthropology directly, I will need at least a Master's degree. If I can keep my GPA at the 3.97 I currently have, that shouldn't be a problem. However, if I want to authenticate items and study artifacts, which is what really interests me, I would need a Ph,D. and to work with the school from which I graduated because museum jobs pay precious little in that field and are hard to come by.
Another option, if I choose to get a BS followed by an MS and then specialize in forensic anthropology, could lead to being, well, a forensic anthropologist. The problem is, while there is demand for that in my area, it mostly entails handling the bodies of murder victims from drug cartels and people who have died in the desert.
Should I decide to go into archaeology, there are a number of jobs available because in order to build on virgin land in my area, the land has to be verified to not be a native american burial ground, village, etc. |
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ooo
Velociraptor
Joined: Apr 09, 2012
Posts: 494
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| Posted: Thu Jun 28, 2012 1:59 am Post subject: |
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| Stargazer43 wrote: | | I am neither an anthropologist nor a college adviser, but I did want to comment. I would recommend, before going back, to make sure that you research what kind of jobs you can get with an anthropology degree, and how much demand there currently is in the field. The only reason I say this is because it strikes me as one of those degrees where you can't do a whole lot aside from teaching, so it's a good thing to make sure you'll have a good amount of career options if you do decide to get the degree. And trust me, that's a situation I have far too much personal experience with lol. |
This.
You can't just "write your ticket" in anthropology with only a BA. There's plenty of students with that major, and many continue on to get a Master's or Ph.D. And, research trips are important in that field, as are internships and work experience. It doesn't always pay that well, either, so.. calculate cost of degree vs. average entry-level wages. |
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Dione
Snowy Owl
Joined: Jan 24, 2011
Posts: 133
Location: A house in a galaxy far far away
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| Posted: Thu Jun 28, 2012 11:41 am Post subject: |
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| ooo wrote: | | Stargazer43 wrote: | | I am neither an anthropologist nor a college adviser, but I did want to comment. I would recommend, before going back, to make sure that you research what kind of jobs you can get with an anthropology degree, and how much demand there currently is in the field. The only reason I say this is because it strikes me as one of those degrees where you can't do a whole lot aside from teaching, so it's a good thing to make sure you'll have a good amount of career options if you do decide to get the degree. And trust me, that's a situation I have far too much personal experience with lol. |
This.
You can't just "write your ticket" in anthropology with only a BA. There's plenty of students with that major, and many continue on to get a Master's or Ph.D. And, research trips are important in that field, as are internships and work experience. It doesn't always pay that well, either, so.. calculate cost of degree vs. average entry-level wages. |
After a lot more thinking and research, I decided to get my BS in archaeology. What I plan on doing is getting a transfer degree from my community college and then going to the university in town since I qualify for a scholarship, but that scholarship only lasts one year and it'll be over twenty thousand going all four years at the university versus twenty seven hundred at the community college and another two thousand for the final year for the bachelors. The university I plan on attending requires a minor, so I plan on talking to an advisor at the university after my first year at the community college to get an opinion on what would be best to minor in at this point. I also need to test into a math class at the community college and discovered that one of the spouses of the people in the testing center is an archaeologist, so I can possibly talk to this person to pick their brain on everything.
I know that I can't write my ticket with just a bachelor's, especially with what I plan on doing, which is why I fully intend on going on to get my master's and Ph.D. However, with good marks, I can possibly get some help in paying for grad school. I know my local university is in the top five in the country for anthropology and archaeology, so I will have to work hard in order to compete for the top spot.
As for jobs, my state is among the most active archaeologically speaking. My city has ordinances stating that virgin ground must have a survey performed on it to make sure nobody is building on a Native American village. There is also a huge project going on at a museum run by my local university that consists of studying, cataloging, and restoring pottery from all over my state. Again, I'm more interested in the lab and research aspects of archaeology, but I also know that I need to go on field studies and digs as a student if not for the experience then to make sure I know that I really want to do lab work. The only real issue I would have with field work is travel. I know that you typically spend six weeks on site, and a lot of the stuff in my state is in the northern area; I'm in the southeast. The real problem is, my husband also travels for his job, so that could be problematic for our pets. |
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