Graduate Application Deadlines

The School of Anthropology accepts applications for admission to its MA and Ph.D. programs once per year, and students are admitted to begin in the fall semester only. Applications and their supporting materials must be submitted by December 15th each year for admission the following fall.

Should You Apply to the MA or Ph.D. program?

We offer a stand-alone Master's degree in Applied Archaeology.  If you are interested in this stand-alone degree, you should check the MA in Applied Archaeology box on the application.

All other potential graduate students must apply to our PhD program.  We do not offer any other stand-alone Master's degrees.  If you do not have a Master's degree or you do not have a Master's degree in Anthropology, you will earn one on the way to a PhD.  Applicants to our program do not need to have a BA/BS/Master's focused on Anthropology, though they should demonstrate a familiarity with the discipline.

Minimum Standards:

Admission to the School is highly competitive. The School requires a minimum cumulative grade point average of 3.0 for the BA, BS, MA, and MS degrees. While there is no minimum GRE score, most successful applicants will have GRE scores in the 600 range for the quantitative and verbal sections of the exam. International Students need not take the GRE but must have a minimum TOEFL score of 550 for the paper-based exam or 79 for the Internet based exam.

How to Apply:

The application process requires specific materials to be sent to two different locations.

Step 1: Fill out School of Anthropology Grad Application (external link)

The application to the School of Anthropology is mostly on-line. The on-line information you will need to enter includes:

• Contact information
• Universities/Colleges Attended
• Standardized Test Results (GRE/TOEFL)
• Other Institutions to which you are applying
• Personal Statement
• Short Writing Sample (optional)
• Curriculum Vitae
• Contact information for 2 Letters of Recommendation (minimum)

In addition to the online material, applicants must send one official transcript from each post-secondary institution attended to the School of Anthropology at:

School of Anthropology
Admissions Committee
Emil W. Haury Building
P.O. Box 210030
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721-0030

Also, you must send the graduate college a copy of the official report of results from the Graduate Record Examination (GRE), which must have been take no earlier than five years prior to the application date. (Report Official Scores to Institution Code: R4832, Department Code: 1701). International Applicants may provide TOEFL scores instead of GRE scores if they are not enrolled in English-speaking institutions. Minimum score 550 on paper-based test or 213 on computer-based test. (Report Scores to Institution Code: 4832.)

Additional Notes:

1) Please make sure to use the same name on your School of Anthropology Application, your Graduate College application and all your tests. If you use "Jane Doe" (first name/ current last name) on your Anthropology application, do not use "Elizabeth Buck" (middle name/maiden name) on your GRE scores. We have no way of connecting these two so your application will be incomplete and we will be unable to consider you for our program.

2) We have recently changed our system of admissions. We now offer a Master’s degree in Applied Archaeology. We do not offer any other stand alone Master’s programs. If you are not applying for the Applied Archaeology Master’s, you will need to apply to the PhD. program. If you do not yet have a Master’s degree, you will be required to finish one in the process of achieving your PhD.

Step 2: Fill out graduate college application (external link)

The entire graduate college application is online.  You will be asked for:

• Contact information
• Universities/Colleges Attended
• Former names (if any)
• An application fee