Graduate Program Admissions

The Department of Anthropology at the University of Washington recognizes three principal sub-fields of anthropology into which its graduate programs are divided: archaeology, biocultural anthropology, and sociocultural anthropology. The department has an informal program in environmental anthropology and a newly developed concurrent degree MPH/PhD program with the departments of Epidemiology and Health Services. The M.A. degree can be earned ONLY within the Ph.D. programs as a thesis or non-thesis degree.

Admission

Applicants may apply for and be admitted for autumn quarter only. Applicants admitted to a particular program may not "defer" their offer of admission and must reapply to the program for consideration in a subsequent year. Application materials are retained in the department for one year. Re-applicants to the program will only need to submit an application to the Graduate School. Applicants who wait more than one year to reapply must submit an entirely new set of materials.

Offers of admission are usually mailed prior to the first of March. Those receiving offers of admission should respond as quickly as possible and certainly by April 15; those failing to do so risk losing their place in the entering class.

Applicants are considered on the basis of academic ability, career motivation, and promise for achieving professional competence associated with the Ph.D., with interests and goals that fit with departmental programs and faculty interests. It is recommended that the applicant complete an undergraduate program appropriate for graduate work in anthropology, but a B.A. in anthropology is not specifically required. All applicants are required to take the GRE. In addition to the GRE, applicants from non-English speaking countries are required to take the TOEFL examination and achieve a score of 500 or above in order to be admitted (TOEFLC 173 or above, and TOEFL IBT combined score of reading, writing and listening of at least 45 or above). The Graduate School requires a minimum grade point average of B (or 3.0 on a 4.0 scale) for the last 90 quarter credits (60 semester credits) of completed course work. Applicants accepted for admission to the Department of Anthropology typically have at least B+ (3.5) average.

Deadlines

The application deadline is December 15 if applicants wish to be assured of being considered for applicable fellowships. Only complete applications will be reviewed. A complete application includes:

• Copy of the Application for Admission to the Graduate School
• Official Transcripts
• Supplementary Application to Anthropology
• Statement of Purpose
• Graduate Record Examination scores (GRE) taken within the last five years
• Test of English as a Foreign Language scores (TOEFL) taken within the last two years (for international applicants only)
• Statement of Financial Ability Form (required of international applicants only)
• Three letters of recommendation

To be assured of consideration for fellowship/scholarship aid by all subdisciplines, you must arrange to have all application materials in our hands (or postmarked) no later than December 15. Applications (or any portion of application material) received after January 15 are considered too late.

Note: International applicants are strongly encouraged to submit the on-line application to the Office of Graduate Admissions prior to November 1 due to the time required for processing the information. Applications received after this date will be processed as soon as possible, but significant delays may result. International applicants who apply to the Office of Graduate Admissions prior to the November 1 deadline still have until December 15 to submit the additional application materials to the Department of Anthropology.

Applicants will be notified by e-mail if materials are missing and when all application materials have been received.

Tuition and Residency Status

The approximate cost of one year for a full-time, first-year, non-resident/international student (2009-10) is $42,408. This figure includes the cost of tuition ($23,520) and estimated books and living expenses for one year (not including summer). Expenses are subject to change without notice. International students cannot be admitted unless proof of funding is submitted. The Graduate School posts projected expenses for international students on their web site.

The approximate cost of one year for a full-time, first-year resident student (2009-10) is $29,048. This figure includes the cost of tuition ($10,160) and estimated books and living expenses for one year (not including summer). Expenses are subject to change without notice. Please click Fellowships and Funding for funding information. International students maintain non-resident status until the Ph.D. degree is earned. Non-resident domestic students, who are in their second or later year of enrollment, may be eligible to qualify for residency according to the policies of the Washington State Residency Office.

Depending upon subdiscipline, length of field studies, personal and professional factors, etc., it can take anywhere from 5-10 years to complete our Ph.D. programs.

Diversity within the Department of Anthropology

The Department of Anthropology, in keeping with our disciplinary mission, has long attempted to diversify the composition of our graduate students. We recognize that diversity – whether defined as cultural, racial/ethnic, national, socio-demographic, gender/sexuality, religious, linguistic, age or ability – enriches the process of discovery by engendering multiple modes of thinking about problems and communicating ideas.

Given that anthropology as a discipline will only remain relevant to the world if it includes and trains practitioners from diverse backgrounds, the UW Department of Anthropology is committed to developing a more diverse faculty, staff and student body in order to better achieve our departmental, institutional and discipline-related goals of research, teaching, community service and social justice. View the Anthropology Diversity Mission Statement.

We have benefited from support from the Graduate Opportunities and  Minority Achievement Program in pursuit of this goal. In order to attract strong students to our graduate programs, the department has actively recruited during the national meetings of the major anthropological societies - the American Anthropological Association, the Native American Relations and Native American Scholarship Committees of the  Society for American Archeology, the Alaska Anthropological Association, and the Association of American Physical Anthropologists. Additionally we have  taken steps to follow-up on names submitted to us by Graduate Opportunities for Minority Achievement Program as part of the University Name Exchange Program. We also recruit with the Olson Fellowship which is funded by a bequest to the department by the Olson family. The bequest stipulates that members of North American Native tribes be given the highest priority.