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Anthropology Basics

Anthropology is the study of man and society. Anthropologists seek to understand the various dynamics that control behavior and interactions along with the development of societal norms. Anthropology degree holders utilize a variety of research techniques and analyses tools in their work.  Such tools help provide clarity to better understand respective societies, either for comparison purposes or by providing rich context.

Career Summary

MEDIAN SALARY

$66,440

PERCENT ABOVE NATIONAL
INCOME AVERAGE

44.21%

TOTAL SECTOR EMPLOYMENT

6,470

Degree Median Salary vs Adjacent Degree Types

Source: BLS, US Census, and IPEDS

2024 Best Anthropology Degree

The top ranked anthropology degree program at Princeton University provides an interpretive approach to the study of culture. It is interested in conceptual innovations in the use and organizations of evidence and modes of ethical engagement. Specializing in socio-cultural anthropology while also offering undergraduate courses in biological anthropology, including evolution, epigenetics, adaptation, race, forensics, and death. The department includes scholars working around the globe on diverse topics utilizing various analytical approaches.

Acceptance Rate

5.78

Student to Faculty Ratio

5:1

Harvard University's degree in anthropology prepares students to address global concerns through a contextualized study of human diversity. Their small classes with a focus on seminars and tutorials that optimize student access to faculty. The program is designed to be flexible to help students plan their studies oriented toward individual student interests.  Students are given the opportunity to design and conduct original research through coursework and faculty-supervised senior honors thesis research. Upon completing the course graduates have the chance to work directly with Peabody Museum and staff.

Acceptance Rate

4.64

Student to Faculty Ratio

7:1

Yale University offers qualifying students access to a robust anthropology degree that provides a firm grounding in the comparative discipline concerned with human cultural, social, and biological diversity. It deals not only with a small proportion of humankind in Europe and North America but with societies of the entire world. The program covers the evolution of human and nonhuman primates and the evolutionary biology of living people. There are four subfields of anthropological inquiry: archaeology, biological anthropology, sociocultural anthropology, and linguistic anthropology.  

Acceptance Rate

6.08

Student to Faculty Ratio

6:1

Columbia University in the City of New York's Department of Anthropology provides its students and faculty to explore various issues through an engagement with varied forms and practices of life. It operates collectively, drawing on a series of archives ethnographic, historical, archaeological, linguistic to pursue larger interdisciplinary questions. The faculty and student's research interests span the range of the domains most critical to different areas related to the field. The program examines the rooted concepts and everyday practices that provide frames for the ways people think, act, and makes sense of the world.

Acceptance Rate

5.45

Student to Faculty Ratio

6:1

The online anthropology degree at Brown University is home to a vibrant community of faculty, students, and staff. The institution's socio-cultural and linguistic anthropologists are engaged in ethnography across the world. The department's anthropological archaeologists focus on the study of the material remains of the ancient, historic, and modern Americas. The faculty and students are especially engaged in research related to issues of power, violence, politics, health, and population.

Acceptance Rate

7.07

Student to Faculty Ratio

6:1

The University of Pennsylvania has curated a highly regarded degree in Anthropology for qualifying students.  Their curriculum is based on the proposition that in order to responsibly and constructively engage with contemporary human affairs. It equips students with the intellectual skills they need to work in a globally interconnected world. The program involves social science and is scientifically rooted and actively engaged.  The interdisciplinary approach to deeply understanding anthropology and all its related components requires students to integrate holistic thinking and critical analysis of disparate information. 

Acceptance Rate

7.66

Student to Faculty Ratio

6:1

Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Anthropology program offers a variety of undergraduate degrees and graduate courses. Dedicated to diversity and inclusion for their students, faculty, and staff with regard to their backgrounds and opinions. The faculty brings together expertise in topics related to the field. The program provides students with quality training in field methods and social theory, critical thinking skills, and cross-cultural understanding.

Acceptance Rate

6.7

Student to Faculty Ratio

3:1

The anthropology program at Stanford University is uniquely designed to provide undergraduates with in-depth instruction in the field. Professors offer students a rich program of work leading to the bachelor's degree and preparing graduate candidates for advanced degrees in the course. The department highly expects its students to demonstrate various essential skills. The skills are utilized in evaluating students and the department's undergraduate program.

Acceptance Rate

4.34

Student to Faculty Ratio

5:1

The University of Chicago's Department of Anthropology takes pride in its rich history of scholarly excellence and leadership in the discipline. They are committed to maintaining the traditional strengths of the Department while developing emerging theoretical interests in the discipline and beyond. Their research areas are enhanced by the Department's long-standing dedication to training students in the history and foundations of social and cultural theory. The diversity of the intellectual conservation in the Department is evidenced by the work of current faculty and graduate students.

Acceptance Rate

6.17

Student to Faculty Ratio

5:1

Dartmouth College's highly regarded anthropology degree program offers a four-field program of study in archaeology, biological anthropology, cultural anthropology, and linguistic anthropology. The program is a multidimensional study of humankind and examines the organic evolution of the biological family and the variety and unity of people, societies, and cultures around the globe and across millennia. The shared goal of the program's various subfields is to contribute to a global picture of the human experience. Every department faculty has engaged in original field research and through research assistantship, they offer majors and other passionate students the possibility of widening their disciplinary interests beyond the classroom.

Acceptance Rate

7.93

Student to Faculty Ratio

7:1

Duke University's Department of Cultural Anthropology ranks among the top programs in the United States. Their faculty consists of award-winning instructors and the department prides itself on its quality mentoring and concern for students. Their undergraduate major offers students the essential skills of cross-cultural understanding and critical social awareness to pursue careers in law, medicine, education, government, business, and other fields. While their graduate programs include a renowned doctoral program for students interested to pursue a Ph.D.

Acceptance Rate

7.6

Student to Faculty Ratio

6:1

The highly touted Department of Anthropology at Bowdoin College explores the diversity and complexity of human experience in the contemporary moment and the deepest past. The students and faculty work alongside to investigate fundamental concerns about their common humanity and engage critically with social and political issues that shape the world. The institution conducts quality field research in rural and urban locations from Australia to the Arctic and on topics. The program studies the local meanings, global connections, power inequalities, and process of change.  

Acceptance Rate

9.05

Student to Faculty Ratio

9:1

Amherst College's Department of Anthropology and Sociology is committed to challenge conventional wisdom and contribute to a more just world. The institution's principal goal is to foster critical thinking on the part of our uniquely diverse and talented students. Through extensive coursework, study abroad, advising, and senior thesis they challenge them to place their considerable accomplishments in a broader context. Anthropology and Sociology majors develop an understanding of basic sociological and anthropological concepts.

Acceptance Rate

11.31

Student to Faculty Ratio

7:1

Pomona College's Anthropology major is structured to offer breadth in the discipline and majors are encouraged to study abroad or engage in a summer field program. The program offers great insight into current societies and offers a range of solutions to current challenges. Students interested in careers in which anthropological training is applied to problems of public policy and have the opportunity to choose to major in public policy analysis with an emphasis in anthropology. In the United States, anthropology is now loosely gathered together into the four sub-disciplines which are social and cultural anthropology, archaeology, biological anthropology, and linguistic anthropology.

Acceptance Rate

7.4

Student to Faculty Ratio

7:1

Northwestern University offers a robust degree pathway in anthropology for qualifying students. The Department of Anthropology favors a holistic approach to anthropology and emphasizes the bridges between the discipline's subfields. The department has a special interdisciplinary and cross-school to play in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences (WCAS) and the larger University. Their work frequently intersects with Northwestern's Program of African Studies, the Gender and Sexuality Studies Program, the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program, and the Geography Program. Students can explore anthropology through their courses or one of their programs.

Acceptance Rate

9.05

Student to Faculty Ratio

6:1

Williams College's Anthropology & Sociology major aims to teach students how to enter into the social/cultural world of others. Anthropology critically analyzes social forms and practices in all their local and global diversity. The course introduces students to classical and contemporary theories that illuminate the contours and contradictions of social experience. Promoting a critical engagement with diverse schools of thought while at the same time bringing evidence and case studies into conversation with theory. The department teaches students how to formulate, frame, and address intellectual problems.

Acceptance Rate

12.6

Student to Faculty Ratio

6:1

The uniquely curated anthropology degree at Cornell University is designed to prepare students for a wide range of professional careers, including law, medicine, foreign service, social services and business, among others. The program provides both a general grounding in three subfields of anthropology and a detailed focus on a particular area of concentration. Students have the opportunity to choose from a range of subjects for their concentration, from identity politics and globalization to prehistory and human evolution. Upper-level courses span a range of topical and theoretical issues.

Acceptance Rate

10.85

Student to Faculty Ratio

9:1

The University of Notre Dame's Department of Anthropology is highly committed to a multidimensional inquiry into what it is to be human, past and present, nearby and distant. The program explores the richness and diversity of the discipline by building bridges between various humanistic and scientific approaches. They seek to involve faculty and students in integrative anthropology. Training their students to harness strengths in basic research. The department's research and doctoral training program emphasize the integration of the major anthropological subfields.

Acceptance Rate

15.83

Student to Faculty Ratio

10:1

Rice University's Department of Anthropology offers degrees in undergraduate and graduate studies. Anthropology stands at the crossroads of the humanities and social sciences. It is the comparative science of human thoughts, experience, and behavior. The program blends core commitments to deep empirical understanding. It is also one of the most flexible and well-rounded undergraduate majors in the liberal arts. Preparing students for careers in areas related to the field.

Acceptance Rate

8.72

Student to Faculty Ratio

N.A

Vanderbilt University's Department of Anthropology emphasizes its subdisciplines of cultural anthropology, archaeology, biological anthropology, and linguistics to achieve a better understanding of the world. The faculty comprises internationally prominent instructors for their research and publications on the New World. The department maintains research interests and active field programs in different locations around the world. Members of the department and its students participate in the activities of the Center for Latin American Studies, the Center for Digital Humanities, and the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities.

Acceptance Rate

9.12

Student to Faculty Ratio

7:1

Georgetown University's Department of Anthropology is a close-knit community of faculty and students that learn from each other. The Department's faculty not only are active scholars but also regularly engage with policymakers, the media, and non-governmental organizations. Anthropological thinking and methods can be used in a range of settings. The Anthropology courses provide students the tools and analytical framework to test the cultural logic undergirding various communities around the world.

Acceptance Rate

14.36

Student to Faculty Ratio

11:1

Washington University in St Louis's Department of Anthropology is committed to understanding all aspects of human diversity past and present. It is dedicated to the proposition that diversity among humankind. Anthropology in today's time is increasingly relevant as they seek to explore and explain differences and similarities among the world's cultures. The department offers a major and minor in anthropology, as well as optional global health and environment tracks. Providing a diverse array of vibrant, intellectually challenging courses for undergraduates and graduates and hands-on advising.

Acceptance Rate

13.85

Student to Faculty Ratio

7:1

Johns Hopkins University's major in anthropology combines the study of social and cultural theory with the empirical study of everyday life. The department particularly focuses on the challenges of the history of the world. Undergraduate coursework offers an introduction to the basic methodologies and theories of modern anthropology through discussion and directed research on other topical issues. Acquiring a solid foundation for careers in medicine, international relations, and laws. Upon completing the degree, one of the skills the graduates will be able to do is to produce anthropological knowledge through the exercise in fieldwork, oral presentation, and ethnographic writing.

Acceptance Rate

11.17

Student to Faculty Ratio

7:1

Tufts University's Anthropology major embraces qualitative and scientific research providing flexibility, depth, and analytical rigor. The program gives students opportunities for ethnographic research. Students can present their research and engage with others through Tufts' students Anthropology Collective and Spring Student Anthropology Symposium. Through this combination of hands-on research, disciplinary breadth, global and local understanding, and intellectual community make Anthropology a strong major and excellent preparation for a wide range of careers.

Acceptance Rate

14.95

Student to Faculty Ratio

9:1

Barnard College has a robust anthropology degree pathway program provides students new ways to view and understand the world. Helping students to analyze the difference and to think on a global scale while still focused on the lived experiences of everyday life. The program seeks to examine the forms of life that emerge from this movement and the interactions and conflicts that result. Faculty interests include religion, the role of media in social life, globalization, just to name a few.  This integrative approach allow students to think deeply and critical about all social, economic and political influences through time and culture. 

Acceptance Rate

11.77

Student to Faculty Ratio

9:1

What is Anthropology?

Anthropology is a course of study that analyzes humans and human behavior from a variety of perspectives. Studying humans in this regard helps understand we came from, how we have changed, and influences preempting change. Students in anthropological studies will utilize a historical lens of analyzing human beings. Humans are assessed via their decedents and related taxonomic classifications. This unique approach helps inform behavioral, social, and cultural impacts of humans across time.

Students majoring in anthropology will develop a variety of transferable skills while in school that apply directly to a broad spectrum of jobs. Skills an anthropology major will develop include a curiosity about others and other cultures, empathy, social-self-confidence, persuasiveness, zeal for learning, decision making, analytic skills, ideals, and a healthy worldview.

Online Anthropological Students Programs

The exact classes taken while matriculating in an anthropology degree program will vary by program and school and specific area of emphasis within anthropology. A swath of classes you may register for while in an anthropology program may include the following classes: cultural anthropology, forensic anthropology, archaeology, diversity studies, philosophy, biological anthropology, sociology, paleontology, cultural anthropology, evolution, physical anthropology, linguistics, psychology, ethnology, biology, human behavior, genetics, legal anthropology, medical anthropology, world politics, urban studies, and research methods.

What Colleges Offer an Anthropology Degree Online?

A number of regionally and nationally accredited colleges and universities offer degree programs online and on-site in anthropology. The fastest growing segment of higher education in the last decade has been online learning and online degrees given the benefits to the students, colleges, and employers.

Benefits of earning a degree online include cost savings, flexibility, access, accreditation, curriculum, and pace. Additional information on online college programs can be found through our online learning portal here.

Finding the best college degree for you starts by assessing your priorities. After reading our admissions guide, you can align academic priorities with your personal priorities. Next, you can focus on key facets of college enrollment to gain admissions to your top school. Lastly, our resource guide on reducing college costs will help you make the most of your resources.

Combining these steps into a whole event, will help inform you on the college admissions process and what it means to you. Your goals and priorities should drive your college selection and not vice versa. As such, your goals can help winnow down the best college for you using our ranking system plus the World University Rankings. We offer exclusive search tools and degree matching technology to compress your time finding the best anthropology program for you.

Why Major in Research Anthropology?

The reasons to study anthropology in college are quite vast from one person to another; however, we have aggregated a few common themes of why students select anthropology after a decade of helping students. Common reasons students select an anthropology degree include:

  • Understanding of human diversity, commonalities, and capabilities
  • Respect of diverse cultures and experiences
  • Grasp of fundamental social constructs and social organizations
  • Understanding of historical and cultural human links
  • Integral laws, political influence, and processes involved in cultures around the globe
  • Underlying structural and theoretical understanding of diverse groups
  • Attention to detail
  • Critical reasoning and analytical understanding of humans
  • Robust written and oral communication skills
  • Ability to leverage social, biological, and behavioral research methods

Students that earn a college degree in anthropology online or in class are equipped with the skills to launch a career in a variety of industries. Examples of careers for anthropologists include teaching anthropology, research organizations, social science organizations, public health organizations, medicine, international affairs, museums, forensics, international law, ethnic studies, linguistics, neural science organizations, and cognitive psychology specialist.

Top Anthropology Colleges

Individuals may seek an anthropology bachelor program, masters track or doctoral degree. with graduate level educations allowing for research and education positions. Individuals will receive education in multiple disciplines, including history, behavioral science, sociology, statistics, as well as in becoming familiar with the matching tool university and research methods used in the field. Individuals will also learn to analyze large amounts of information in order extrapolate data, as well as provide educated papers in regard to the meaning of that data. Using education programs ethics and the hub anthropology information from the school, the department services program will allow students the opportunity to level-up.

A curriculum may include:

  • History
  • Behavior and Society
  • Ethics
  • Sociology
  • Statistics

Ideal schools for study in anthropology will have departments that are active and provide research opportunities, internships, and practical experience in the form of study abroad programs and lab work. Schools that can provide one or more of these types of experiences should have a leg up over those that do not, with additional factors resulting in the specifics and types of opportunities available.

Employment Opportunities for Anthropologists

Anthropologists generally work in research positions, often through schools or agencies, public and private, in order to better understand human behavior and report their results. Job growth in this field is expected to increase greatly over the next decade, though the actual growth will be small due to the actual size of the field.

These new jobs will be due to the demand to further catalog human societies and apply that knowledge to current problems.  As such, there will be burgeoning opportunities in the private sector where such knowledge is applied to diversifying populations within the workforce.  Graduates may prefer a direct-hire path or internship program field from top rated programs such as the Lamphere internship program.

How Much Does a Research Anthropologist Make?

Per the BLS, the annual median income of an anthropologist is $62,280 or $29.94 per hour worked.  For perspective, the range for pay varies greatly between the top and bottom ranges.  Specifically, the highest ten percent of anthropologists average $99,580 a year while the lowest 10% average $36,390 annually.

The compensation you earn as an anthropologist will depend on your job duties, work experience, degree type, geographic location, hours worked, and organization type.  Given those economic factors, you can begin to piece together your life after college in an anthropological field.

The Top Paying States for Anthropologists

  1. District of Columbia $92,200
  2. New York $90,340
  3. Pennsylvania $78,990
  4. Alaska $76,100
  5. Maryland $74,770

Top Employers of Anthropologists

  • R&D Firms
  • Scientific Consulting Organizations
  • The Federal Government
  • Architectural Firms
  • Engineering Companies
Additional Resources for Anthropologists

National associations are designed to help students learn and network after graduation.  The top-rated associations in the field include the American Anthropology Association (AAA), NAPA, NASA, and the WCAA.

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