The anthropology graduate programs in the world are a very interesting topic to discuss. However, I’m going to discuss which university has the best graduate programs in the world. Also, I will discuss the top 10 anthropology graduate programs in the world, ranked by the number of graduate students who receive a degree in anthropology.
Though it can be a difficult subject to grasp, anthropology is an extremely interesting field of study. It is a study of the human condition, often referred to as “the study of humans”. But what do we really mean by “humans”, and what is anthropology about?
Graduate programs in anthropology are meant for students who are interested in understanding a variety of cultures, societies, and people. Anthropology is a social science that is concerned with the development of civilizations and the way their societies function.
What is Anthropology?
Anthropology is a broad field of study that deals with human cultures and biological anthropology. It includes the study of human evolution, anatomy, human behaviour, natural history, and social and cultural anthropology. In general, it examines the origin and development of human societies, human societies, and the relationships of humans to other species, and to the rest of the living world.
Types of Top 10 Anthropology Graduate Programs
Anthropology is the study of human culture and human behavior, and careers in it are often grouped into many categories:
1. Cultural Anthropology:
Cultural anthropology is the academic study of a subfield of anthropology. It has traditionally been defined as the study of culture, society, and human nature.
Cultural anthropologists study people’s interactions with their culture and beliefs. They observe and study people during their everyday lives and record their findings. They also study culture’s effect on our behaviors.
2. Social Anthropology:
Social Anthropology is a field of study that looks at how humans interact with each other in different types of social groups. These groups have different rules, behaviors, and norms and may vary from culture to culture and from time period to time period. The field of Social anthropology deals with researchers who study how humans live together, their characteristics, and behavior.
A social anthropologist is a person who is trained to study the interactions of society. Since social science is an interdisciplinary field, social anthropologists often collaborate with sociologists, psychologists, and historians.
3. Socio-cultural Anthropology:
One subset of anthropology is socio-cultural anthropology. It aims to study and understand the social institutions which are responsible for the way people behave.
Also, Socio-cultural anthropology is concerned with the way culture can be used to make sense of the way different societies operate and behave.
A socio-cultural anthropologist studies the relationships between people and their social environment, which includes their culture and the society in which they live. They focus on the study of how humans interact with one another.
4. Physical (Biological) Anthropology:
Biological Anthropology is the study of human biology in the context of the biological sciences, such as biology, anthropology, and chemistry. It is a multidisciplinary scientific field that uses the scientific principles and practices of those fields to explain the biological makeup of humans, including how humans evolved.
Biological Anthropologists study and interpret the physical characteristics of different species of man. This includes the evolution, biological features, and behavior of humans across the world. Biological Anthropologists focus on the study of human evolution, human genetics, and human variation.
5. Medical Anthropology:
Medical Anthropology is the study of human health from a cross-cultural and holistic perspective. It is the study of the interaction between humans and their environment and how it can affect their health.
Medical anthropologists work in the field of medicine. They study the biological, social, and cultural factors that affect health.
6. Forensic Anthropology:
Forensic anthropology is a subfield of physical anthropology. Forensic Anthropologists may assist in the identification, recovery, and reconstruction of the dead by analyzing skeletal remains, and Skulls and charting facial reconstruction.
7. Psychological Anthropology:
Psychological anthropology is the study of the psychological factors that are related to human characteristics, culture, and behavior.
Psychological anthropologists are the scientists who study human behavior. They study the relationships between human behavior and the environment.
8. Archaeological Anthropology:
Archaeologists focus on the study of past and present human cultures by analyzing the physical remains of humans (both prehistorical and historical).
9. Linguistic Anthropology:
Linguistic Anthropologists focus on the study of how language is used by humans to reflect and encode their culture.
10. Applied Anthropology:
Applied Anthropology is the study of ethnographic methods and cultural analysis for anything from research to policy. Also, it is a research process used for helping people solve real-world problems by studying their daily behavior.
Top 10 Anthropology Graduate Programs in the US in 2021
The best anthropology graduate programs in America are –
1. Harvard University
Address: Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
Website: https://anthropology.fas.harvard.edu/
2. University of California, Berkeley & Los Angeles (UCLA)
Address: Berkeley, California, United States
Website: https://anthropology.berkeley.edu/graduate-program
3. The University of Chicago
Address: 5801 S Ellis Ave, Chicago, Illinois 60637, United States
Website: https://anthropology.uchicago.edu/
4. University of Michigan
Address: 500 S State St, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, United States
Website: https://lsa.umich.edu/anthro
5. Columbia University
Address: New York, NY 10027, United States
Website: https://anthropology.columbia.edu/
6. Stanford University
Address: 450 Serra Mall, Stanford, CA 94305, United States
Website: https://anthropology.stanford.edu/
7. Yale University
Address: New Haven, CT 06520
Website: https://anthropology.yale.edu/
8. New York University (NYU)
Address: New York, NY 10003
Website: https://guides.nyu.edu/anthropology
9. Duke University
Address: Durham, NC 27708, United States
Website: https://culturalanthropology.duke.edu/
10. Princeton University
Address: Princeton, NJ 08544, United States
Website: https://anthropology.princeton.edu/
List of the Top Universities to Study Anthropology Graduate Programs in the World in 2021
| Rank | University | Country | Overall Score |
| 1 | University of Cambridge | United Kingdom | 97.8 |
| 2 | University of Oxford | United Kingdom | 97.1 |
| 3 | Harvard University | United States | 96.3 |
| 4 | University of California | United States | 93.5 |
| 5 | The Australian National University | Australia | 92.7 |
| 6 | UCL | United Kingdom | 92.6 |
| 7 | University of Chicago | United States | 92.2 |
| 8 | The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) | United Kingdom | 91.1 |
| 9 | University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) | United States | 90.8 |
| 10 | University of Toronto | Canada | 89.8 |
| 11 | University of Michigan | United States | 89 |
| 12 | Columbia University | United States | 87.5 |
| 13 | Stanford University | United States | 87.3 |
| 14 | National University of Singapore (NUS) | Singapore | 86.6 |
| 15 | Yale University | United States | 86 |
| 16 | SOAS University of London | United Kingdom | 85.7 |
| 17 | New York University (NYU) | United States | 85.4 |
| 18 | The University of Edinburgh | United Kingdom | 84.3 |
| 19 | The University of Melbourne | Australia | 83.8 |
| 20 | The University of Tokyo | Japan | 83.7 |
| 21 | University of Amsterdam | Netherlands | 83.5 |
| 22 | The University of Manchester | United Kingdom | 83.4 |
| 23 | University of British Columbia | Canada | 83.1 |
| 24 | The University of Sydney | Australia | 82.5 |
| 25 | Leiden University | Netherlands | 82.3 |
| 26 | Duke University | United States | 81.9 |
| 27 | Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) | Mexico | 81.8 |
| 28 | University of Copenhagen | Denmark | 81.4 |
| 29 | Princeton University | United States | 81.3 |
| 30 | Freie Universitaet Berlin | Germany | 80.8 |
| 31 | Kyoto University | Japan | 80.7 |
| 32 | Durham University | United Kingdom | 80.5 |
| 33 | University of Oslo | Norway | 79.7 |
| 34 | McGill University | Canada | 79.3 |
| 35 | Arizona State University | United States | 78.9 |
| 35 | Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin | Germany | 78.9 |
| 37 | Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA) | Argentina | 78.8 |
| 38 | University of Pennsylvania | United States | 77.9 |
| 39 | Aarhus University | Denmark | 77 |
| 40 | The University of Arizona | United States | 76.6 |
| 41 | Goldsmiths, University of London | United Kingdom | 76.3 |
| 41 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) | United States | 76.3 |
| 41 | The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) | Hong Kong SAR | 76.3 |
| 44 | Universidade de São Paulo | Brazil | 76 |
| 44 | University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill | United States | 76 |
| 44 | The University of Texas at Austin | United States | 76 |
| 47 | Johns Hopkins University | United States | 75.8 |
| 48 | The University of Auckland | New Zealand | 75.7 |
| 49 | Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen | Germany | 75.6 |
| 49 | University of Vienna | Austria | 75.6 |
FAQ About Anthropology Graduate Programs:
What Anthropologists Do?
Anthropologists are scientists who study the origins, physical characteristics, and development of humans. They also study cultural development and the origin of societies, religions, and languages.
Also, they study people and culture within a society. They seek to understand the behaviors and cultures of different groups and how their actions and beliefs affect the rest of the world. They also seek to understand how people have behaved in the past. They use their findings to make predictions about what might happen in the future.
Plan cultural research, customize data collection methods and collect information, analyze data, prepare reports, and advise organizations.
One of the benefits of graduate studies is that it can help you gain valuable knowledge and skills related to your specific field of study. It will allow you to learn and refine your skills and knowledge and gain new ones that will be of great value in the future.
If you desire an advanced degree, you can apply to a graduate program in anthropology. If you have an undergraduate degree in Anthropology, you can apply to a Master’s or Ph.D. program.
There are so many programs for Anthropology in the US. On the above, we have added some of the graduate programs in Anthropology. The primary point of difference between programs is the type of anthropology coursework they offer and the approach, or theoretical perspective, which they advocate.
First, decide on the type of anthropology that interests you, then narrow your search to Universities offering the option.
Anthropology can be combined with a variety of other graduate programs such as Sociology, Archeology, History, Linguistics, Education, Public Health, and Organizational Research, or even medical school.
In addition to this, anthropology is often a good major for people interested in a law school environment.
The University of Oxford, Stanford University, University of Chicago, University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Cambridge are among the universities that offer excellent anthropology programs in America.
Anthropologists often engage in field studies in foreign countries. Anthropology, therefore, is mostly taught in foreign countries. Barring any question, the best countries to study Anthropology are the United States of America, the United Kingdom, and Canada.
Anthropology is now widely taught at thousands of universities in the world. Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Germany, and France are also the best places to study anthropology.
Anthropology is a broad field, and you can go in many different directions with a degree in this subject. A Master’s Degree in Counseling is a common post-baccalaureate program that students can pursue after completing a bachelor’s degree in anthropology.
It will be best to gain a master’s degree or Ph.D. in anthropology if you are very much interested in working as an anthropologist.
You can also gain a master’s in another field. Some of the bachelor’s in anthropology try to achieve master’s or PhD in psychology, education, social work, law, or theology.
Harvard is considered the most prestigious university and ranked number one for Anthropology in the world. Also, Harvard is a highly ranked research university that has a large faculty dedicated to Anthropology and many undergraduate and graduate programs related to the field.
One of the most famous anthropologists is Jane Goodall, one of the world’s foremost primatologists and anthropologists. She has worked extensively with chimpanzees.
Some of the more leading anthropologists are Ann Dunham, Chris McCandless, Paul Rabinow, David Graeber.
Anthropology is a diverse field of study, and there are many careers available to anthropologists. Anthropologists are employed by government agencies, non-profit organizations, museums, and private industry.
Some of the careers for a bachelor’s in anthropology are Human resources representative, Public health specialist, Market researcher, Museum curator, Social worker, etc.
There are a variety of options available to you after earning a degree in anthropology. Most often, those who hold degrees in anthropology find employment in the following industries: Banking, Healthcare, Social Services, Law, Non-Profit, Education.
If you are a bachelor’s in anthropology, first you can earn a higher degree (master’s degree or PhD) in anthropology. Then you can find your dream jobs in many fields that I mentioned earlier.
The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the median salary of anthropologists is $66,130 annually, median pay is $31.79 per hour.
The list isn’t short because there are many good Anthropology graduate programs nowadays. In fact, the number of programs has decreased in the last decade or so, because the field of Anthropology has evolved. Nowadays, most Anthropology graduate programs focus on applied anthropology. There are still in-depth graduate programs, but these are not the focus of most schools.
