Application Dates
Admission Requirements
Application Procedure
Financial Aid
Graduate Core Seminars
Faculty
Courses
Colloquium
Anthropology Club
MASTER'S PROGRAM CURRICULUM REQUIREMENTS
a) Core Seminars: All students must complete four 700-level core seminars. All students must have completed the necessary prerequisites for each core seminar prior to registration for that course. Core seminar prerequisites must have been completed within five years from date of application. A total of 31 credits is required for the degree, 18 of which (including thesis credits) must be at the 700-level. One credit of comprehensive examination is required (register for the comp exam is after successful completion of the four core seminars in order to be able to take the integrative question), but does not count toward the number of 700 level credits needed. The four core seminars are generally completed within the first two years of graduate study.
b) GPA: No grade lower than "B" will be accepted for the fulfillment of a graduate program requirement, and a minimum GPA of 3.0 must be maintained.
c) Graduate Committee: A student must form and meet with a graduate advisory/examining committee to develop an approved program of study no later than February of the first year in the program. It is the student's responsibility to form the committee in consultation with the director of the department's graduate programs; the committee consists of three members (one of which must be a grad school representative outside of the department; the other two must come from the graduate faculty list of UNR, ordinarily one or two of these members are from the department). Only individuals on Graduate Faculty can chair committees. Failure to meet this requirement may result in the student being dropped from the program.
d) Progress: Students are evaluated for satisfactory progress at the end of each academic year.
e) Comprehensive Exams: Students take a comprehensive exam for each of the subdisciplines immediately following the completion of each core seminar. Following completion of the four seminars (and associated comps), a student will take a two hour exam that deals with an 'integrative' question (one that pulls the four fields together). Finally, MA students have a special question relating to their probably thesis research with is in the form of a take-home exam (one week is allowed for this exam). The student must register for 1 credit of 'Comp Exam' when they have completed all four core seminars in order to take the 'integrative question'.
f) MA Thesis: Students must successfully defend and complete a thesis. Following thesis approval by the advisory committee, the student presents the results of their research in a public forum (followed by questions from the committee). Optional tracks for the thesis include prehistoric archaeology, historical archaeology, cultural anthropology, medical anthropology, physical anthropology and linguistic anthropology.
g) Time Limit: A student can finish an MA in two years (fast progression), or three years (normal).The university's Graduate School allows a master's student a maximum of six calendar years to complete the degree requirements. However, the Anthropology Department does not look favorably upon any master's student remaining in the program for the maximum time allowed by the Graduate School.
h) Financial Support: TA's are available on a competitive basis for MA students who would either assista a professor in a large lecture cours or teach a lab. First year MA students ordinarily get no more than a half time TA (10 hours/week) but are eligible for 15 hours during their second and third years. There is a 40 hour maximum distributed over three years (e.g., 10, 15, 15).
i) Foreign Language and/or Statistics Requirement: There is no foreign language requirement for MA students, however if the student did not complete a statistics course as part of their undergraduate degree program, then they are required to complete an undergraduate statistics course during the first year they are in the MA program. This course does not apply to the total number of credits required for the MA program.