Frequently Asked Questions regarding Graduate Admission

 

How do I apply for departmental fellowships and assistantships?  Your application for admissions is also your application for all departmental assistantships and fellowships.  Once you finish your application materials, you’re in the queue for this departmentally provided funding.  The department considers all applicants for the small amount of funding we have to offer to first year students.

What qualifications does the department look for when considering admitting me?  There are five important parts of the application: your GPA, your GRE scores, your ‘personal statement’ and recommendations.

What should I include in the ‘personal statement’?  You will want to discuss the subject of your dissertation work if you know the topic, and if not, you should explain your specific interests, to the extent you can, and you should make it clear why the IU anthropology department is a good fit for you.

Do you require your graduate applicants to have an undergraduate degree in Anthropology?  No.  We are aware that many schools do not offer a Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology.  We admit graduate degree program students from many other fields and majors.  To be admitted into a graduate degree program at IU, students are required to have the equivalent of a four year undergraduate degree.  You may be working towards finishing the Bachelor’s degree at the time of application.

Do you have a minimum GPA requirement?  The Graduate School requires an accumulative undergraduate Grade Point Average of at least 3.0.  Exceptions may be requested, but are rarely granted.

Are students close to the minimum GPA admitted often?  No.  While our minimum is 3.0, we only admit a small pool of students each year, and the average is often considerably above 3.0. 

Are GRE scores required?  The Department of Anthropology requires a GRE from our domestic applicants whose native language is English.  We do not require the GRE if you are an international applicant and your native language is not English.

What are the minimum required GRE scores?  The required minimum GRE scores are 4.5 in analytical writing and one of the other two scores (verbal or quantitative) should be 600 or above. 

Are students close to the minimum GRE admitted often?  No.  While our minimum is 600 in either verbal or quantitative, yielding a total somewhere close to 1200, we only admit a small pool of students each year.  It is rare to admit students with a 1200 on their GREs.

What if my GRE scores are more than five years old?  ETS will not send out GRE scores that are more than five years old.  By request of the applicant, the department’s Graduate Admissions Committee may accept old GRE scores.

Are TOEFL scores required?  For applicants whose Native Language is not English, proof of English proficiency is required by the Graduate School.  If the applicant received an undergraduate     degree in the US, we may waive the requirement.  TOEFL or IELTS or Letter from a consular official is required.  If it is not possible to take the TOEFL, applicants should obtain a statement by a responsible official, ordinarily a United States consular official, attesting that they read, write, speak, and understand the English language well enough to pursue, at an American university, a program leading to an advanced degree in their chosen field. Such a statement should be submitted with the application for admission.  A consular official could be a consul or an ambassador at the U.S. consulate or U.S. embassy in the student’s home country.

What are the minimum TOEFL scores? 
Minimums are:
     550 for the paper version of the TOEFL
     213 for the CVT (Computer version of the TOEFL)
     79 for the new internet TOEFL, which is the preferred test as it includes a speaking section
     6.5 for the IELTS
Exceptions to minimum scores may be requested by the department, but in practice this is rarely done.

Do you offer a terminal master's degree in Anthropology at your university?  Most of our graduate students are admitted directly into our PhD degree program.  Many of these students earn a MA degree as they work toward the PhD degree.  You may apply for the MA degree only, though we admit few MA students, and they must compete on even footing with PhD students.  There will be a place in the application form where you should indicate this is your intention, and you should also mention this in your statement of purpose.

What do most of your graduate students study?  A majority of our graduate students are PhD degree program students pursuing the Social Cultural subdiscipline as their inside major.

Should I schedule a campus visit?  It is certainly not required.  You may wish to meet with faculty and graduate students before you apply to help you decide whether IU is right for you.  Or you may want to meet faculty and students when deciding whether to accept an offer for admission.  Students say they find a visit helpful.

How do I schedule a visit?  You should contact the faculty member with whom you expect to work with if you’re accepted, and s/he will help you plan a visit.  You may also schedule your visit by contacting the Director of Graduate Studies who can direct you to other specific faculty members

Would it be possible for a prospective graduate student to contact a current or past student ?   The President of the Anthropology Graduate Student Association (AGSA) for this academic year (2008-09) is a student named Lewis Jones.  His email is lecjones@indiana.edu  Mr. Jones should be able to direct you to another graduate student with similar interests to your own.

For a FLAS, would I have to teach a foreign language if I earned this scholarship?  No, for a Foreign Language Area Studies fellowship you are required to take language classes, not to        teach them. 

For a FLAS, where do I have my reference letters sent?  There are seven centers on campus that give out these awards.  Please take a look at: http://www.indiana.edu/~flas/  Scroll all the way down to find a list of these centers' contact information.
 
What is a Fellowship?  Generally speaking, at IU when something is called a fellowship, no job duties are involved. 

What is an Assistantship?  Assistantships are a kind of employment.  They involve working a designated number of part time hours per week.   

Why can I not find any information on Teaching Assistantships at IU?  At IU these positions are called Associate Instructorships. 

What is a Student Academic Appointment?  At IU, there are four kinds of SAAs.

1. Research Assistantships give you the opportunity to work for a faculty member

and help them with their research project. 
2)   Graduate Assistantships are assigned duties such as laboratory assistant, news  letter editor, and database entry for a museum collection. 
3) Associate Instructorships offer the opportunity to gain teaching experience either as a grader for a Professor or as an assistant who also teaches discussion sections for a course.  More advanced graduate students who are hired as Associate Instructors may have the opportunity to design a course and to be a course instructor.
4) Faculty Assistant performs non-teaching services

What is a fee remission or a fee scholarship?  A fee remission or fee scholarship is something that will cover most of the cost of your tuition.  They are credited to your bursar account.  Only certain Fellowships include a fee scholarship and only some of the Student Academic Appointments will come with a fee remission.

To what other kinds of funding opportunities should I apply?
We suggest that you apply for financial aid (go to the OSFA web site) as this will
probably qualify you for graduate work study assistantships available around
campus.  Some of these GWS positions carry a tuition fee remission   If you fill out
a FASFA form with the Office of Student Financial Assistance (OSFA) you can be
declared eligible for hire for a Graduate Work Study assistantship.
http://www.indiana.edu/~sfa/

We would like to call your attention to the FLAS fellowships available thru other centers on campus.  http://www.indiana.edu/~flas  You need to apply separately

Please inform the faculty with which you intend to study that you are in need of financial assistance.  Most of our faculty are associated with other campus offices, departments, museums, research institutes and centers which may have funding to offer you.

How much does graduate tuition cost?  For tuition information, I direct you to our Office of the Bursar web site as tuition and campus related fees are subject to change.  http://bursar.indiana.edu/

How long will it take to get a PhD?  Our average for students who continue straight through to their degree is 7.2 years.  A student who meets all of our target deadlines can complete the degree in five years.  Students who start the program with a definite idea of their dissertation finish more quickly.  Entering with a foreign language can decrease time to degree.