Abstract
This article presents a survey of admissions processes employed by 43 American anthropologydepartments. Motivated by a desire to begin a dialogue about how candidates can be better prepared tosubmit an application, and to assess how individual departments make admissions decisions, I conducteda survey of faculty within these departments using both email and a web-based survey tool. Additionally,I spoke to prospective doctoral student users of a particular online forum– thegradcafe.com– to assesstheir understanding of the process and their confidence about admissions. Herein, I further attempt toexplain why a transparent admissions process is in the interest of anthropology graduate programs, andsuggest how we can emulate efforts made by our colleagues in the humanities to improve the experiencefor both applicants and faculty.
Recommended Citation
Marks, Elizabeth A.
(2011)
"Ambiguous Assessment: Critiquing the Anthropology Graduate Admissions Process,"
Journal of Contemporary Anthropology: Vol. 2
:
Iss.
1,
Article 4.
Available at:
https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/jca/vol2/iss1/4