Transcript:
We require only a single transcript from each school attended, uploaded by the applicant. We are no longer able to accept paper documents through the mail, or to upload electronic supplemental materials on the applicant's behalf.
Unofficial transcripts are acceptable for admission consideration. All admission offers will be provisional. Those who are offered and accept admission and financial support will then be required to submit official documents before the start of the Fall 2019 term, to clear the provisional admission status.
Curriculum Vitae:
A CV may be submitted, but is not required. It is fine to simply discuss relevant research and work experience in the required Statement of Purpose. If you do choose to send a CV, as with the writing sample, it should be emailed as a PDF to socsci.gradinfo@uci.edu.
Personal Statement:
Admissions
You are here: anthropology graduate program ph.d. program
ph.d. program
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Admissions
Program Guide
Specialization
Courses
Current Students
Ph.D. Recipients
Deadlines and When to Apply
Costs and Financial Aid
Application Materials
Degrees Offered
The Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Irvine seeks graduate students interested in a highly selective and intensive program that emphasizes current developments in anthropological theory and innovative methodologies for the study of contemporary issues.
Since the department specializes in sociocultural anthropology, successful applicants to the Ph.D. program must have selected this field of the discipline for the intensive study. Moreover, the department expects applicants to have preliminary research interests that are broadly consistent with those of our faculty. This is especially important given the nature of anthropological fieldwork.
Successful applicants to our program excelled in their undergraduate work and have demonstrated strong intellectual capabilities and creativity in pursuit of their scholarly goals. Accordingly, while a high score on the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) is helpful, the Department gives primary consideration to an applicant's statement of purpose, letters of recommendation, and writing sample.
Deadlines and When to Apply
The Department of Anthropology only admits students for the Ph.D. with the exception of the master's-only program in Medicine, Science & Technology Studies. Admissions are only for fall quarter. Accordingly, we encourage all graduate students to begin the application process early to ensure ample time for collection of all required materials. All applicants for the Ph.D. programs must apply online using the UCI Online Application for Graduate Admissions. Paper applications are no longer used.
Applications will be accepted beginning September 16. Completed application packets must be received by December 1 in order to be fully considered for admission and financial support for fall quarter. Admissions offers are made in February.
Any documents that cannot be uploaded directly into the online application (this includes transcripts and the writing sample) can be sent as PDF documents to socsci.gradinfo@uci.edu; they will be uploaded for you.
Further information on the application process and graduate study at UCI is available at the Social Sciences Graduate Affairs Office http://gradstudies.ss.uci.edu/ or by email at socsci.gradinfo@uci.edu. See also UCI information for prospective applicants. If you would like to apply for a waiver of the application fee, see this webpage: http://www.grad.uci.edu/admissions/applying-to-uci/fee-waivers.html.
Costs and Financial Aid
Tuition and Fees
The University of California's current fee and tuition rates are published here: www.reg.uci.edu/fees/. United States citizens and permanent residents who relocate to California from other states may apply for legal residency here, following one year of continuous residence. The required "procedures of intent" are outlined here: www.reg.uci.edu/residency/classification.html
Financial Support
All applications for Ph.D. admission are considered also for financial support, and all admission offers to Anthropology currently include five years of funding. Applicants are not required to apply separately for admission and financial support.
Our competitive, merit-based funding packages include annual registration fees and comprehensive student health insurance; a combination of TA or Graduate Student Researcher (GSR) appointment with individual members of faculty, and fellowship quarters in lieu of employment. Summer support and, in limited amounts, graduate student research and travel funding are also available.
All offers to non-residents of California, including non-US citizen international students, include nonresident tuition in the first year or two of study.
Financial assistance based on need (loans, primarily) is available to qualifying student applicants, through UCI Financial Aid & Scholarships: www.ofas.uci.edu/content/
All students applying for need-based financial aid are required to file a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA): www.fafsa.ed.gov/
International students who are not U.S. citizens or permanent residents are not eligible to apply for federal need-based financial aid.
Further information on assistantships and funding resources can be found here.
Grants
Information on graduate student grants can be found in the student center, and the grant proposal application itself can be found here.
Application Materials
Statement of Purpose
The statement of purpose is one of the most important parts of the application to the Department of Anthropology at University of California, Irvine. It is usually the first thing read by members of the Graduate Committee and other faculty, and is your opportunity to introduce yourself and your intellectual interests. You may use the statement of purpose to answer questions of the following sort (you do not need to answer these exact questions; these are just suggestions):
(1) Why are you interested in Ph.D. study at this time, and why in particular are you interested in the Department of Anthropology at Irvine? What kinds of research are you interested in? Note that it often happens that persons accepted into our graduate program, like in any graduate program, change their research plans to some extent after they are admitted. The point is to show that you are able to articulate a possible plan for graduate-level anthropological research that is compelling, feasible, and speaks to broader debates within the discipline and beyond.
(2) What are your short- and long-term academic, professional, and career goals? How would the process of being a doctoral student and earning a Ph.D. from the Department of Anthropology at Irvine help you achieve those goals?
(3) What sort of relevant academic background would you bring with you to the Department of Anthropology at Irvine?
(4) How does your intended area of specialization fit with current research areas being pursued by faculty within the department?
(5) Other things you would like the members of the admission committee to know about you that are not covered adequately in other parts of the application.
A statement of purpose in the range of 750–1,200 words should be adequate and do nicely (around three to five double-spaced, 12-point font pages).
Recommendation Letter:
Three letters are required in support of your application. It is not necessary that your letter writers be anthropologists; it is more important that they be faculty with whom you have worked or studied, and who can talk about your accomplishments and potential for graduate-level study. Professional references are acceptable if you have relevant professional work experience or have not been in school for a number of years.
Writing Sample:
Only one writing sample should be provided. It cannot be submitted via the application portal; email it as a PDF to socsci.gradinfo@uci.edu. The writing sample should be 8,000–10,000 words long. (That will probably translate to 15–25 pages, but since there is significant variation in fonts, margins, single versus double spaced, etc., it is probably easiest to go by word count.) If you go over that it is not a big deal, but in that case faculty may not have time to read the sample in its entirety.
The writing sample does not have to be based upon anthropological research; it could be a seminar paper, a chapter from a thesis, or any kind of original social science writing that demonstrates your skills in critical thinking and analysis. We do not expect applicants to create a sample from scratch for this purpose; we do not have any specific formatting instructions for applicants.
Personal History Statement:
The online application system provides the possibility for you to provide a “Personal History Statement.” This Personal History Statement, separate from the Statement of Purpose, is required if you wish to be considered for a fee waiver. Otherwise, it not required (most Statements of Purpose include, to some extent, at least, elements that would otherwise be included in a Personal History Statement).
If you do not wish to file a separate Personal History Statement, simply do the following. In the box in the online application in which the personal history statement would normally be entered write “See Statement of Purpose.” To repeat: the Personal History Statement is mandatory only if you wish to be considered for a fee waiver.
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