The application deadline for both an international applicant and domestic applications is December 01 most years; please consult the admissions portal for our graduate degree programs to receive the most current application deadline.

We rarely admit M.A.–only students to the graduate program. Students who are just finishing a B.A. are urged to apply directly to our Ph.D. program, even though they will earn an M.A. degree on their way to their Ph.D.

In other words, if your ultimate goal is to earn a Ph.D., you should apply to the Ph.D. program. Note that admissions standards are the same for M.A. and Ph.D. students, which means M.A. applicants must compete on even footing with Ph.D. students. M.A. students also cannot receive financial aid from the department. Be sure to indicate whether your ultimate goal is an M.A. or a Ph.D. on the application form, and you should also mention this in your statement of purpose.

• School code: 1324
• Department code: 1701

The four most important parts of the application are: your undergraduate record (including your GPA and transcript), your ‘personal statement,’ and your letters of recommendation. Before making final decisions, faculty will additionally review your CV and your writing sample.

It’s really a research statement. You will want to discuss the subject of your dissertation work, to the extent you can, and you should make it clear why the curriculum at IU fits well with your research plans, including mentioning faculty you may want to work with.

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 be working towards finishing the Bachelor’s degree at the time of application or to have already received the degree.

The Graduate School requires an accumulative undergraduate GPA of at least 3.0. Exceptions may be requested but are rarely granted.

Graduate Record Examination (GRE) test results are not required. If applicants choose to submit GRE results from the past five years, they should ask ETS to forward their scores to Indiana University using the institution code 1324.

ETS will not send out GRE scores that are more than five years old. GRE scores are not required for admissions.

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 U.S., technically, the TOEFL score can be waived. However, we still highly recommend that all international students whose native language is not English provide TOEFL scores. Recent TOEFL scores are required of all students who will receive financial assistance in the form of a teaching assistantship. Further, many of our international students choose to use English as their foreign language, and this permission requires a TOEFL score. Thus, we highly recommend that all international applicant submit a TOEFL score.

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.

Minimums are:

• 550 for the paper version of the TOEFL
• 213 for the CVT (Computer version of the TOEFL)
• 79 for the TOEFL iBT, 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.

We generally admit around eight new Ph.D. students each year. We rarely admit M.A. only students (see the FAQ “Should I apply for the Master’s or the Ph.D. program?”). Each entering class of students comes from diverse backgrounds and has varying sub-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary interests. Typically, about 1/2 to 2/3 have a prior M.A. (in a variety of disciplines). Further, only about half of our entering class will have completed a Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology, specifically. Our applicants also tend to have substantial work and research experience in various fields of science and the humanities.

The number has varied widely over the years, between 75 and 140.

Generally speaking, financial awards labeled ‘fellowships’ enable students to work on their degree requirements without other duties. A fellowship is more or less the graduate equivalent of an undergraduate scholarship.

Assistantships are financial support that does have duties beyond working toward the degree; they are a kind of employment that requires a certain number of part time hours per week.

At Indiana University, 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, newsletter editor, or 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. A faculty assistant performs non-teaching services.

A fee remission or fee scholarship is financial aid that covers most of the cost of your tuition. Funds are credited directly to your financial account at Indiana University; this account is called your ‘bursar account.’ Only certain Fellowships include a fee scholarship and only some of the Student Academic Appointments will come with a fee remission.

For tuition information please go to Office of the Bursar, as tuition and campus related fees are subject to change.

Your application for admission is also your application for nearly all university and departmental assistantships and fellowships. That means that by submitting your application materials you’re in the queue for this funding.

Educational Opportunity Fellowship: The EOF is meant to aid promising first-generation college graduates who may not fare well in conventional competition for graduate fellowships to attend graduate school. The awards are relatively small, but may be important as part of a financial aid package. This is a one-year award, but is renewable one time. Applications are due mid-January. For instructions, see Educational Opportunity Fellowship.

Foreign Language Area Studies Fellowship (FLAS): These fellowships provide graduate students with an academic year stipend similar to and often greater than an anthropology AI-ship, plus maximum tuition award of 12 credit hours per semester. They also provide automatic enrollment in the graduate student health insurance plan with the cost of the student premium paid by the fellowship. FLAS fellowships are awarded to individuals who will be studying a language spoken in that region of the world that is associated with a particular areas studies center. Students apply for a FLAS directly through one of the area centers. Go to https://hls.indiana.edu/academics/scholarships/flas.html for further information. You’ll find more information on the FLAS later in this FAQ.

Students who have M.A. degrees in fields other than anthropology or whose undergraduate major was outside anthropology may have skills that qualify them for teaching positions in departments other than anthropology; these students should contact the appropriate department.

Your application for admission serves as your application for several other awards, including the Graduate Scholars Fellowship, which supports outstanding students who are members of underrepresented groups, the Adam W. Herbert Graduate Fellowship, which supports graduates of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and the Ronald E. McNair Graduate Fellowship, which is for outstanding McNair Scholars entering Ph.D. or M.F.A. programs at Indiana University, Bloomington. If you are a McNair Scholar you must mention this on your application.

Although most financial assistance other than that applied for with your application to graduate school is directed at students beyond their first year in grad school, you will want to look closely at the Funding Opportunities page.

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 may be declared eligible for hire for a Graduate Work Study assistantship.

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.

There are two important outside fellowships that first-year and continuing students can apply for. Both are extremely competitive, but both are very generous. NSF graduate fellowships supports outstanding graduate students and strongly encourages under-represented populations, including women, under-represented racial and ethnic minorities, and persons with disabilities. NSFs provide three years of support, including a very generous annual stipend. The Jacob Javitz fellowship is directed at students of superior academic ability—selected on the basis of demonstrated achievement, financial need, and exceptional promise. The Javits provides full support for four years.

These are available through area studies centers on campus. Go to https://hls.indiana.edu/academics/scholarships/flas.html to find more information.

No, for a Foreign Language Area Studies fellowship you are required to take language classes, not to teach them.

There are multiple centers on campus that give out these awards. Please take a look at: https://hls.indiana.edu/student-life/scholarships/flas.html. Scroll all the way down to find a list of these centers’ contact information. Letters of recommendation should be sent directly to these FLAS centers.

As a department, we have committed to providing funding to all admitted students. In recent years, we have been able to fund all new admits through a combination of sources, including assistantships and fellowships. In addition, every year we provide “top-up” fellowships to students in their first year of study. However, we highly encourage all applicants to apply for external awards (NSF GRFP, home country awards, etc.) in order to supplement and (sometimes) extend their funding opportunities.