Anthropology

The Anthropology major is designed to serve two purposes: to provide a general education in anthropology for students who are pursuing a liberal arts education and to provide preparation for graduate work for students who wish to become professional anthropologists. For both groups of students, anthropology provides communication skills, analytic approaches to human lifeways, and understanding of diversity. Students should select a combination of courses to form a unified plan of study that meets their intellectual interests and fulfills the requirements below.

Declaring the Major

Before you are eligible to declare the major, you must have completed or be in the progress of completing two of the three prerequisite courses and enrolled in the third, with a grade point average (GPA) of 2.0 or higher in all courses intended for the major. For more details regarding the prerequisites, please see the Major Requirements tab on this page.

To declare the major, you will need to complete these three steps:

1. Reach out to the Anthropology Academic Undergraduate Advisor in 215 Kroeber Hall, during office hours or by email at: anthropology@berkeley.edu and address it to the Undergrad Advisor.

2. Bring or attach to your email, photocopies of transcripts, (unofficial will suffice), showing courses satisfying the major prerequisites that you took anywhere other than Berkeley along  with the grades you earned.

3. To prepare, review the description of the program, and the requirements for the major to be prepared to identify how you might fulfill them.

Declare the major as soon as you are eligible. You should declare the major no later than the end of your first semester of junior year. If you are a transfer student, this means you should declare the major during your first semester at UC Berkeley.

Honors Program

The honors thesis in Anthropology is the result of an independently-pursued course of research undertaken by qualified students under the mentorship of a faculty thesis advisor. An overall GPA of 3.5 and a GPA of 3.65 in the major in courses completed at UC Berkeley is required to qualify for the program. The program requires the sponsorship of an anthropology professor as an adviser. This advisor should be identified by the end of the junior year. A second reader must also be identified, in consultation with the thesis advisor. If students want to apply for research funding for summer between junior and senior years, they will benefit by having secured an advisor by January of the junior year. The year-long senior thesis course normally begins in the fall of senior year, but can begin in spring of senior year if justified. The honors courses, ANTHRO H195A and ANTHRO H195B, count as two of the five elective requirements for the major and are four unit courses each.

5th Year Master's Degree

This coursework-based master's program offers selected outstanding Berkeley undergraduates already engaged in mentored research with archaeology faculty the opportunity to consolidate their knowledge while participating in graduate seminars with first-year doctoral students. This terminal master's degree is a desirable employment credential in Cultural Resource Management (CRM) and other applied fields of employment in archaeology, so that students completing this degree will have immediate employment potential. It can also serve as the first step toward application to doctoral programs in anthropological archaeology outside our campus. Students should not apply to the 5th year MA degree should they wish to apply to the UCB Anthropology doctoral program.  This program is only open to University of California, Berkeley undergraduates pursuing a degree in Anthropology who are applying in their senior year. Interested students should reach out to the Anthropology Academic Undergraduate Advisor, and also consult with the Archaeology Undergraduate Faculty Advisor and Faculty Graduate Advisor prior to applying.