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Tips about graduate programs

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1- Explore

  • Take your time to find faculty working on your field of interest.
  • Check Department websites
  • Find out more about potential research topics

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2-Contact

  • Contact faculty to show interest in her/his research and enquire about potential supervision. Is she/he accepting students this year?
  • Don’t be shy! This is an extremely important step, for two reasons
    • 1: The professor will have you in mind when evaluating applications and
    • 2: Some times this initial contact may be useful in defining potential research topics for the letter of intent.

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3-Letters of reference

  • This is critical for the success of the application.
  • Try to get letters from faculty teaching advanced undergraduate courses. They will be able to provide a much more detailed evaluation, including oral and written communication skills
  • It is important to ensure that you will be supported by strong letters of reference. Contact faculty of courses in which you performed at high level.

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4-Grades

  • Grades are critical for success, particularly for the Masters program (for the Ph.D. program, research experience also places an important role)
  • In Anthropology, emphasis is placed on marks in Anthropology courses. However, many faculty carefully check grades in other programs (in my case, due to my research, grades in biology are very important). Normally, emphasis is also placed in marks in advanced undergraduate courses.

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5-CV!

  • In addition to a good academic record, having some research experience will increase your chances of admission.
    • Have you published any paper?
    • Have you presented research at a conference?
    • Have you volunteered in a lab?
    • Have you been involved in extra-academic activities?

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Programs offered at UofT

  • MA – 1 year program - Guaranteed funding for 1 year
  • MSc – 2 year program - Guaranteed funding for 1 year (Paper-based MSC)
  • Ph.D. – Guaranteed funding for 4 years.

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Admission process for Biological Anthropology

  • In UofT (Anthropology Department), the selection process is done in different ways depending on the field
  • Each field will prepare a list with ranked applicants, and a final list of students who will be offered admission, as well as a waiting list, will be created during a meeting including representatives of each field (SCL, Archaeology and Evolutionary Anthropology).

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How the Evolutionary Anthropology list is created?

  • The Evolutionary Anthropology rep will send an email to all Evo faculty asking them to provide a list of up to 3 students that they would like to supervise.
  • The rep will create a list with all the names provided by the faculty
  • Faculty will give a score to all the students in the list, and a ranking is created based on all the scores
  • The rep will bring the list to the admissions meeting, where the final list will be created interlacing students from the different fields.

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After the program

  • MA/MSc.
    • Pursuing a Ph.D.
    • Obtaining a Professional Degree (Law, Masters degrees – e.g. Public Policy)
    • Entering the job market

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  • Ph.D.
    • Academia (Extremely competitive, typically a postdoc period is required)
    • Entering the job market (Research Associate, Biomedical field, Government)

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