Colleges That Offer Anthropology In California
Anthropology is a discipline that has been explored for centuries. Before the field of anthropology was even established, philosophers and social scientists were already applying scientific methods to understand human behavior. Anthropology is focused on understanding humanity across time and culture. Students who choose this path will study how people came to be the way they are today. Anthropology studies everything from ancient civilizations through modern cultures with an eye towards how these groups interact with one another socially and culturally. In California, there are several universities that offer anthropology degrees including San Diego State University, California State University Sacramento (CSUS) and San Jose State University (SJSU).
Colleges That Offer Anthropology In California
1 California State University
California State University is a public, 4-year institution that offers anthropology as a major. It has three campuses in California, including one in San Diego and another in Long Beach.
CSU has an extensive alumni base, with over 400,000 graduates since 1960. The university also boasts diverse student populations: approximately 38% of students are first generation college students (those whose parents did not attend college), while over 60% identify as ethnic minorities or non-white individuals.
2 San Diego State University
You can earn a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology at San Diego State University.
The Anthropology program at San Diego State University is a four-year program that includes a core curriculum, a major, and electives. The student must complete the following core classes: Introduction to Anthropology; Social Change and Development; Physical Anthropology; Linguistic Anthropology (taken at UC Berkeley); Biological Anthropology I & II (taken at UC Davis).
Students then choose between two majors: Archaeology or Cultural Studies/Anthropology with either an emphasis on Ethnography or Folklore. Within these majors there are several specific areas you can focus your studies on including: Archaeological Method & Theory; Archaeology of California Indians; Archaeology of Mesoamerica; Ethnoarchaeology & Paleoanthroplogy Lab; Historical Archaeology Lab Research Practicum Project Research Practicum Seminar Human Osteology Ground Truthing Fieldwork Data Analysis Methods Advanced Projects in Applied Ethnographic Methods Advanced Projects in Applied Ethnographic Methods Senior Anthropological Research Paper Senior Capstone Project
3 San Jose State University
San Jose State University is a public research university located in San Jose, California. SJSU is officially accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, and is a member of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities.
Founded on March 13, 1857 as San José Academy, it is the oldest institution for higher education in California’s South Bay region. SJSU has been recognized as a “Public Ivy” (a name given to top universities that offer an Ivy League experience at a public school price). The university enrolls over 30,000 students in over 100 undergraduate and graduate degree programs within six colleges: Business; Design; Education; Engineering; Humanities & Sciences; and International & Extended Studies.
4 California State University-Sacramento
California State University – Sacramento offers a BA in Anthropology, as well as a minor. It also offers an MA and PhD in Anthropology.
5 University of California-Santa Barbara
The University of California-Santa Barbara (UCSB) is a public research university located in Santa Barbara, California. It is the second oldest of the ten campuses of the University of California system and was founded in 1891 as an independent district within the state before becoming part of the University of California in 1944. UCSB is consistently ranked among America’s top universities for its academic excellence and liberal arts education, with particular strengths in social sciences like anthropology.
The campus itself boasts some interesting features besides its location on a beach: it has an excellent reputation for research; its students participate actively in research opportunities; and it has recently developed several new graduate programs that are growing rapidly as well as expanding existing programs to accommodate increased demand.
6 University of California-Santa Cruz
UC Santa Cruz offers an undergraduate degree in anthropology, a graduate degree in anthropology, a certificate in anthropology and an online anthropology degree.
UC Santa Cruz’s Anthropology Department is part of the College of Letters & Science. The department offers courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels that cover everything from biological aspects of human evolution to social-cultural analysis of modern society.
At UC Santa Cruz you can earn your bachelor’s or master’s degree with concentrations ranging from Biological Anthropology to Cultural Anthropology or Humanistic Social Sciences. Both programs require 40 units for completion plus two years (at least) spent studying abroad at one of their partner institutions located across Europe, Asia or South America.
7 Sonoma State University
- Location: Rohnert Park, California
- Total Enrollment: 19,845 students
- Faculty Members: 1,737
8 Mills College
Mills College is a private liberal cultural college for women located in Oakland, California. The college was founded as the Young Ladies Seminary in 1852 in Benicia, California by Huntley Noss and George W. Noss. It became the first women’s college west of the Rockies when it moved to Oakland in 1871. The school changed its name to Mills College in 1915 after John and Lewis Treadwell Mills donated money for new buildings on campus and allowed them to expand their curriculum offerings beyond just teaching students how to become teachers at nearby public schools like they did during their first few decades operating as a seminary before becoming an accredited degree granting institution with its own faculty members who were able to set their own coursework
9 Biola University
Biola University is a private Christian university in La Mirada, California. The university was founded in 1908 as the Bible Institute of Los Angeles and later renamed Biola College. It gained university status in 1971.
10 Your choice in school is important but your time in the field is vital to your growth as an anthropologist.
While the importance of a college education cannot be overstated, it should also be noted that your choice in school is important but your time in the field is vital to your growth as an anthropologist. You will learn about a culture’s language, history, customs and much more through direct observation. You will gain invaluable cultural knowledge that will help you understand how people live their lives and why they do things in certain ways. This knowledge is essential to being able to work effectively with people from other cultures—an essential skill for any anthropologist.
Closing
As you can see, there are a wide variety of anthropology degrees in California and the United States as a whole. This field is growing every day and as it does so, new opportunities arise for students to pursue their interests. So if you’re interested in pursuing an anthropological degree in California, then by all means go ahead!