Apply to the Graduate Program

The Anthropology department welcomes applications from students with bachelor’s degrees in any field. However, we encourage applicants to gain exposure to all of the subfields of anthropology. Students with a master’s degree from another institution may transfer up to 30 credit hours toward a Ph.D. degree. Students are encouraged to use the Office of the Bursar tuition and fee estimator for cost information. Applicants are not required to take the GRE. If you have taken it, please do not send us your scores, as they will be redacted from your application. Please contact the Graduate Liaison, Matt Pailes (mpailes@ou.edu), with any questions concerning this. Most important in the decisions for admission are the undergraduate transcript, the statement of purpose, and the two letters of recommendation. The department requires a single writing sample, which needs to be sole authored by the applicant. This could be an essay, term paper, seminar paper, thesis, or article, and should be related to anthropology or associated field.

Faculty look for an appropriate fit between the applicants’ intellectual interests and the research strengths of the department. To that end, we require that applicants contact potential faculty advisors before submitting their completed applications. 

Not all faculty members can chair graduate student committees. Graduate students (current and applying) should check faculty members' Graduate Faculty Appointment Status and adhere to Graduate College and department guidelines when assembling their committees.

The University of Oklahoma uses an integrated electronic application, available here, for its graduate programs. The Department admits applicants once a year to start in the Fall Term. If you are a McNair scholar, please let us know promptly, as the deadline for McNair applicants is earlier than the OU graduate deadline.

Direct any questions to the Graduate Liaison.