information for a prospective student

[kentmere]

Dear BAJR,
I d like take the MA in Archeology at the College University of London,
I m italian and I have a BA in Philosophy (I studied roman history and latin at the university) and an MA in Multimedia.
The thing is: What are the career opportunities like after finishing the course?
I mean what kind of job can I apply for?
If you have any suggestions about the education, I' ll appreciate.
thank you
Best Regards

[Magpie]

Dear Kentmere,

I wish you well in your future studies and suggest that you ask yourself the question " why do I want to do an MA in Archaeology , after an MA in Mutimedia and a BA in Philosphy if I don't know what kind of job to apply for when I am finished? "

Anyway good luck

[kentmere]

Dear Magpie,
I heve been living for 24 years in the most famous harbour of the roman empire: Puteoli.
During my childhood I spent most of the summers in the island of Ischia called by the Greeks Pithekoussai.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ischia

I had during all my life the regret because I did't study archeology when I finished the High School.
I made that question just because the regulation in Italy about the archeology is so different from the UK.
I mean, I'd like to know if I could dig with the MA in archeology.
After two years working in the multimedia I got so frustrated and sad, so I decided to change my life.
I went to new york for 4 months to study english and I'm gonna apply for the MA in Archeology at the College University of London.


Thank you

[Matthew Ginnever]

Most Archaeology MA's will require that you have done an undergraduate degree in archaeology or a related subject, though I understand that exceptions are often made. It may be that you would be more successful applying for a BA if this proves to be a problem.
As for digging, you can often volunteer without a degree, but to dig for a living you will often have to have at least a BA in archaelogy, at least thats what I keep getting told.
BTW, if you want a course that involves lots of digging University College London also offers an MA in Field Archaeology, a large part of which is spent on placement with archaeological units.

[tom wilson]

Hello Kentmere,
I suggest you do some voluntary work before committing to an MA. There are plenty of projects that accept volunteers. Many require a small fee, but most of those provide training in field skills. For excavations in Britain, see the fieldwork section on the (very informative) CBA website:
http://www.britarch.ac.uk/briefing/field.asp
Volunteer projects tend only to run in the summer but some of these projects are still running, so you never know, you could be digging by next week.

It's a bit harder to get volunteer experience with a commercial business, but most will have one or two people on big sites. See the strand on volunteering in the BAJRBaiting forum. Since there are currently too few trained staff around, your chances are better.

If I were you I would contact EVERYONE, today.

Do go digging though. Some people hate it, and it would be better to know that early on.

You can do an MA in archaeology without a batchelors degree, but not everywhere will take you. Once you've met a few archaeologists and learnt as much as you can about the many different kinds of archaeologists there are, you might choose a specialism, like GIS or computing. I suspect that you may have some of the technical skills that are sorely lacking in archaeology. Maybe you could build on some of your multimedia skills, rather than starting all over again.

cheers,

Tom

'Have a good plan, execute it violently, do it today'.
General MacArthur

[disheartened]

Hi.

There are a number of archaeology MA's out there for people who do not have primary degrees in archaeology, so have a good look through the Coursefinder section on here before making what is a big decision. Of course most of us on here would say absolutely go for it, archaeology is a great interest and loads of fun, but the big downside to that is it is a difficult job to survive in.

To get that first job digging can take a lot of time, persistence and worrying, and if you want to do something other than digging, it can take even longer. Conditions in the job are improving, but still (in the main) far below good. On site, you will have to deal with portaloos which don't get emptied, poor water supplies (if any), the extremes of the British climate, very hard physical work, poor pay, and so on. I'm sure if you read around the site a bit, you'll come across plenty of examples of all the above.

However, if you stick it out, it is fantastic, the satisfaction at the end of a hard day's digging a huge ditch is immense, there's no need to ever go to the gym again, you make great friends, the social life is excellent, quite simply there's no job like it.:D But be aware of the downside before jumping into an expensive MA...

[the invisible man]

A number, if not most, of the MA course descriptors state that the course is designed for those with a degree in another discipline and who wish to " convert", as much as for those wishing to expand upon an archaeology degree.

We owe the dead nothing but the truth.