Sidebar
Search SBS Pathways Center
Academic Advising
Important: These advising links are for current majors. To declare this major, follow instructions here.
Anthropology is the study of people of the past and present in their cultural, biological and material contexts. From human evolution to endangered languages, cultural diversity to health disparities, Anthropology seeks answers to some of today’s most complex questions. How are we alike? What makes us different? Where are we headed? Our students and faculty are engaged in cutting-edge education and research to further our understanding of the world around us.
Undergraduate program options include a Bachelor's degree, a minor, and multiple certificates.
Anthropology examines the nature and significance of human diversity in its biological, historical, and cultural forms. This examination is both a scientific and a humanistic undertaking. Anthropology thus straddles the social sciences and human biology in its theories and methods and the interpretive traditions of the humanities as well. Anthropology challenges conventional views that regularly mystify, categorize, or essentialize human diversity by race, gender, language, nationality, and class. Inevitably, students of anthropology apply what they learn to understand and ameliorate social conditions here and elsewhere, and to preserve and to interpret cultural resources from the past.
An anthropological perspective on human nature and human diversity is avidly comparative and cross-cultural, relying on assessing the full range of human diversity now and in the past before making generalizations about what it means to be and to act human. By contrast to various popular efforts to reduce human nature to what are perceived to be biological imperatives or constants, anthropology is skeptical of such claims and insists on examining and interpreting the interplay of culture, history, biology, and identity formation.
The Department of Anthropology offers four overlapping subdivisions of anthropology: cultural anthropology, archaeology, biological anthropology, and linguistic anthropology.
Seniors: Are you still looking? (a lot of you are!) Do you have a job lined up? Are you going to graduate school? Doing a Year of Service? Serving in the Military? Let us know! The SBS First Destination Survey …
Focus2 is an online assessment system that will help you develop a picture of your personal strengths, interests, needs, and preferences, and help you develop a career plan. It can also help you to narrow down your selection of a …
User research, often called user experience research, is a type of research that aims to understand what users want and need and how consumers interact with a product or service. Researchers use interviews, surveys, web analytics, and A/B testing to …
Important: These advising links are for current majors. To declare this major, follow instructions here.
UMass’ powerful scholarship application system. Log on with your net ID and password to get started.
The central academic support unit for undergraduate students.
We work with undergrad, grad, staff, post-doc, and faculty writers at any stage of the writing process: brainstorming and outlining, …
SBS RISE is designed to create community, and provide specialized academic programs and opportunities for underrepresented students within SBS (those …
For any student interested in Education Abroad.
Success coaching is a personalized service to promote progression towards your desired outcomes. CMASS Coaches use a holistic, intersectional and …
Some students choose to enhance or expand their studies by completing a complementary certificate or special program.
View the resource …
What can you do with an anthropology degree? Almost anything!
View the resource to learn more.
The department currently runs two summer archaeological field schools in Western Massachusetts. We also periodically offer summer ethnographic opportunities and field schools. …
See below for skill-building classes – visit LinkedIn Learning for more.
The department currently runs two summer archaeological field schools in Western Massachusetts. We also periodically offer summer ethnographic opportunities and field schools. …
In the Anthropology Department, undergraduate research takes place in the classroom, in the lab, and in the field. Faculty run research projects …
OURS has created a short Research Readiness Moodle course that provides information about getting involved in research and guides you …
The Office of National Scholarship Advisement (ONSA) at UMass helps students (and alumni who are not currently in grad school) …
OURS helps students find and access undergraduate research and scholarly opportunities on and off campus, throughout the year. We serve …
The SBS Office of Career & Professional Development annually surveys graduating seniors in order to provide a snapshot of their post-graduation plans. The survey begins just prior to graduation, and continues until six months after graduation.  Our data collection process is guided by the industry standard put forth by the National Association of Colleges & Employers, and includes information collected by the SBS Office of Career & Professional Development, the Office of Institutional Research at UMass Amherst, and by various academic departments, as well as from information that is made publicly available by students. The SBS undergraduate outcomes knowledge rate for 2022 was 70%, though knowledge rate varies among departments.
The SBS Office of Career & Professional Development annually surveys graduating seniors in order to provide a snapshot of their post-graduation plans. The survey begins just prior to graduation, and continues until six months after graduation.  Our data collection process is guided by the industry standard put forth by the National Association of Colleges & Employers, and includes information collected by the SBS Office of Career & Professional Development, the Office of Institutional Research at UMass Amherst, and by various academic departments, as well as from information that is made publicly available by students. The SBS undergraduate outcomes knowledge rate for 2022 was 70%, though knowledge rate varies among departments.
SBS graduates pursue a range of plans after graduation, including employment, continuing education, and volunteering/service, among others. This graph depicts what recent SBS graduates tell us they are doing within six months after graduation.
Students in the College of Social & Behavioral Sciences at UMass Amherst build the skills employers seek, such as critical and analytical thinking, creative problem solving, communication, cultural awareness, and more. This makes our students highly attractive candidates for a wide variety of roles with an even wider range of employers and industries. The list of employers featured here is based on information reported by students or employers to SBS, or employment data that is made publicly available by students. The list is formulated based on the most-commonly reported hiring employers. Generally, the first ten on the list have hired multiple students, and after that, employers who have hired at least one SBS grad are listed in alphabetical order. Survey data indicated that a minimum of 330+ distinct employers hired UMass students in 2022.
Starting salary data is self-reported by the new graduates and is not a required field on the survey, so this data is incomplete with regard to salary ranges. Keep in mind that salaries for volunteer/service roles are, by their nature, low, and skew the averages lower. There are also students making significantly more than the average. Both cost of living (based on geographic location), and chosen industry have a significant impact on starting salaries. These data do not include information on benefits such as health insurance, tuition reimbursement, bonuses, and other important factors in a student's employment decision making process.
A majority of students in the College of Social & Behavioral Sciences, as with the University as a whole, are residents of Massachusetts. While the majority of our graduates choose to stay in Massachusetts for their first post-graduate jobs, many others accept positions all across the country, and around the world. Common first destination locations are Washington, D.C., New York City, California, and the other New England states.
The list below provides a look at the most-commonly reported graduate schools in which SBS graduates are enrolled. While many SBS graduates choose to stay at UMass Amherst for their graduate education, many others attend universities across the country and around the world.
The variety of fields of study selected by SBS graduates is a good indication of their diverse interests, and their desire to both expand and deepen their understanding of their area of interest.
We don’t have enough student data to show you these results.