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Archeology

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What to Expect

You can't be afraid of getting dirty if you plan to be an archeologist. Archeology students spend a fair amount of time digging in the dirt.

Mitch Hendrickson studied for a master's degree in archeology. He would like to be a university professor so he could teach "as well as go out and play in the dirt."

The classes you take are fairly typical from program to program. "There are regional prehistory classes, where the student learns about the history of human occupation in an area," says Hendrickson.

"[And] there are technical courses, such as faunal analysis, where students learn how to identify animal bones and examine their remains to give us information about past people's diet [or] butchering techniques."

Prepare to spend between three and eight hours on homework every day. These long hours are mainly due to the books you have to get through. "Archeology requires a lot of reading," says Hendrickson.

Archeology students are also required to attend a field school in the summer, where they learn about excavation, mapping and artifact analysis, says Hendrickson.

Some students are able to go abroad to do this. That can cost several thousand dollars for airfare, accommodation and food.

One of the most appealing things about archeology for Hendrickson is that it allows him to travel all over the world. Trina Arpin agrees. She goes to the Middle East every summer.

Arpin has a bachelor's degree in classical and near-eastern archeology. "But that's very rare to have such a specialized undergraduate degree," she says.

"Most people in archeology work on a dig over the summer," she says. The location depends on the student's area of study. "People tend to specialize in one geographic area."

Your first field experience may not be abroad. But as students gain more experience, locations can become more exotic. Costs are often supplemented by grants or paid for by the university.

"The first excavation I ever worked on, we found a life-size statue in the square where I was working. So that was very exciting," recalls Arpin. That time, she was in Tunisia.

But archeologists are not always outside working in the field. "You should also like to do very detailed work," says Arpin. "It's often a lot of time in libraries or working on computers. If you only want to be outside and active, it's probably not the field for you."

How to Prepare

Hendrickson says that high school students should take a well-rounded selection of classes, from chemistry to PE. However, he suggests focusing on English. "There is a lot of essay writing in archeology and it really helps to have the basic writing skills down before entering the program," he says.

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