In my never ending search for a graduate program that not only interests but excites me, I went back to the website of my alma mater, the School of Human Evolution and Social Change (SHESC) at Arizona State University. Now, ASU is often derided as being a party school, so easy to get into that there is no prestige, but ASU has come a long way under current president Michael Crowe. They have embraced the idea that academic rigor and exclusivity are not bound to each other. The idea that you can have a school where practically anyone can not only be admitted but afford to go and that also academically challenges the students seems to be unique in the landscape of American academia. Now, I'm not the most spirited person in terms of school pride or whatever you want to call it, but in this one area ASU continues to make me proud. It seems that the detractors are those who remember ASU like it used to be and do not realize what it has become. Take, for instance, the School of Human Evolution and Social Change.
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| Grady Gammage Performance Hall at ASU Tempe |
Most universities and colleges have an Anthropology program, but none compares in excitement or in the depth of interdisciplinarian focus about the field than ASU. Most schools try to make it into the stodgy old study of dead cultures and the belittling study of the last remaining tribal cultures. There is such a cultural emphasis on specialization in academia that little effort is placed on studying how interconnected the varying aspects of life are - except from what I've seen of ASU's anthropology program. They seem to be the only ones who understand how vital it is, for not only the interconnected global culture that is developing but also for the microcosm of American culture, to understand how such broad ranging disciplines as economics, health, politics, biology, theology, and the arts all interact and feed off one another. It is enough to make me wish that I was a few years younger and still in the program. The formation of SHESC happen during the end of my junior year, and therefore most of the newer advancements (the global health BA and MA programs, vast expansion of its field schools, new requirements for study abroad and internships, etc) happened just after I left. I am extremely jealous. One of the things I think should be mandatory for graduation from college is a cultural exchange to a non-first-world country as a way of showing students the vast diversity of the world as well as the consequences of their business decisions; it is exciting to see undergraduate programs, like ASU's Global Health BA, independently requiring this. When I was at ASU, the field schools were limited to physical anthropology and archaeology digs in the midwest or in Africa and one ethnographic field school in Mexico - none if which I was interested in.
If I stood a chance of getting in, I would apply. At the time of graduation, I remember asking one of my professors about the ASU graduate school and the answer was to be expected - they do not often admit their own graduates as they want a diversity of educational experiences. From what I've heard, that is pretty standard across public universities. For those of us who have watched the program they graduated from change so drastically that you could argue that I've not really been a part of the program. Alas, the bigger hurdle would be the hubby not wanting to move back to Phoenix. Every time I look at schools, ASU just keeps coming to mind. I went there as an undergraduate on a whim, and now I feel like a tractor beam is pullling me back. I love the Pacific Northwest, and I love the idea of going somewhere new, but these other schools just do not know how to sell their programs like ASU does.
