Middle Professor wrote:
Good questions. A good paleoanthropologist should know a great deal of quantitative modeling, statistics (lots of statistics!), physics, biochemistry, molecular biology, genetics, phylogenetics, etc. How many of these classes are required of anthropology students? Zero in most anthropology undergraduate programs. It's not that undergrad anthropology is soft, many faculty in anthropology departments are actively anti-science. Physical anthropology is human biology, but the training is 180 degrees opposite. Learning about genetics in an anthropology text isn't the same thing.
Good paleoanthro programs are Stony Brook and Duke and Arizona State and maybe Berkeley and GWU. I say programs because they have multiple people working in biomechanics, paleo, behavior, etc. Check out Dan Lieberman at Harvard, especially if you like running because he's actually investigating the "running man" theory. If you want a super active, super strong program in evolutionary genetics using primates, check out Jim Cheverud at Wash U. Check out John Hawkes at Wisco (and check out his blog) who mixes strong genetics with a bit of paleo. But there are lots of places with a single great paleoanthropologist on board. So you will probably have to narrow down what you want to do. Biomechanics? Neandertals? Phylogenetics? Genetic models? African Pliocene?
Yeah, that's why I'm only minoring in Anthropology. I thought about going for the BA, but it requires a lot of classes that aren't very relevant (linguistics, ethnographics, upper division cultural, etc), which is why I feel like my biology background will be more helpful than anything. I was actually looking at some of the programs you mentioned. A few require one to speak another language by time of completion, something I really don't look forward to learning (I think it's great, just that I haven't had any foreign language since high school). I'll keep reading and researching and will hopefully have a good idea of who I want to study under and what I want to research in a few months. Thank you much!