Ask all your current and past professors for advice. If you know faculty members or graduate students from fieldwork or study abroad, they might be very helpful in providing ideas, feedback, and recommendations about programs that would be a good fit for your interests. If you have been working or volunteering in a related field, such as museums, Cultural Resource Management (CRM), or nonprofits, talk with your supervisors and colleagues about their own academic training and programs they might know well. Any of these people might be able to help you prepare for graduate school, give advice on how to approach your applications, help connect you with appropriate resources or individuals who could answer any specific questions you have, and generally support you as you consider whether you would like to pursue a graduate degree. 

Generally, you should not contact our faculty in advance to talk about the program or the application, unless you truly are hoping to get advice on a specific question about the program. We would never discourage people from contacting us for help with something that might be unclear, or weighing the question of which program at Brown might be more appropriate to apply to (e.g., Anthropology vs. Archaeology, or Egyptology vs. Archaeology). But asking a question just for the sake of hoping to establish contact with our faculty is not necessary and doesn’t provide you with any particular advantage.

You don't need to have pre-existing contacts within the department and won’t be working with any one faculty member in particular. When applying, it is not necessary to have been in contact with any faculty member to ask whether they would be willing to act as your primary advisor. This is not how the program is structured, and not a factor in admissions decisions.

That said, we love talking with students. While contacting us won’t help increase your chances of admission, it might be a chance for you to ask for more general advice on applying to schools. Or it could be a chance for you to get to know us a little, to ask about our teaching styles, or our research, or how the program is structured -- all of which could be helpful as you weigh whether you would be interested in being part of our program.

Another possibility is that you might find it helpful to talk with students who are currently in our program. Again, this isn't required and wouldn't be a factor in admission decisions. But our students are smart and kind, and have been through the admissions process relatively recently. They may have some good advice for you, and feedback on other programs you might consider applying to, or fieldwork projects you might find helpful.

We realize that, despite our best efforts to provide as much information as we can on our website and in other forums, there may be important questions we haven’t answered. In those cases, please do send a message to Joukowsky_Institute@brown.edu and we will make sure you get help with your inquiries.

You do need to visit campus, unless you're in the neighborhood and you're curious about the campus or the Joukowsky Institute. We will invite a group of applicants to come visit as part of the admissions process, so those students will have the opportunity to meet faculty and current students before admissions decisions are made. Arranging a visit before that will not help your chances of admission to our program.

But, again, we do love talking with people about our research and our program -- and even our beautiful building. We're happy to talk with you, in person or remotely, if we can help answer questions or offer more general advice on applying to graduate school. But you should not feel that a visit is required, or even advantageous.