Anthropology Applicants 2012

Hey guys, I was wondering if you had any advice for work experience or bits I can do that will help my application stand out that little bit more. I volunteer at oxfam, and was going to apply for some internships at museums. Do you think that'll be enough for when I apply in 2013?

Any tips would be much appreciated!

Hi! Great start on work experience already! I would just make sure you link all of your extra-curricular activities to Anthropology in your personal statement to show your passion and enthusiasm for the subject. As previously mentioned, make sure you read some anthropological books - LSE has some recommended preliminary reading on their Anthropology page - "Small Places, Large Issues" in particular is a great book. I also recommend Levi Strauss' "Tristes Tropiques" (translated into English of course ), it took me a while to read but it's fascinating!
Good luck with your application in a few months time!

Hi! Great start on work experience already! I would just make sure you link all of your extra-curricular activities to Anthropology in your personal statement to show your passion and enthusiasm for the subject. As previously mentioned, make sure you read some anthropological books - LSE has some recommended preliminary reading on their Anthropology page - "Small Places, Large Issues" in particular is a great book. I also recommend Levi Strauss' "Tristes Tropiques" (translated into English of course ), it took me a while to read but it's fascinating!
Good luck with your application in a few months time!

Firmed Durham and rejected UCL. Not 100% still, but oh welllll! UCL didn't exactly sell itself to me

I've pretty much narrowed it down to Durham and Manchester. The cities seem so different and the courses too, but they're both almost equally appealing. Making decisions sucks

I've pretty much narrowed it down to Durham and Manchester. The cities seem so different and the courses too, but they're both almost equally appealing. Making decisions sucks

Congrats on getting the offers! I was picking between Manchester and Sussex and since the courses were both as good as each other I looked at other stuff like student life, student paper (if you're into that haha, or other societies!) and looked at what people were saying on here about both places and I ended up with Manchester

If you're interested in league tables you could also look them up although they both have excellent reputations... i'm not actually sure I've said anything helpful at all after all that haha, good luck anyway!

Is this for the Single Honours Anthropology? I've visited both departments, and I found Durham's to be a lot more friendly, outgoing and intellectual, and they seemed to have a lot more facilities than Manchester though I didn't get shown Manchester's. The course and opportunities also felt better at Durham than Manchester but that's just my opinion.

Thanks! All opinions are helpful, don't worry.



Yup, single honors. It's also the BSc degree which is slightly different and at Queen's. From what I've seen on the web I get the same feeling as you. Although, Manchester does have higher student satisfaction for Anthropology, according to uni-stats.

Yup, single honors. It's also the BSc degree which is slightly different and at Queen's. From what I've seen on the web I get the same feeling as you. Although, Manchester does have higher student satisfaction for Anthropology, according to uni-stats.

I think I might have replied to you before, many pages ago, but I chose Manchester over Durham in the main because of the place itself. If you care about clubs/live music Durham will disappoint. Manchester is one of the biggest unis in the UK - from a friend who goes to Durham, it sounds pretty small, and though I'm sure there is a good variety of people there, there are a lot of 'posh' people around.

Oh okay, I applied for the Joint Honours with Archaeology but when I was looking for the single I only looked at the BA as I wanted to be in Durham and I wanted to get away from the more science-y side.

When I went to Manchester Open Day I felt quite disappointed by the departments, I didn't really get a feel of them or what you can do so this might have coloured my perceptions.

When I visited Durham for the Visit Day though I really enjoyed the atmosphere of the city and the collegiate structure (there were representatives outside their respective colleges welcoming people, everyone went out clubbing on the night with war paint on respective to their college colours - including offer holders - and I felt it was very student-focussed because of the different colleges). But then if this isn't want you want then Manchester might be better. Then again this was at Durham campus rather than Queen's.

The Manchester department was actually the only department which sold itself to me tbh. However I thought Manchester as a city was alright, but not me...If that makes sense. I think anthropology and even social anthropology departments vary quite a lot, so one has to really investigate the different courses and their specialities. I liked the idea of going to LSE, but found its focus on economics (suprise, suprise) too constricting. I asked the former head of department about their inclusion of options such as gender and sexuality and she admitted that students hadn't felt there had been enough, but said if I wanted to then the gender and sexuality centre within LSE was free to me. This offer was kind, but as LSE is known for its intensive courses I just didn't feel I'd have the time to learn what I was really interested in. However it totally depends on the individual Apologies for the spelling mistakes :P

The Manchester department was actually the only department which sold itself to me tbh. However I thought Manchester as a city was alright, but not me...If that makes sense. I think anthropology and even social anthropology departments vary quite a lot, so one has to really investigate the different courses and their specialities. I liked the idea of going to LSE, but found its focus on economics (suprise, suprise) too constricting. I asked the former head of department about their inclusion of options such as gender and sexuality and she admitted that students hadn't felt there had been enough, but said if I wanted to then the gender and sexuality centre within LSE was free to me. This offer was kind, but as LSE is known for its intensive courses I just didn't feel I'd have the time to learn what I was really interested in. However it totally depends on the individual Apologies for the spelling mistakes :P

I ended up firming Edinburgh, because I loved the city and the university is still pretty flexible with regards to course choices. However when I attended the open day i just didn't get a passionate feel from the head of the department, but that's just a personal thing. I loved St Andrew's from the onset, but it being soooo far kinda freaked me out, but I realised that university is about being brave and going for what you want- otherwise what's the point. So after a lot of hassle I changed my firm to St Andrew's, my only problem is its seeming lack of South Asian elements in the course but the variety of students from different countries will make up for that (I hope). Lol hope this helped in some way.

If only I met the requirements of the unis you got into. I really wanted to go to Edinburgh but was rejected.