Graduate / 'Doing field work and teaching archaeology' - Letter of Intent-Archaeology [3]

This is my second attempt at a letter of intent. I am having so much trouble writing it this is about the 4th time I write it. I know what I want to study. I just don't know how to convince the graduate admissions board that they need to pick me. Please help!

First I would like to say that I have wanted to be an archaeologist since I was a little girl. I want to teach and do field work, for which I need both an MA and a PhD and this is why I am pursuing graduate studies in Archaeology.

My earliest recollection of knowing I wanted to be an archaeologist is from when I was about 12 years old. I remember digging through the very tough ground in our back yard trying to find bones and/or other artifacts. I did find a cow bone once. I am a curious person by nature. I love knowing the little details of everything but if there is one thing that I would like to know in real detail it is the past. I admit to having limited experience in the field but this does not mean I do not have the potential to do something great. I have a certainty for archaeology that I do not have for many things in my life and I do not want to have to settle for anything else simply because I do not have a shining resume.

When I was an undergraduate, the University of Texas Pan American (UTPA) only offered a BA in Anthropology. I chose this as my major when I realized that archaeology was one of its subfields. (I had no knowledge of this before.) I did not hesitate when I chose my classes, nor did I regret my decision to have that as my major, ever. Since I have always been interested in foreign languages I decided to pursue a minor in French. This minor allowed me the opportunity to travel abroad. This is also a reason I would like to study at the graduate level. Being in Europe afforded me the opportunity to meet a part of the world I had always been interested in visiting. I was able to fulfill my goal of seeing the Coliseum in person, as well as many other enchanting sites in Rome which until that point I had only seen in movies.

Within archaeology I am interested in environmental archaeology. With classes in paleoethnobotany, geoarchaeology, human paleonutrition, human paleopathology, etc., along with doing my own research I am confident Texas A&M University is the perfect place for me to pursue a degree in this field. I am particularly interested in the types of diseases and injuries we can find in the human skeleton and if these can determine the amount of pain which could have been experienced by an individual and what methods they would have used against it. It would also be interesting to find out if the methods used by ancient people could be used today or if they continue being used by their descendants.

Apart from doing field work I am also interested in teaching archaeology. The area where I live does not know archaeology, or anthropology for that matter, as well as it should. I fee that more professors are needed in this region in order to broaden the knowledge of current students so that they may have the opportunity of knowing early on in life what it is they want to study as adults. If anything, I will at least have less people asking me if I am going to be digging up dinosaurs every time I tell them I am going to be an archaeologist.

I do not want treasure, I want knowledge. I do not want adventure, I want experience. I do not want to sit behind a desk for the rest of my life. I have seen what archaeologists do and I know I am in the right place. I would like to be given the opportunity to prove myself because even if you are not, I am sure I am ready for graduate school and everything that comes with it.

Graduate / Letter of Intent for Graduate School-Anthropology [2]

I am having an incredibly hard time writing this essay. I figure it would be a good idea to have people who have never met me read this essay so that I may have a fresh, honest opinion regarding both its grammar and content. I appreciate any help and thank you for your time in advance. This is my first draft.

My first year out of high school was spent in a university that was a three hour drive away from my home. I had spoken of that moment for many years. I was convinced that the only way I would ever be happy would be to spend my life as far away from home as possible. Neither of my parents believed I would last a month. I proved them wrong, however, and lasted the whole year. Music had never been my first choice but because I was good at playing the viola, because the school offered me a scholarship, and because I was desperate to leave the "valley" I did not even think twice about taking the offer. Being completely alone posed somewhat of a problem and my timidity did not help matters much. I imagine it was this and the fact that I had no one to supervise me that I let my studies take a turn for the worse. I failed a class for the first time in my life and ended up losing one of my other scholarships for it. I did a re-evaluation of what I was doing with my life and decided that perhaps I was not as interested in studying music as I was in playing the instrument. I also decided that I was not as ready to leave home as I thought I was. In the end I did not feel defeated; it felt more like I had learned something. It took two semesters away from home for me to realize that what I needed was not a change of scenery but to learn a little bit of patience. This patience has allowed me to appreciate my home and has given me time to think about what it is I really want to do with my life.

I am not lying when I say that I wanted to be an archaeologist ever since I was a little girl. It was a romantic notion I think, rather than a well informed one. It was the idea of the secrets in the pyramids, the mummies, and the hieroglyphics that always captivated me but it was my ignorance which kept me away. I am not sure why but before I was at UTPA I had absolutely no idea about what anthropology was. It was due to this small fact that I never considered it as a major and why it took me so long to sign up for it. The moment I saw it, realized what it was, and that it was offered at the school I was attending I signed up for three classes and never looked back. I resolved to raise my grades after that, and if not in my core curriculum classes, I knew that in anthropology I would never get one C; and I didn't. My last three years at university not only helped me prove to myself that I was a good student but that I could do anything I set my mind to. It was then that I learned how to have real confidence in the things that I could do.

I both thank and blame this confidence for the few big things I was able to do with my life during the years following my return home. As it turns out I was right in thinking all I needed was time. During the fall of 2009 I left to Bordeaux, France as part of a language studies program offered by the foreign university. With this trip I killed 3 birds (not real birds) with one flight. I learned a new language, visited three European countries, and earned the hours I needed for my minor. I was given a free room there by my French professor's friend by babysitting her two young children. The toughest part about this job was learning how to communicate with the boys using my lousy French and their broken English. We managed, however, and my biggest task after that was getting them both to bed at the time their mom had assigned. The best part of my whole stay in France had nothing to do with the sights or the classes, though these were quite stimulating. It was the friendships I developed there which made me realize what I was missing by never leaving my comfort zone. Being in school, in a place where I did not have my usual comforts at my disposal forced me to find a way to survive without falling back into the same depression I had experienced my first time out of home. I felt a cold I was not used to, witnessed a culture with an education system totally different from my own, yet somehow I managed to come out of it with fun stories, amazing friends, and the realization that education is the gate through which I need to pass in order to make these occurrences a part of my everyday life.

All of this explains why I want to further my education in archaeology, but the reason I am interested in making this school the next step in my life is because it offers me the opportunity to study the subject of my own choosing. I want to know the past relationship between nature and human beings. I want to be able to decipher what type of life a human led not only using the natural surroundings but the human being as well. I would like to focus on the traces of everyday life present on the skeleton and how it can be used to figure out human beings on a more individual level. I want to know the type of pain or discomfort they might have felt and what they did to fight it. I want to find out if it is possible to determine the type of traditions which would have been used to cope, or not, with their ailing health. For this I would need the help of professors who are experts in their fields, the resources provided for research by a university such as this, and the fact that I would be allowed individual research in a topic of my choice.

I feel that my previous experiences make me a qualified candidate for this program because they have given me the skills necessary to be a strong student. They have allowed me a clearer idea of what it is I want to do, of what I can do, and of the fact that I am capable of overcoming any obstacle. Everything I have gone through has been instrumental in making me the person I am today. I am smart, dedicated, strong, and looking forward to having an opportunity of proving this to you.