After that, you put together The Dissertation Committee , which hopefully should help get to the point where you write The Dissertation and give The Defense . While it may seem counter-intutitive, the department has streamlined the rules for the MA and PhD program into 53 easy steps . The wise prospective student should take a look at them early on. As a general rule, the department has very few internal means to support graduate students during their studies here. The most important means of modest student support are teaching assistantships and associateships.
Many students find ways to support their studies from sources outside the department.
Chapter IV of the Graduate Programs Handbook , and the UMass Department of Anthropology Student Support Subpage gives information on tuition waivers, teaching assistantships and associateships, fellowships and tells how to apply for these positions. Graduate student employees are essential to the university's ability to teach and carry out research and GEO, the Graduate Employees Organization , is their union. GEO has been important in improving the quality of living for graduate employees and the quality of a UMass education for all university students. The current graduate students in the department number about 85. Some of us are in the department every day studying, working on our research and teaching our courses, while others of us are all over the world doing field research and studying and teaching at other universities.