The Ohio State University Department of Anthropology

Alumni Survey

Alumni Survey

In Autumn 2018, we surveyed the alumni that graduated from our program to learn more about their professional careers and how they use their anthropological training in their jobs. We contacted 393 alumni and 127 of them completed the ten-minute survey, which is a 32% response rate. 

Below is a summary of the most important results.

  • Our alumni work in a wide range of sectors including: military, medical, law, business, government, retail, financial, education, information technology, and a few archaeologists.
     
  • Their professions include: teachers, managers, engineers, technicians, researchers, law professionals, retail professionals, financial professionals, graphic designers.
     
  • Most of our alumni are pursuing non-academic careers. Only a few of the alumni were in graduate school (6); worked as archaeologists (6); in forensics or in biological anthropology positions (4).
     
  • The alumni in non-academic careers mentioned that they use the following (anthropological) skills in their professional life: cultural relativism, working with people, ethnography, research skills, holism, global perspective, communication and writing skills, and analytical and critical thinking.