Graduate students become competent in the discipline's four major subfields: sociocultural anthropology, linguistic anthropology, archaeology, and biological anthropology. Ph.D. students develop professional specialization for independent research and teaching in one of the subfields and may elect to pursue a focus area in feminist anthropology or paleoanthropology. 

Students also may choose to earn a terminal M.A. with a focus on cultural resource management—archaeology (CRM), which prepares them for a professional career in that field.

Graduates find rewarding careers in government, international affairs, conservation, economic development, public health, urban and regional planning, social work, museum work, and education. They might work to help resolve contemporary world problems by joining the Peace Corps, the Americorps program, or an international or domestic nongovernmental organization.