Does anyone know where I can apply to a college for online studying for an Egyptology Degree?
Question:
Answer:
http://www.glyphdoctors.com/mod/resource...
Have you always wanted to be able to decipher the secrets of ancient Egypt yourself by reading the hieroglyphs? Have you tried teaching yourself hieroglyphs but gave up because you had no one to answer your questions and no other students with whom to learn? If so, this online course is for you.
This course will provide learners from all over the world with a complete introduction to Middle Egyptian grammar, giving them the skills needed to comprehend and translate literary, religious, historical and documentary texts in the language. The full course will be divided into three units. Students will be able to enroll at any time and will be allowed up to six months to complete each unit at their own pace, with time extensions available for a small fee. Students will gain access to a virtual classroom where they will have the guidance of an instructor and be able to interact with other students. It will consist of the following sections:
Nicole's Notebook: These notes, prepared by Glyphdoctors' Nicole Hansen, will include additional information, alternative suggestions, and learning tips that will help the student master the various aspects of Egyptian grammar and script. They will be available in an online book that also can be easily printed for offline use.
Online Submission of Exercises: You will be able to submit your homework exercises through an easy-to-use Web interface.They will be reviewed by the instructor, who will clearly mark corrections and offer personally tailored suggestions for improving your translation skills.
Help Forums: In other distance learning courses on hieroglyphs, students must study alone, without easy access to their instructors. Here you will be able to ask questions regarding grammatical and cultural concepts introduced in the course, get answers from the instructor, and help one another. You will be able to insert hieroglyphic signs into these discussions, without needing to buy any expensive software.
Soundclips: By listening to your instructor, you will learn how Egyptian letters may have sounded and how Egyptian words and sentences are conventionally pronounced by Egyptologists. You will need Macromedia's free Flash Player installed on your computer to hear this sample.
Glyph Gallery: The goal of this feature is to help you to learn to recognize and draw individual hieroglyphs. It will tell you how a particular sign is used and what it represents. It will be illustrated with relevant images and an animated sequence of how to draw the glyph. You can view a sample of Glyph Gallery content here.
Allen coverTextbook: We will use the same book used to teach hieroglyphs at top universities around the world: Jim Allen's Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs. This book can be purchased online. Other books will be recommended, but not required.
Glyphdoctors vocabularyVocabulary Builders: Electronic flash cards will accompany each chapter to assist you in mastering vocabulary. Printable vocabulary lists will allow you to study vocabulary anywhere and help you to complete the exercises that associated with each lesson.
Learning Links: An annotated list of other Web sites that you can visit to supplement your hieroglyphic learning experience will be available. In addition, as various cultural topics are introduced in the textbooks, additional Web sites on these subjects and books available through Amazon will be recommended so you can broaden your knowledge of Egyptian culture and build your own Egyptological library.
Hieroglyphic Editor and Transliteration: A built-in hieroglyphs editor Hieroglyphic Editor Screenshotwill allow you to type hieroglyphs in your homework and forum posts, while helping you to memorize the signs. Transliteration of hieroglyphs will also be possible.
he ancient Egyptians had a saying to describe the student-teacher relationship: "A boy's ear is on his back; he listens when it is beaten." While the teaching of Egyptology today doesn't involve corporal punishment, it still is a challenge to study Egyptology with a qualified instructor without moving halfway across the country or globe and paying a fortune to do so. How can you make your dream of studying Egyptology come true? There are several paths you can follow.
While most Egyptologists specialize in one area, all must study a wide range of subjects: archaeology, art, architecture, history and culture, not to mention the five stages of the ancient Egyptian language, and several modern foreign languages as well. Most Egyptologists spend at least 12 years studying in the university before obtaining their PhDs. The few people who complete their course of study wind up competing for the few jobs available in the same few institutions that offer PhDs in Egyptology, or a handful of curatorial positions. Many excellent scholars with PhDs are forced to follow other career paths-working as computer programmers, librarians, editors or going to law school.
Considering these bleak job prospects, I want to offer some candid advice to want-to-be Egyptologists. I wouldn't go as far as one of my former professors, whose first words to me when I met him were: "You know there aren't any jobs in this field, don't you?" But there are definitely some things you can do to increase your chances of getting one.
If you are still in school, and your school offers courses in French or German, take them, as these two languages are used by Egyptologists every day in their research. An undergraduate degree in Egyptology is not prerequisite to an advanced degree in the field, although it is possible to major in Egyptology in a few universities. Most graduate programs will admit students with bachelor's degrees in any discipline, but particularly anthropology, classics, languages and linguistics, and history.
If you have what it takes to even have a chance at being employed as an Egyptologist, the universities to which you are applying for a graduate degree will recognize that you are a promising student and offer you financial aid. If they don't, it doesn't mean you wouldn't excel in Egyptology; they simply can't offer a lot of money to people who will never become employed in the field. If you don't receive funding, it is best to pursue other career goals. Some universities will be more than happy to take your tuition fees for two years, hand you an MA degree, and send you on your way to work like a slave for the next 20 years to pay back the $80,000 debt you incurred. Chances are the only employment you will find will be far removed in subject and place from Egyptology: one former Egyptology student I knew wound up doing data entry for a nuclear waste dump in Nebraska to pay back her loans.
If you do decide to pursue Egyptology as a career, being a self-starter and networking is a huge help. A solid academic background in Egyptology can lead, for example, to an unpaid internship with a museum putting together an Egyptological exhibition, which in turn can lead to a recommendation for a paid position later. Attending conferences and giving lectures will also give you valuable experience and connections. Another less obvious route can get you into the field of Egyptology. Archaeological projects in Egypt always include a wide range of specialists: photographers, artists, geologists, architects, conservators, computer specialists, osteologists, botanists, and even physicians. Many specialists in these fields find their skills in such demand that they have more opportunities to work in Egypt than the Egyptologists themselves!
But anyone can be a "Glyphdoctor" at this site. If you want to indulge in your passion for Egyptology, or would like to explore the field without making a commitment, this Web site aims to satisfy your desire to learn about ancient Egypt as the professionals do. We plan to offer in-depth Egyptology courses tailored for the general public interested in Egyptology. These courses will feature personal attention from the instructor and the chance to interact with other students from around the globe who love ancient Egypt as much as you do, at an affordable price. You can learn more about our future courses here. To get a feel of what a Glyphdoctors course is like, please visit our open Egyptology discussion forums.
Try these links for additional information and specifics:
http://www.glyphdoctors.com/mod/resource...
http://www.worldwidelearn.com/online-cou...
As the cut-and-pasted answer above says, you aren't going to be able to do that. While you can take on-line or correspondence courses in Egyptian language (and the occasional history or religion course) you aren't going to be able to get an actual, respectable degree that might (if you're REALLY lucky) get you a job in the field on-line.
There simply isn't a good way to offer such a degree on-line as the requirements for any degree in Egyptology requires a massive amount of library research on language, history, and archaeology. Most of the classic professional resources for such research are either rare or expensive, or both, and are not held in a great number of libraries, especially the works in French and German. Nor have most of them been digitized and made available on-line, nor are they likely to be in the immediate future.
The on-line courses available also aren't going to get you college credit, but some of them can be useful. The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago occasionally offers a correspondence course on Egyptian hieroglyphs through the Museum Education/ Adult Education. Check the website or get in touch with the Museum Education department for more information.
http://oi.uchicago.edu/oi/mus/ed/museum_...
Other museums with large Egyptological collections may also offer correspondence or on-line courses. Check the education departments of the Metropolitan Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
If you want an actual degree and want to work in the field of Egyptology you're going to need at least a Master's degree and more likely a Ph.D, especially if you want to work in Egypt.
In North America, your options include:
University of Torono
Univerisity of Chicago
UCLA
UC-Berkeley
University of Pennsylvania
Yale
Brown
Johns Hopkins
University of Memphis
NYU-Institute of Fine Arts
American University in Cairo (I think they only offer a BA in Egyptology, but at least it's IN Egypt)
I've probably left a few places off the list, but those are the major players.
Also, as the cut-and-pasted answer from GlyphDoctor suggested, it's a pretty thankless career. Jobs are few and far between once you finally do get your degree and you're going to be spending at least a decade (after an undergraduate degree) in a place where the weather probably sucks and the cost of living is sky high, surrounded by students who (depending on the program) would just as soon stab you in the back as look at you, being taught by professors who are pretty much crazy, either in sort of fun, endearing ways or in scary "shouldn't-you-be-institutiona... ways. Sleep will become a thing of the past.
Don't get me wrong, I love what I do, but I'm a realist (and a cynic). I'm in debt up to my eyeballs and going prematurely grey. I'll be lucky to get a job when I finally finish my dissertation. But I knew what I was getting into from the start and decided it was worth it.
More Questions & Answers...