California State University, Chico, offers a forensic identification certificate as well as a master's degree in forensic anthropology. The certificate prepares undergraduate students for entry-level positions in forensic science. However, students who want to pursue this career path should also plan to major in one of the physical or natural sciences and take general chemistry and quantitative analysis courses. Students in the certificate program must complete three core required classes, as well as courses in methods and techniques and legal systems.
While completing the master's program in forensic anthropology, students have the opportunity to work in the school's Physical Anthropology Human Identification Laboratory, which has played valuable roles in assisting county sheriffs and coroners, district attorneys and local police departments in the identification of victims. Students can take classes in archaeological site surveying, human identification and human variation.
Located in Pennsylvania, Mercyhurst College prepares students for a career in forensic anthropology with its undergraduate applied forensic sciences program as well as its masters of science in anthropology graduate program.
Mercyhurst's undergraduate program offers a multidisciplinary approach; students must complete a core curriculum that includes biology, chemistry, physics and mathematics. This core curriculum is enhanced with three specialized concentrations in forensic anthropology, forensic biology and forensic chemistry and toxicology.
The master's program at Mercyhurst is an intensive, two- to three-year program that includes concentrations in forensic and biological anthropology, archaeology and geoarchaeology. Students in the forensic and biological anthropology program learn how to complete an in-depth analysis on human skeletal remains.
The University of Montana, Missoula, offers a certificate in forensic studies as well as a bachelor's degree in anthropology with a concentration in forensic anthropology. The 18-credit certificate program is designed for students who'd eventually like to pursue a career path in forensic anthropology, or for those who merely have an interest in the subject. Students in this program must take the survey of the forensic sciences course as well as the forensic science and technology course, and then can choose from a number of electives to fulfill the program requirements.
Students pursuing the bachelor's degree must take the two required courses for the certificate program as well as principles of forensic anthropology, forensic and mortuary archaeology, criminology and 12 additional courses that are relevant to the field.
The Boston University School of Medicine offers a 42-credit Master's of Science degree in forensic anthropology. The program is one of the only graduate forensic anthropology programs offered from an anatomy department at a major medical center. Students here will explore how their knowledge of anthropology, osteology and anatomy can apply to criminal casework. Students will take a number of lecture- and laboratory-based courses, including forensic anthropological procedures, expert witness testimony and experimental design and statistics. Prior to graduation from the program, students must complete a research project and full-length thesis.