Application Procedure
Applicants should familiarize themselves with the admission requirements prior to submitting an application for admission. Also included on our website is information about the program requirements, financial support, and housing.
Please follow these instructions carefully.
The application for graduate study at the University of Toronto is an online application. The application fee for the Anthropology graduate program is $125.00 CDN. Every applicant, including currently registered UofT Master’s students interested in pursuing the PhD within the same graduate unit, is required to apply and pay a fee for each application submitted. Application fees are non-refundable. If an applicant applies to a wrong program in error, it is incumbent upon the applicant to select and pay for another application.
Applications to the Graduate Department of Anthropology must be submitted to the School of Graduate Studies (SGS) through the online admissions application which is housed on a secure server at the University of Toronto. The department will consider your application only after you have entered your personal and academic information in the online application, paid the application fee and uploaded supporting documentation.
School of Graduate Studies (SGS) online application: Apply here
If you do not have facilities from which to submit an online application, please contact antgrad.assistant@utoronto.ca.
Supporting Documentation Required
The Research Proposal/Research Statement should be approximately 1000 words, describing your academic focus and research interests. The statement of research/plan of study must be uploaded as PDF document to your application.
Please note that applicants will not be able to submit their Research Proposal/Research Statement until their application fee has been paid.
PhD applicants should provide a clear picture of research questions, with reference to the appropriate anthropological literature and University of Toronto faculty expertise. Master’s applicants may indicate areas of research interest more broadly.
Applicants to the Master’s program in Social/Cultural Anthropology are asked to answer the following questions in their statement:
Why do you want to do a Masters degree in Anthropology?
If you were designing a project of research in Anthropology, what would it be?
The Department of Anthropology takes seriously our responsibility to anti-racism and decolonization in the context of Canada and beyond. We encourage prospective students to read the department’s statements on Anthropology and Diversity and on Anti-Black Racism and we invite applicants to address these themes when discussing their proposed research project, if applicable, and their motivations for completing a graduate degree at University of Toronto, and/or their long-term professional goals.
Upload a copy of your CV as a PDF document to your application.
Applicants are asked to upload transcripts from all post-secondary institutions attended, including the transcript legend.
Scans of official, unofficial, student-issued or web transcripts are permitted as long as they show the name of the institution, your full name, and a transcript legend.
The scanned transcripts are to be uploaded to the online application system (one single file for each institution attended). If you are currently in a program at the time of application, please submit transcripts from your university showing the work you have completed to date.
Certified English translations are required for all international documentation written in a language other than English or French. Translations do not replace original documentation. Both the original documents and translations must be submitted.
Official transcripts will only be requested from students who are short-listed for admission. You will be contacted by the department if official transcripts are needed (normally these requests go out in March).
For further information, please contact antgrad.assistant@utoronto.ca.
PhD and Master’s applicants are required to provide 2, but no more than 3, letters of reference in their application. Email addresses from Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo!, or other anonymous email service providers are not allowed. References submitted through dossier services such as Interfolio are not accepted.
If you cannot provide an institution/organization email address for a referee, please contact us and let us know that your referee does not have an institutional email address.
Applicants must arrange for two faculty members familiar with your academic work to submit on-line reference letters on your behalf. You must supply the names of these referees and their institutional email addresses on your application form. The system will automatically email an electronic submission request to each referee as soon as the referee’s information is entered on the Recommendations page of the application. Please advise your referees ahead of time that they will receive an electronic invitation to submit an academic reference in support of your application and advise them of the applicaton deadline.
The deadline for your referees to submit their letters is the same as your applicaiton submission deadline.
Applicants from universities outside Canada where English is not the primary language of instruction must provide results of an English language proficiency examination as part of their application. Tests must have been taken within the last 24 months at the time of submission of their application. Please see more information about tests of English language proficiency on the SGS website.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. As a person who is racialized and/or non-binary, trans, or queer and/or Indigenous and/or living with a disability, I have specific concerns about whether the University of Toronto and/or its graduate program in Anthropology is a good fit for me. Whom can I contact to learn more?
A: Important question. Prospective students with concerns about equity issues that they do not feel comfortable discussing with prospective supervisors are encouraged to reach out to the faculty chair(s) and/or graduate student members of the Diversity & Decolonization committee, and/or to the co-presidents of the AGSU.
Q. What time does the system close on the application deadline date?
A: A time of 9AM and 11:59PM EST is assumed for opening and closing dates, respectively, but we recommend that applicants try to meet the deadline by 5:00 pm because staff are not available beyond this time.
Q. When I press upload to submit my supporting documents, nothing happens. Why?
A: Some students have experienced technical difficulty when using the Safari browser on the Mac. If you are using Safari, please switch to the Firefox browser which is also available for the Mac.
Q. Do I require records from all of the post-secondary institutions attended?
A: YES, a history is required from each university attended. Applicants who attended universities outside North America must provide notarized English translations to accompany all foreign documentation not written in English or French.
Q. Do I submit official transcripts by the deadline?
A: No, even though the online application may indicate that official transcripts are necessary by the deadline, the Department of Anthropology will contact students from whom they require official transcripts.
Q. Why does my online application still show that I have documents pending? I submitted my documents weeks ago.
A: Due to mailing and processing time, it may be several weeks before we can indicate that a document has been received. Please check your online application regularly for updates. We will not confirm receipt of documents by phone, fax, email or mail. Please Note: The University will be closed for the holidays from 2:00 pm December 20, 2023 to 8:45 am January 3, 2024. Online admissions applications for the Master’s Program can be submitted during this time; however, technical assistance will be unavailable and application statuses will not be updated. The Department of Anthropology will begin to respond to inquiries that were submitted over the break on January 5, 2024.
Q. Can I provide more than two reference letters?
A: Two academic reference letters are required, but in exceptional circumstances we will accept one more.
Q: My referee prefers to use a dossier service (e.g. Interfolio) to submit references.
A: We require referees to submit their references directly to the SGS application site. We cannot accept letters submitted through a dossier service (e.g. Interfolio).
Q. Do I need to submit my Graduate Record Examination (GRE) results?
A: The Department of Anthropology does not require GRE scores to be submitted with your application. These results will not be considered with your Master’s or Doctoral application.
Q. Do I need to submit a writing sample?
A: No, a writing sample is not required and will not be considered with your Master’s or Doctoral application.
Q. Can I make changes to my application before the deadline but after it has been submitted online?
A: Once the application fee has been paid, you cannot make any changes to your application. Once documents have been submitted online you cannot make any changes to these documents. If you have discovered an error in the document that you have uploaded, please contact antgrad.assistant@utoronto.ca.