Conscia Fati

Don't worry about it! No big deal.

Oh, and good luck everyone, and congrats to those of you who've already heard good news!

Just to set the record straight: these six students are being interviewed, and are not yet accepted. I believe the classics department plans to make offers to two of these six prospectives. They have already made one offer to a current classics post-bacc at Columbia. I cannot speak to the admissions process in CLST.

New Sappho! (if you haven't already seen it - enjoy!) http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jan/30/read-sappho-new-unknown-poem-papyrus-classical

actual_entity, congrats on your interview, and best of luck!

congrats in advance!

I am reading Ovid's Ars Amatoria -- some of the worst love advice I've ever come across, lol!

Penn's committee has met, or so I've heard. Good luck everyone!

I applied in fall 2012. I started hearing back in late January. The latest request for an interview I got was sometime mid-February…

Haha. It's not easy, but it's definitely possible! Just get ready to have a two-year-old who reads Pindar. YMMV.

Do not retake it. Your scores are past the minimum threshold.

IA with the OP. I got a 6 on my AW and I totally made stuff up. Citing an imaginary New York Times article is always a great idea.

avoid cliches at all costs. be professional and demonstrate to the committee that you are a good fit for the school. keep the statement concise, clear. and compelling. good luck!

Fair enough! Sounds like you have read quite a lot, so I was curious as to where you hope to end up for grad. studies. Best of luck!

Hi George -- I am referring to the OCT (Oxford Classical Text). Per week: 1000 lines of poetry is pretty standard in my program, or about 25-30 OCT pages of prose. For super difficult texts, like Aeschylus' Agamemnon, the amount drops down to about 600-700 lines. IMHO, you should have two years of upper levels before tackling survey, and should have experience with both prose and poetry authors. Good luck -- and feel free to ask any other questions.

Where are you applying?

I'm in Greek survey right now, and we read anywhere from 600 lines to 1200 lines a week, averaging about 1000. It IS possible. Greek is my weaker of the two languages. In my experience, the trick is to break it down into several small bits and do it consistently throughout the week. I'll do sixty lines in the morning, sixty lines at night, and do that daily. I also write on the text and try to read it with a friend when I can -- that way I'm engaging as many senses as possible and will have a better chance of remembering it. Mastering all of the vocabulary is impossible... you should work towards memorizing a core vocabulary, but there are so many words that fall into the category of hapax legomenon that you just can't master them all. You need to have a good basic understanding of the grammar. You should have at least a couple 4000 level classes under your belt before trying survey. And when you begin studying for your PhD reading list exam, you start to realize how little you actually covered in the year of survey. One of my profs recommended to read it three times: once without any lexical aids, once with a commentary and dictionary, and once against a translation (to check yourself). I confess that I don't often make it to a third reading (although I do try to read it at least twice). Using online resources, like the TLG, is also really helpful.

You might want to send a message to the user Late Antique (who is in the program), although I'm not sure if he/she logs on here much anymore....

What are your questions?

Professor Chiu at UVM is an incredible mentor, scholar, and teacher -- and has an incredible sense of humor to boot. Ever heard of Classics Ryan Gosling? She's the mastermind behind it. http://classicsryangosling.tumblr.com

I really like the Learn to Read Latin/Greek texts by Keller (Yale University Press). The workbook exercises are outstanding. To gain fluency, I think it is important both to read and to compose. Also, it is beneficial to read texts aloud, and to aim for understanding the text before translating it. Building up a strong vocabulary is invaluable. I personally use FlashCard Machine (http://www.flashcardmachine.com) to keep track of important vocabulary for various authors. To gain fluency, I also recommend Hoyos' Latin: How to Read It Fluently. Also, be sure to check out the news broadcast, Nuntii Latini; It's free on iTunes. (https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/radio-bremen-nuntii-latini/id155728473). If you can afford it, I'd recommend doing an immersion program, such as The Paideia Institute (http://paideia-institute.org). Bonam fortunam!

My husband and I have two small children. Which graduate student apartment complex would be most suitable for a family of four? Proximity to the train station is important, since my husband will commute to NYC two days each week. Any advice is welcome!

You are a rockstar.

I have not heard that the IFA has had problems funding its PhD students, although I do have friends in their MA program who did not receive funding. Everyone whom I know who is in their PhD program has full funding.

I broke down crying in my advisor's office today. I'm a first year graduate student, and this weekend I just finished up a huge project that required me to work at 200% capacity for over a month. I had a quiz today that I studied for, but I was so tired that I didn't retain anything I read. Tears welled up during the quiz, and I kept my head down for the duration of the class period. After class, I went into my advisor's office to apologize for my poor performance on the quiz. He looked at me very kindly; I burst into tears at his hint of compassion. He then took the quiz from my hands, crumpled it up, and threw it in the trash bin. After giving me a hug, he told me to enjoy the beautiful day with my family and not to crack open a book for the rest of the day. I greatly respect my advisor and deeply admire his work, but I have always been intimidated by him and rather shy around him. I never expected this kind of response from him. I knew people in my department were human, but this level of understanding astounded me. I am so thankful that THERE IS GRACE IN GRADUATE SCHOOL, and you DON'T HAVE TO BE PERFECT! I hope this story encourages others who are going through tough times in school -- we all do.