I graduated from a good liberal arts college in 2004 with a BA, having double majored in US History and Classics (4 years of Latin, 3 of Greek). I completed an honors thesis that would make a good writing sample. My cumulative GPA was 4.0. I took the GRE in late 2011, thinking to apply to Classics programs, and my scores were 170 Verbal (99%), 159 Quant (82%) and 5.5 AW (96%). I ultimately decided not to apply for Classics, due to some other major life changes at the time, and also to the fact that I don't want to spend the rest of my life translating.
I do, however, love the literature, and have also come to love the classics of English Lit as well, primarily through my own personal reading. I would concentrate on Dickens if such a thing is possible.
In considering English Lit programs, the problem is my total lack of undergraduate coursework. I placed out of the English general ed requirement for my college thanks to the AP test from high school, and consequently, never took a single English class. Some grad schools explicitly list a major in English as part of the application requirement; others don't. How much coursework would I need to take before I could expect serious consideration? Is there another way to "prove myself" than spending more time and money in the undergraduate world? Do some programs allow for provisional/probationary acceptance, dependent on completion of certain prerequisites at the school itself?
Side note: my primary goal is to teach, and as such, I would be thrilled with a job at the community college level or at a small private college. I'm also open to the idea of earning a MA to teach, ideally, at a private/religious high school, if that would be a good stepping stone (or possibly an end in itself--you never know).
Thanks for any advice!
