rex-sidereus

How important are campus visits? By the looks of it (just reject me officially, Princeton) I will be starting a program in University of Virginia this fall, which I am very excited about. They have invited me for a campus visit, but even for the money they extend to fly me in, the airfare + accommodations price is way out of my comfort zone, because of how in the middle of nowhere my uni is. I have skyped with my POI a number of times, and we'll be meeting up later in the spring, when we're both in Greece. And UVA is essentially my one and only option. Should I pay the ugly amount for airfare/ max out my credit card for a school that I know I will be attending? I'm weary of the potential red flags, but I feel like I'm fairly familiar with the school and can't really think of anything terrible I will uncover when visiting the department.

Seconding that, I received my UVA acceptance at about 6:00 pm EST.

I hope so! They're my Top Choice, and I've been sitting on needles for the past week. I have a feeling that they're running a bit late this year, because there are no reports about POI contact on the result page.

First acceptance. University of Virginia for Byzantine archeology. To work with a prof I adore. Great funding. I'm so happy I'm breathless.

Not a current grad, so cum grano sails. From what I gathered mingling around academics as I was figuring out my interests and ambitions, you wouldn't necessarily want the person who works on the exact same things as you have in mind (which will - hopefully - evolve during time as a grad), but who understands what you're trying to do conceptually, and will help you to get there by showing you in what direction you can move. Because, honestly, at this point, it is not even about the sources. It is about thinking about the sources in a way that matters. For instance, I was talking to a few specialists in Byzantine rhetoric, whose research aligned with mine nearly perfectly on paper. But when it to the questions I wanted to ask, my broader research interests, and ultimately what made the field intellectually meaningful for me - there were various levels of mismatch. At the same time, the mentors who helped me immensely were in slightly different fields with a different set of niche interests, but they understood where I was trying to go even before I myself did, and helped me get there on my own terms and produce quality academic work in the process. Also a POI with whom my interests do not align, but with whom I really wanted to work because she's a living legend in the field, said that she welcomes an interest mismatch, because she believes that it is both important for the professor and the student to be intellectually flexible.

@Grace Bones I agree with the general consensus that you can't get around Latin when you're a medievalist. If you're willing to consider an intensive, I very heavily recommend UC Cork's Greek & Latin Summer School. It might work out for you logistically if you're UK-bound. Even with the airfare from the US, it is about three times cheaper than analogous programs in the American universities, and the instructors are committed and fantastic. I took Greek with them, which served me well. And the people from the Latin group also had a great and productive learning experience. I doubt that any language intensive course is manageable along with a job, because it is basically eight hours of classroom and then 4-5 hours of homework per day. However, if you still would like to consider it as an option, the Paideia Institute does offer "Telepaideia" courses in various languages online (Latin obviously included), geared towards classicists and adjacent fields. All people I know who went through it had mixed responses, however, and I do recommend staying away from Paideia as an institution in general. Hope that furthers your options.

@TMP Could you please tell the story behind the THE? I know nothing about football, and couldn't find much by googling it. And now the intrigue is killing me.

AYYYEEE GO [once] CORNELL. This is fantastic, I'm so happy for you !!!

"Ohio State, to which we are supposed to refer to as OSU" was actually a running joke between me and the profs who helped me but together my grad options/applications. It was a collective learning process

I'm really glad it worked out for you! I'm waiting for my results, so living vicariously through :). And I also do Late Antique stuff, but not so much textuality and religion (ah, the unwholesome bishops and gnosticism which did not really exist), so the fit wasn't ideal for me to feel motivated to apply. Do not walk past Kaldellis though. The man is unbelievably intellectually diverse, prolific, and fluid. And also very nice. We were chatting, and he ended up picking apart my thesis which is on classical Athenian rhetoric and law, which was extremely helpful. And we have a few grad students in ancient history here in Cornell who came from OSU and speak very highly of him.

@noctua congrats on Ohio !! It was on my application list until pretty much the last minute. Whom did you apply to work with?

Hi all, I just woke up to an email from a POI (I'm interested in Late Antique/Byzantine urbanism - so it's one Art History program in my pile) commenting on how "well liked" my statement of purpose and research interests were by all of the department faculty, and asking me if I have any questions at this time. And I'm not exactly of where this puts me?? And, most importantly how do I word my response communicating how immensely happy I would be to attend, without making any assumptions?

Hey y'all, I'm in the last year of my undergraduate in Classics, and applying for programs in Byzantine history. Broadly - I am interested in construction of urban identities, civic process, and relationship between rhetoric and space. And I have four years of Greek and Latin, native Russian (reading OCS), and intermediate Modern Greek and French. Echoing @ManuscriptBitch, I am concerned that my top choices are... well, too top. I am stuck between acknowledging that Byzantine Studies is a narrow field in the US, and thinking that I am missing something. Also I'm pretty nervous about making a jump from my (diverse but largely textual and largely classical) undergrad into graduate applications in later history without the safety cushion of an MA. I'm applying to Berkeley, Princeton, Harvard, UVA (archaeology), Ohio State, and University of Florida, and also to KCL, Edinburgh, and Birmingham MA's at the odd shot of getting funding.