ClassicsCandidate

I'm glad you enjoyed it! I was so nervous about starting out with the "I've liked this stuff since I was a wee lad" type story, but apparently it worked! I got the acceptance into the MA program just a little under a week ago, so I'm really excited to start at Villanova! I think a lot of people can get nervous about sharing their SoP or that it might have too many identifying bits in it if they want to remain a bit more anonymous. I was nervous because I'm always over-critical of my own writing and I wasn't sure if I hadn't gotten in yet, so that made me hesitant to share as well.

Thanks! I'm really excited to start; I just have to wait for all the other administrative stuff to get taken care of and make sure I focus on my final semester right now as well! Nope! It took me over 50 applications before I got one last time (from Mensa, oddly enough), and now I'm going to try and do a lot of essays in the summer between my programs ending and starting! I hope everyone is getting some good news soon!

Thank you for the congrats @Histrio and @aigilipos ! I've been applying for scholarships and making a list of to-do of scholarships I still need to apply for; I'm very excited

I just saw the e-mail that I was accepted into Villanova for the MA program! I withdrew my UGA application so that I could get started on all of the things I need to prepare for Villanova. I didn't manage to secure the funding for it since there were so many applicants, but the head of the department sent me a list of other funding opportunities through the school that I could apply to; a lot of them are due tomorrow, so I guess I know what I'm doing tonight! I'm super excited now and feel like a lot of weight has been lifted! I hope more people hear from schools they're waiting for soon!

Congrats on beginning at Villanova! Please share your experience with their program once you start; I'd love to hear from someone who is attending! I'm still waiting to hear back from them for the MA program. I'm worried I committed the faux-pas of telling a story from my youth at the beginning of my Statement of Purpose; I'm a bit nervous about sharing it, but here it goes: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ My mother handed me Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone when I was nine years old. Her co-worker told her it had witches and magic, which she knew would entice me to read it since I was fascinated with those subjects. The creature names in the book intrigued me, so I began to investigate them on the Internet, which awakened my love of mythology and research. I spent hours reading about the origins of three-headed dogs, mythological namesakes of my new heroes, and early astronomy. My curiosity was piqued, and I delved into heroic epics, mythology, and ancient history. A lasting fervent interest in these subjects led me to undergraduate degrees in History/Classics and English/Creative Writing with minors in Art History and Theatre at the University of Delaware. Each department allowed me to explore different aspects of the Classical World, and two experiences stand out as particularly memorable. First, Dr. Lauren Petersen’s Women in Antiquity course sparked my interest in gender and sex in the ancient world, especially when we studied Aristophanes's Lysistrata. Additionally, while participating in the Curatorial Apprenticeship Program, under the advisement of Janet Broske, I conducted an independent study on an Apulian pelike from the 4th century B.C.E. in the university collection, analyzing and identifying the images of patterns to determine the use of the pelike and who might have owned it. My professional experience in the Classics began when I secured a position at the Erotic Heritage Museum in Las Vegas. As a member of the Curatorial Staff, I designed a Sex in Ancient Rome exhibit and researched artifact provenance on Roman frescoes in a newly acquired collection, which I immediately recognized as copies of art found in Pompeian homes and brothels. In addition, I will be expanding my Classics training this summer as a participant in the Balkan Heritage Field School’s “Ancient Greeks in the Land of Dionysos - Excavation of Emporion Pistiros, Thrace” project. My past and current experiences in the museum world prompted me to pursue a Master of Arts in Museum Studies at the University of Oklahoma. While there, I studied the representation of disabilities in Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. For this research, I combined my interest in media representation and mental illness with Classical Studies and analyzed ancient medicine and disabilities, ancient religion, bilingual linguistics, dyslexia in modern Greece, ancient and modern warfare, and the presence of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in both the ancient and modern worlds. The primary reason Villanova University stood out to me was Dr. Valentina DeNardis's great care during our correspondence to answer my questions and concerns about the Classical Studies program while I was evaluating which options would be available to me as a distance learner while employed full-time. My research interests align with Dr. DeNardis, specifically in ancient astronomy and astrology and in gender studies. Learning from Dr. Melanie Subacus on the topics of gender and race in the ancient world would also be rewarding, and I was particularly interested in the informal reading group of Harrius Potter et Philosophi Lapis she hosted. The intersectional experience of my undergraduate programs, my professional experience, and my graduate program in Museum Studies have prepared me for the challenges of Classical Studies. I am certain that with expert faculty and an exemplary program, the Classical Studies Master of Arts degree at Villanova University will prepare me for a Ph.D. program and assist me in reaching my goal of becoming a curator in a museum with a strong Greek and Roman collection of art and artifacts. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I did not have room to say this in my SoP, but my favorite part of studying Lysistrata was performing it on the stairs of the art history building, a performance in which I played Kinesias, and was the only guy who decided to make a fake phallus; our professor brought us blue pool noodles for it (it looked ridiculous; it was great). It was definitely something that got the attention of other students! All of us had masks as well, and it was the best time I have ever had in a class.

I'm thinking about doing a post-bacc too, but at UGA like @Talmid . Like he said, the costs are expensive. I know that my employer isn't going to pay for anything because it's not necessarily related to my current position (my current MA is in Museum Studies and they wouldn't pay for any of that, either, as far as I know - the person I contacted about it never got back to me or my supervisor). The only options I saw were doing it slowly out of pocket, getting private student loans through something like Discover or Sallie Mae, or taking out a personal loan, which aren't the best options, either. There's always crowdfunding, but that's usually a hit-or-miss venture as well.

I'm still waiting to hear back from Villanova for their MA program and University of Georgia for the post-bacc, both of which I'm worried won't get back to me until April, during which time I will probably be beside myself with stress. I know it's not the same as waiting for PhD programs to get back to you but I'm also worried I won't be able to get into either which would suck because I feel like if I don't get into the MA program, I'll need the post-bacc to brush up and improve the looks of my academic records.

I hope so! I've just been kind of spinning around, trying to focus on my semester but I feel like I won't be able to fully refocus myself until I have an answer! I started an application for the UGA Post-Bacc as well, just in case, so I'm waiting to see if my transcripts got to them yet. Otherwise, I've just been at work not being able to focus and staring at the wall while refreshing the status page!

It's great to hear a lot of people are getting good news! I'm still waiting to hear back from Villanova, so I've been lurking to see how everyone else was doing with the waiting. I have a funny feeling I may not know until March, so I'm trying to distract myself!

Thank you; I will definitely keep everyone updated! It's the only place I applied to thus far because the other programs have much later due dates and one application for the post-bacc program wasn't even open yet. Congrats on Columbia! I think I read somewhere that some places will still accept people even if they don't have an interview, but I'm uncertain if that's true for Princeton. I'm sure we'll all start hearing back this week/next week if we haven't yet!

Hello and welcome! I wanted to wish you goodluck with your Skype interview; let us know how it goes You'll be great! (I'm on the USA West Coast, so not sure how far that is, but *give you welcoming waves from the desert*)

Congrats to everyone who heard back from their first/additional programs they applied to! I'm so happy for everyone I'm waiting to hear back from Villanova; I should know something this week or next week, so I've been checking back here to see how everyone else is doing. I'm glad everyone's getting accepted into multiple programs! That's so excellent. Has anyone gotten into the top choice program?? You all must be so excited!

I will keep all of that in mind! I've been working on gearing myself more toward how to "sell" Classics as a relevant thing for where I work, but currently, my employer isn't big on paying for anything intensely related to the area in which we work (our Curator of Manuscripts couldn't get funding to go to a library conference and ended up just taking vacation time to attend it on her own dime). Hopefully, I will find funding for it some other way if my employer won't see the relevance. Thanks for the tip! Living language programs are a good route, I feel. I've found a found a few different programs for the modern languages that are necessary as well as conversational Latin and Greek. I discovered Udemy actually had Latin courses on there with lectures taking you through Wheelock's Latin and since I need to brush up, but my schedule is a little tight, it's cheaper to try and go that route, for now, to re-learn what I know in the back of my head than retaking the classes at $1,000+ each at the undergraduate level when I'm uncertain how often I'm going to be able to check back until I'm done my current program in May. I saw some of the conversational Greek/Latin as an option, but I'm gonna brush up first. Then, for modern languages, I already know French and Italian, pick up German pretty quickly but haven't had a formal college-level course in it- but my local community college offers the lower-level courses online. So I've been considering that too, language-wise. (I can speak some Japanese and Polish, too, but I feel like those won't be as relevant, anyway. I'm learning Bulgarian for the field school program I'm doing this summer, though!)

Congrats to everyone who got their acceptances! I'm anxiously awaiting for February because that's when the university I applied to will start reviewing applications. So I'm anxiously awaiting for the next few weeks to be over!

Sorry for the delay in response, I've been busy with work, an internship, and my current classes! That is disappointing, but I suppose it's hard when there aren't many people in the program with you, especially if they have something going on. It was nice that Dr. Corrigan was encouraging and helpful, though! It's great that you were able to visit UGA in person! I feel like sitting in on the class in person was very beneficial. Going to the SCS meetings sounds like a great idea! I haven't been able to attend any conferences or anything like that yet, so I wanted to do that sometime soon when I can afford to do so. Living in Germany would be a great experience for an aspiring/emerging Classicist, especially because it's one of the main research languages. It's one of the only languages I didn't take as an undergrad, so I was considering taking courses at the local community college if I can afford it. I like both campus and online as options for my programs; I do like hybrid programs, but I like having the freedom of being able to go to work and school and possibly changing jobs and having to move. So, that's my main reason for being more keen on online programs, personally. I should hear back from the first school I applied to, so I'll know if I have to have the backup plan in motion in the next week or so! It's amice