ClassicsCandidate

Thank you! The one thing I liked about reaching out to people in the UK and Ireland is that I already had what I wanted my dissertation project to be and the UK universities basically eliminated themselves because they would let me know whether they would have faculty who were able to supervise it. This cut Birmingham, Exeter, and Trinity College Dublin because they either didn't have anyone who could supervise my proposal or they specifically couldn't take any more students, but suggested other colleagues either at their university or others. So, I would start that way! I didn't have to pay for my application, either, which was another bonus, as last year was very $$$ to apply. I applied to the Fulbright (which was rejected) and then four other funding schemes through the university. Another one I'm automatically considered for because of how early I applied. I would check the universities and see if they also take international loans (for example, St Andrews takes FAFSA) but also when contacting your potential supervisor, inquire about the funding situations for international students. Some universities will offer a PhD project they want potential students to take as well, so if you're keen on something in particular, you can ask about that as well. A good place to start looking if you've not reached out to anyone yet is here: https://www.findaphd.com/phds/linguistics-and-classics/?10M7K0. You can also check here: https://www.jobs.ac.uk/ where you can search for "Classics" (or whatever specific field you're looking for; History, Philosophy, etc) and then filter by the PhD so you can see which ones they're asking for, which is a good way to get funding because they already want someone to work on that topic. I've not applied that way myself as I had a very specific idea in mind, but let me know if you have any other questions!

Thank you! And I saw that you said you were on two waitlists; I would check in with people who have gotten off of the waitlists for those universities to see what the statistics on that might be. I think that if they still have until the April date, don't lose too much hope! I've never been waitlisted myself; every application I put in last year was a straight-up rejection. So, I don't have much experience with the waitlist process.

Thanks, @JMAurelius and @Celtics! Crossing my everythings for the folks who are still awaiting answers or responses from waitlists!

I just wanted to update everyone! I was offered unconditional admission at the University of St Andrews, so I'll be going to Scotland in September. I'm still waiting to hear back from any funding schemes, but two are currently with committees, two are awaiting review. I've given a firm acceptance, so now it's all down to funding and logistics of moving. I hope everyone else is getting good news, too! My application apparently took a little longer because they wanted me to have three supervisors since my PhD project was so interdisciplinary but they must have really wanted me there for going through all the trouble of finding the right fits for me. I'm really excited!

That's excellent; congratulations! Please let me know if you want any information on the Penn Museum as I currently work there :3 Same goes for you @princefelix if you decide to accept!

I've decided I'm only putting in any and all effort into St Andrews this year. I've applied for lots of different funding avenues as well, so I would rather just focus my energy on that. Now I can just sit back and hope one of those go through. We'll see! I hope everyone's doing well with their applications and I'm waving pom poms for all of you applying!

Hello, all! I'm glad to see such lively chats going on. I've become a bit torn on whether I should bother filling out my other applications again - I've actually spent most of this time talking with the people at St Andrews, filling out St Andrews-specific funding opportunities, and completing a Fulbright application, so I haven't been able to dive into any of the other ones yet. The more I talk to the folks at St Andrews and the more I think about it, I'm not sure if I want to put in the effort (and $$$) to apply to the other schools when it looks good from this university already. But, since I don't have an official acceptance yet, I'm super anxious about it and now the clock is ticking on that December 15th deadline. Admittedly, my first two MA programs? I only applied to one place each time, and I got accepted both times. Part of me is just hoping that'll happen again. Also, after driving to Philadelphia for work most of the week and walking through the city, I'm not sure how well I'd thrive in a city area vs. somewhere like St Andrews, which seems a lot calmer and is by the water, which is something I'm used to. I hope everyone else's application progress is going well!

Hello, all! I am back and ready to get my applications out into the universe again. I figured I would kick things off again since I've begun working on my second round of applications - this time with a new list, with some shiny UK universities on it as well, so I have applications to prepare and proposals to write. I'll be looking into UK funding for international students, too, so if anyone has any advice on that, I would appreciate it! I'm still gunning for primarily interdisciplinary programs at the US universities as well as Art/Archaeology, and for the UK universities I've been going by friends' recommendations who have attended the institutions already. Who knows, maybe I'll be in Scotland next year. My tentative list for this time around: US: Brown, Columbia, Cornell, NYU, Princeton, the University of Chicago, the University of Pennsylvania, and Yale; I'm still on the fence on whether I want to reapply to Rutgers or the University of Michigan UK: Cambridge, Edinburgh, Exeter, and St Andrews (I was thinking about expanding this list but I think I am going to keep it to these main four; I'm most keen on the unis in Scotland, though) I'll be reworking my SoPs, (start) writing a new writing sample, and sending out emails to request application fee waivers today. I'm happy to say MOST of the US universities I've got on my list no longer require the GRE so that's a win from me. I unfortunately couldn't secure funding for the UPenn Post-Bacc in time, so I'll also be trying to find alternatives to learning the languages on my own for this year while I wait to hear back from PhD programs. I hope everyone's doing well and the prepping is easy and without too much stress!

Hi, @Pasiphae! I know I'm super late to this, but Villanova University has funding for their MA, which you can do either completely online or hybrid. You can choose a Latin or Latin/Greek if you want to focus on languages, and there is a Culture option where the languages are optional. I would say if you go for VU, do the Latin/Greek track and that'll give you more of a background before going to your PhD. If you want to know more about the Tuition Scholarship, or VU's MA, please don't hesitate to message!

I have two potential museum jobs I need to hear back from, I'm working on proposals for UK universities, and I got into the UPenn Post-Bacc, but didn't get the funding, so I need to figure that one out now. Hope everyone else have things going well for them!

Yeah, so I just have to wait to see if anyone turns theirs down, but I'm uncertain how likely it is. I also don't know where I am on the alternate list ? So I'm just anxious about that.

Update: I was placed as an alternate for the Fellowship.

Thank you! I really appreciate that. Getting the information from them and a few other places are going to help me make my next steps, so I'm really hoping to hear from someone soon!

I still haven't heard back from UPenn about the certificate funding, so I'm really hoping because it's finals that they haven't notified anyone yet, but I'm getting really nervous

You're welcome! It's no problem. Oh, that's good to have more information about the course. For the course I take with Belfast Classics, it's 10 weeks (one a week) of a course that follows a GCSE book until you get all the way through it (right now I'm in the "post-beginners" course, so in my second set of 10 weeks, and then I have already paid for the Summer Intensive for two weeks. It's for one hour and she walks us through the instruction for the grammar/vocabulary in each section, and we'll do some exercises together and she assigns us exercises to do over the course of the week. You don't get graded, and we actually *asked* her to give us a vocabulary quiz so we would be able to assess ourselves and she said to send it her way if we wanted her to mark it but we weren't obligated to. I like that it's a more relaxed environment but it's still interactive and guided versus fully self-led.