ClassicsCandidate
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Posts posted by ClassicsCandidate
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On 12/18/2020 at 5:43 AM, miszoe said:
hi, everyone. I'm from China and I did my undergrads at a small LAC in the US. While my major was art history (not ancient art), I was interested in classics and took two years of Latin and two years of Greek plus one ancient history course back then. My undergrads has a strong classics department and I got lots of 4.0 for those courses.
Then I completed my masters studies at Ox-Bridge in art history and entered a phd program in the same subject at Princeton. Two years into my program, I fond that my interest in art history wasn't that strong and for a couple of reasons I left my program.
I have worked for sometime but still feel like going back to academia, if just for the sake of reading more and writing more papers. Also my interest in classics (not art history) have rekindled. My favorite classes have always been the classics ones when i was an undergrad. I love close reading in ancient languages and learning about critical theories, but I am not sure which subfield of classics i'm most interested in. I also have no preference for latin or greek.
SO my question is could anyone offer me suggestions as to what I should reasonably do with my interest?
Would it be a good idea to consider a post-bac program at places like Colombia or Penn? And then, if i‘m lucky enough, earn a second masters and eventually try to get into a phd program? If I am not going to get into a phd program, i guess i will also be fine with another masters degree and feel satisfied that I‘ve spent my time on worthwhile things.
I am in my late 20s and am worried if age would be a problem. Also I guess the fact that I was once accepted into a humanities phd program but didn't finish it would hurt my application if one day I finish my master's and apply for a phd program. I've heard something about the current job market and am wondering if my non-elite lac background would cause a serious disadvantage to me? (That didn't seem to be a problem when i was in my art history phd program though).
As for the financial issues, I am not from a rich family but I got scholarships and fundings throughout my undergrads, masters and phd years so I didn't spend much. I am thinking about saving money right now and support myself if I enter a postbac program. But I have no idea how to proceed later should i enter a masters program and am not that hopeful about getting scholarships in classics. : p
Another possibility for me is just to keep my interest by reading whatever I could get my hands on in my country, be satisfied with my current job, save money and come back to study classics in an academic environment decades later, say during my mid-50s or later, for pure interest. I wonder if anyone, maybe not anyone here, is planning on doing that, too.
Any suggestion or question is welcome!
Hello, there!
Well, I am in my 30s and just finished my MA in Classical Studies and applied to a good chunk of PhD programs; your age shouldn't be a problem. I had a couple of people in my MA program with me who were older, too - there was a lawyer in his 40s, an individual who was in his 60s and ended up doing his PhD and coming back to the same MA program to teach when he finished. Most programs have sections in their applications for a personal statement to explain why you changed routes/what brought you to that field vs. your previous field. I have Classics degrees but another BA and MA that are not quite relevant but adjacent (like your art history) fields. I agree with @Marcus_Aurelius that you should touch on it in your SoP.
A lot of MAs are now being funded. Texas Tech U, Rutgers, and Villanova are the ones I know of off the top of my head that have possibilities of funding for their MA programs. I think a postbacc or intensive language program before the MA might be good, but I think if you have some background in it and you explain you want to go for the MA to increase your language knowledge, I think you'll be fine. I looked into doing the University of Georgia PostBacc at first because it was available as an online program, but I got into Villanova with a Tuition Scholarship, so I did that and withdrew my UGA app. There's also Bridge MAs and similar programs if you want to go all the way through a PhD program (e.g., the Bridge MA at the University of Michigan or the Pre-Doctoral Fellowship at Princeton).My alternative plans for an all-rejection pile for this cycle is to get a job either teaching or in museums (or both, providing I can manage either, possibly obtaining an M.Ed. in the meantime with a teaching certification) before I try again for another application cycle. I don't think I'll get all rejections, but want to have a couple of plans in place just in case (since I already have an MA, I'd try for adjuncting roles, too). If you end up waiting to do another MA, I don't think it'd be bad to save up to do it or even do it slowly while working. I knew someone who went to Villanova who worked full time but only took one course per semester (Fall, Spring, Summer), so that they could pay for it out of pocket (also, at VU, teachers get a 20% tuition discount and a 40% discount if you're a Catholic school teacher, so a lot of the students were teachers). I think there are a lot of avenues you can take and they really depend on what direction you feel is best for you. I decided to apply to my PhD applications this year because it had been my plan to take 2020-2021 off and apply for the following year.
If you have any questions about Villanova's process, MA program, or anything related to that, feel free to ask me here or message me! Best of luck with figuring it all out and Happy New Year!
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On 12/28/2020 at 5:35 PM, alts98 said:
Just found out that if you get a Kindle Unlimited subscription, you can access so many free test books! It is $9.99 a month and has new test books from different companies. If you are looking for extra practice then you could access multiple test books in a month for just 10 bucks. Definitely seems worth it if you are on a budget!
Oh, that's excellent information, thank you for sharing! I personally have already taken the GRE but it's good to know and I'll be sure to pass it on to anyone who might need it.
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To address a lot of things already posted in this thread: I've been worried as well about the idea of more people applying to schools they may not have considered originally (as I said in a previous post, a couple of the schools originally on my list had to be taken off and I added one I hadn't originally planned on myself), but on the flipside, as someone else said, a lot of people might be less inclined to apply to graduate school in the midst of the pandemic. I know there was a lot of chatter on Twitter about people saying they'd rather wait until things had leveled out/gone back to a closer-to-normal pre-COVID environment before they applied. So I wonder if a lot of people are waiting for things like a vaccine before going (I was in undergrad when Swine Flu was going around, but it was honestly nothing in comparison to this), or just waiting until it's subsided for the most part. I wanted to apply right now because the 2020-2021 school year was my off year; I was keen on keeping to my plan and I luckily managed to get application fee waivers for most of the schools but I'm sure the cost of applying was a deterrent, too (my alma mater actually sent me a fee waiver unprompted, so that was nice).
As for hearing back from anyone yet, I'm not expecting anything until mid-January at best and heard some people (last year or earlier) waited as long as April to hear anything at all. Worst case scenario I've heard is when people say they never heard back from some schools at all, which surprised me! So I'm hoping for mid-January but I'm bracing to wait as long as March/April for answers. -
I've finally finished applying to everywhere today. I've applied to Cornell, NYU, Princeton, Rutgers, the University of Delaware, the University of Michigan, the University of Chicago, and Yale. Every program I applied to is a little different (University of Delaware is Art History, for example, with a focus in Antiquity), and unfortunately, Brown and the University of Pennsylvania, two of my top choices, weren't taking students for Fall 2021, so my list changed a lot in the last year. My top choice is Cornell because I applied specifically for the Interdisciplinary Classics. How's everyone doing with their apps?
- DeoTank, LDAV and Marcus_Aurelius
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On 11/1/2020 at 4:40 PM, TaciturnTales said:
Hello, everyone!
I am applying to programs for fall 2020, as well. This will be my second time applying - I think I almost got funding for this year, but then there were pandemic-related issues and I can't really afford graduate school without funding. Unfortunately the number of programs that I can apply to is somewhat limited, as I don't have the experience with classical languages that a lot of other people do (I'm currently trying to teach myself Latin to rectify this). The programs that I am interested in have an M.A. in Mediterranean/Classical Archaeology, as I would like to eventually pursue museum work as a curator. Best of luck to all of you during this process - it has been a rough year and I know we could all use something positive.
Best of luck! My first M.A. is in Museum Studies and I'm planning on pursuing a similar path, maybe ours will cross!
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On 10/7/2020 at 11:14 PM, K G said:
I'm new to the graduate admissions process (first in my family to consider going) and I was surprised to hear someone say recently that I should contact advisors and talk to them on the phone even for taught MAs in the US if there is a thesis/dissertation component. I knew you had to do this for research degrees like PhDs or MPhils in the UK, but I didn't think it was standard for MAs. Admittedly, I probably should have done more research before hand on this, but here we are. Any thoughts? Some of the programs I'm looking at expect the thesis to come from a seminar paper written within the program and give you a year to choose an advisor. So I surmised from this that I'd have time once in the program to fully confirm that professor was a good fit for me and to work out the details of my research plan. I certainly have advisors in mind at every program, but I just didn't expect to have to get on a call with them yet. Should I contact the professors I'm thinking about? Is this expected or normal in the US? Thanks.
I'm super late to this, but for me, contacting the professors helped me get an idea of how they treated their potential students. For example, only one professor congratulated me on finishing my MA - not that I expected it from anyone at all, but that stuck out to me. For me, reaching out to each professor before I applied made an impact on how keen I was to apply to the programs at all. One of my potential schools was struck from my list entirely because a professor who I would have had as my advisor at that particular school said certain things at a conference round table to me that made me sure we wouldn't mesh well. So, in my opinion, reaching out to the professors was more for me to know which professors would be responsive (I still haven't heard back from one I wrote to in January), their candor, and so on. I'm not sure how much that will help you now, but I wanted to weigh in, in case it would help you or anyone else.
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Hi, all! I just wrote a statement of purpose for my application for Yale's Classical Art and Archaeology program and I wanted to know if anyone would be willing to look it over? I know it's a bit rough in places but I'm a bit stuck on knowing how/where to polish it. Thanks in advance!
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On 9/8/2020 at 12:02 AM, suntaliquidmanes said:
Best of luck, @ClassicsCandidate and all else applying!
I’ve been in a program for a few years now, and am happy to share my (naturally limited) perspective on the application process (which I had to go through twice) with any and all applicants — though since I’m a philologist literature programs are my forte. Consider this an open invitation for DMs, if y’all wish.
Thank you! I just finished my second (of ten) statement of purpose last night. I'm very nervous. Thanks for the open invitation, too :3
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I noticed we haven't started the Fall 2021 Applicants thread yet, so I wanted to get it rolling! I've been working on my statements of purpose and just finished emailing my professors for letters of recommendation. I had to take Columbia off my list because Classics isn't taking students for Fall 2021. I hope everyone is having good luck with their applications so far! I'm waiting for some of the other apps to open. I'm mainly focused on interdisciplinary programs and Art/Archaeology.
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I did the program while living with family and working a full-time museum job so I can't speak to how how the cost of living will affect you. Since I was a Tuition Scholar, all of my tuition was covered, but I did take out small loans for supplies (and my new laptop was paid for by an external scholarship). If you do end up at Villanova in person you could always see if you can get a volunteer or intern position at the Penn Museum too!
Honestly, a lot of times with Museum Studies certs, there's an oversaturation of that credential specifically (when I realized this I was already halfway done my MA and didn't want to transfer or stop to go to another program). I honestly think that doing a Non-Profit Management certificate would be more marketable because you can use it outside museums, too. These programs usually have museum-focused courses as options but definitely take a grant-writing course if you can. That's a highly valuable skill, as well as fundraising. Personally if I could do it over, I would have gone to an MLIS program with an Archives/Special Collection and/or a Museum Studies concentration because it's more versatile. I don't want to say this to be discouraging but to give you an idea of what I've encountered. After an apprenticeship, countless volunteer hours, and a couple of internships, it took me 2 years after my BA graduation and halfway through my MA to land a full-time museum job and that was just a front-desk position, which I held for three years. It might be easier in a different city to get a job in museums, though. I lived in Chicago before where I live now and I never even got an interview anywhere there, either. All that being said, I hope you find the right programs for what you're looking for and if you have any more museum questions, let me know! I'm happy to answer anything.
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I just wanted to chime in and talk up the Classical Studies program at Villanova University, which can be taken fully online or hybrid/in-person. You can choose the culture track but still sit in on translation sections of the courses. They have been offering intensive Latin / intensive Greek some semesters as well (it doesn't count toward the MA itself but is a good refresher/jump into the language(s)). So perhaps a program that allows you to do something like this will help?
My first MA was in Museum Studies and my plan is to curate as well. I'm probably going to do a PhD with a focus in art history or archaeology that has Classics as a close department relationship or as something I can choose as my main focus (e.g., one program I'm looking at is Art History with a focus in Antiquity to the 1700s, so I can choose Ancient Greek or Latin as my languages if I want to. This program requires 1 language and you work with your advisor to pick the right language for your study.)
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On 6/27/2020 at 9:38 PM, suntaliquidmanes said:
I took a Latin Pedagogy class in my MA program. On the date we discussed exams for accreditation, we were told the only thing we needed to do to prep for the Praxis is “get a good night’s sleep and eat breakfast,” because it’s supposedly a cakewalk.
They like to ask multiple choice questions with tricky wrong answer options (like “illi” as the masc. gen. sg. of “ille,” for example), so watch out for those sorts of distractions.
I’d like to stress that I haven’t personally taken the exam, but by all accounts it’s not bad at all.
Thank you so much! I wonder if that's why I didn't find much information or prep guides for it aside from the ETS one. I'll keep my eye out for those tricky questions!
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Hello, all! So I wanted to know for those of you who did a MAT in Latin or were required to take the Latin Praxis test as part of your MA requirements, did you do any kind of test prep or use any guide of some sort? How would you suggest preparing for the test? There's not much information about this so I'd like to see what y'all would suggest. Thank you in advance!
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24 minutes ago, chrissy2020 said:
Hey y'all,
I am just curious, which do you think is more important: to work with someone prominent in your field/area or to attend a school that you can manipulate to fit your interest but has more prestige? I am specifically looking at this question through the lens of hiring and post grad school job opportunities.
I personally would choose the place that fits more into your specific research interests; if you want to work with this person because it aligns with your research interest, I find that that's more important than the school itself. If you find someone who you want to work with, that would personally be my top priority. I also have heard of people who started off at a "prestigious" school but then ended up following the person they were working with to a new university after they got hired elsewhere. To me, that makes more sense than having to manipulate things that could possibly not work out for you in the end. Again, this is my opinion and I'm interested in hearing what others thing, and I hope it helps!
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1 hour ago, GotSave said:
Hi, I am an incoming PhD student in Computer Science at UD.
I'd like to know if you guys have any tips for living in Newark as an international student. Also, how's life there without a car?
Do you have any advice for housing and finding a roomate at an affordable price?
Thanks
Hi, I graduated from UD in 2015, so it might be a little different, but here's some of what's good about the Newark area:
- UD has free buses that go around the campus so you can get to the North/Center/East/West/South area of the main campus pretty easily
- There's a lot of food/stuff to do on Main St if you know where to go (it was a little different when I visited it a year ago, but it's got quite a bit there!)
- I would suggest getting a bike (if possible) if you don't want to rely on the buses because they can be a little wonky with their times/not come soon enough before your class, I used to bike there all the time
- If you take summer classes, bring a hoodie, they blast the AC - this is specific to the UD campus and just something everyone should know lol
- Public transport exists but it's not the best (buses)
- UD also has a lot of resources for international students iirc, and they have The INNternationale House: http://www.theinnternationale.org/
It also depends on what kinds of things you're interested in doing. I lived off campus, about a 30 minute walk away. Biking was easier, but I was near apartments where the UD buses picked up so I could go there if I needed to. I walked to bars, my Tang Soo Do dojo, and the grocery store alright (the grocery stores can be a little far, though). There was a small Chinese market and a co-op at the end of Main Street when I lived there and I did a lot of grocery shopping in both of those places, with more stores beyond that, but depending on where you live, it's a bit of a walk. If you walk to get groceries, I highly recommend getting a rolling cart for groceries so you don't hurt yourself hauling it back (which is what I kept doing to myself).
Also, other options for housing can be found here: https://udel.uloop.com/. I found a pretty good place that was a three bedroom for $1,000/month in 2013/2014, so it might be a little more expensive now, but we were splitting it between 3-4 people, which made it really affordable. Let me know if you have any other specific questions!
- GotSave and LadyWolfshadow
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I've actually had a bit of trouble with this myself because from what I've seen, if you're doing Classical archaeology through an Anthropology program, you have less of a focus on languages. It also depends on whether you're doing an MA or a PhD as well.
Imo, since you're focused on Late Bronze Age, you might be okay with not "catching up" on languages and filling in the gaps once you're in the program. I would also suggest reaching out to the schools of interest to you to see what language requirements they have and whether they give options for ancient/modern languages, because I know some places will allow you to argue for different languages if you can make the case that others would be more relevant to you and schools will make allowances for you to study languages not commonly offered in undergraduate programs.
I'm personally a little rusty on my languages as well and have had other students advise me specifically to seek out anthropology programs vs. Classics programs if my main interest was archaeology. Again, this might vary by school and program, so reaching out to current students might help you.
I honestly don't understand the division between the departments myself. I think that if you go in on the Classical Studies side, there's more of an emphasis on languages vs. what might be more balanced and interdisciplinary in an anthropology program. This might not be true everywhere, but from my own observations, I've noticed that can sometimes be the case.
For the languages, I think if you can get funding for the post-pacc it might be worth it, but if you get in on other merits (your majors/minors are definitely a good combo!) then I think, a lot of the time, schools will be willing to fund for you to take the classes through their program so it would be covered if you're going into a fully funded graduate program. Some of the places I've looked at allow you to pass a course sequence in one ancient language (which I will probably do with Ancient Greek) and then you test out of the other ancient language and two modern languages. I think you should see what the language requirements are like in each school and which school would be the best fit for your research interests. I hope this helps! Please let me know if you want/need me to elaborate on anything.
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Thank you for the update and congratulations on getting into your dream school! That's got to be the best feeling ?
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Oh, that's excellent! Thank you for letting me know about that. Are you in the program now, or about to start it next term?
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Hello, all!
I'll be pursuing a PhD soon, and I wanted to ask if anyone here did intensive courses abroad for either French or German. My options are somewhat limited because I work full-time, so I would only be able to do it 2 weeks at a time, so I was looking for summer programs or others that offer 2-week options. Once I'm accepted into my PhD program, I'm considering doing a full summer in France at an intensive program because I would have to quit my job to start the program anyway. If you have done this for either French or German, please let me know which program(s) you have done and what you liked about it. I've heard mixed reviews about certain things so I wanted to get varied opinions. My background for these two languages: complete beginner in German, made it to the mid-200 level of French as an undergrad and studied abroad in Caen, but I would like to get to the point where I can pass a few levels of DELF.
Thanks in advance!
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5 hours ago, trajanicolumn said:
Got rejected from Princeton for the pre-doc today. Very nice email from the DGS but man... ouch
I'm so sorry, that's so disappointing. I hope you get some good news soon!
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4 hours ago, clewless said:
FSU's Classics graduate program has a strong pedagogical component: mentioned in the Chronicle of Higher Education a while ago:
https://www.chronicle.com/article/Why-One-Department-Trains-Its/246349
Thank you for sharing this!
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22 hours ago, chrissy2020 said:
So I went into a Master's, not a PhD, with no sort of teaching training. In my experience, we got a week long orientation centered around teaching before school started, and then during our first semester we had to take a teaching practicum, which essentially goes over different methods for teaching languages. I know that most PhD programs will not have you teach your first year, perhaps not even your second, unless you have extensive experience (for example UI-UC is allowing me to teach my first year because I have taught languages for three years already). In the meantime, they will probably offer you programs to better your teaching abilities and you will probably sit in on other student's teaching courses to get a feel for teaching. In addition, most of the first classes you will be apart of will be large lecture courses, where you will probably lead a small division of that course once a week in a discussion based section, so you will experience the Professor teaching the large class and get a feel for being "in charge" of a smaller classroom all before you actually teach a language.
Thank you for the input and sharing your experience! I've been knocking around the idea of teaching History or Art History at the local community college, but they have to hire me first. I think my goal schools would all require teaching, but not until the 2nd or 3rd year. Do you only teach languages and/or do you have the option to teach adjacent courses? (Like history, archaeology, etc, if you're experienced in any of those fields).
22 hours ago, chrissy2020 said:If you get interviews when you apply next year, you should definitely ask them what they will expect of you and what sort of assistance they will provide for facilitating classes.
That's a good idea! Thank you for bringing that up; I'll add it to the list of questions to ask if I get the interviews next year!
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Hello, all!
I just wanted to get an idea of whether any of you had any teacher training (or were teachers beforehand) before you went into your Classics PhD programs? I have a few questions about this:
If you were a teacher beforehand, which grade(s) did you teach and was it difficult to transition to higher education? If you were a community college instructor, was it difficult to transition to 4-year college/university teaching or was it relatively the same?
If you weren't a teacher beforehand but you had training for teaching, what type of training was it? A certificate program? An intensive over the summer? Did this include an in-person teaching experience requirement?
For those of you who got training during your Classics PhD, what type of training was it? Was it optional or mandatory? Were there opportunities to get certification/training through the education department that ended with some kind of separate teaching credential?
Finally, for anyone who didn't have or receive any training before they had to complete a teaching component of the PhD, how did you handle it? Did you seek out outside training or assistance? Guidance from upperclassmen in your program?
I'm really curious to know about this before I begin to apply to PhD programs for the next season, so any advice/information/recommendations for programs (preferably online or 1-2 week intensives since I work full-time) in instruction or teaching would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance ?
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Hello, all! I just wanted to know which program(s) you thought had the best archives and special collections (and/or rare books, if it's a concentration and not just one course) tracks/concentrations? I've looked up rankings and whatnot, but I want to hear from people who have actually had experience in the schools because some information from students have been conflicting from claims from certain programs, so I want to hear which ones you think are best from people you've talked to or your own personal experience. Preferably for online programs, but I want to hear about them all. Thanks in advance!
- MettaSutta and Ydrl
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Fall 2021 Applicants
in Classics
Posted
So glad to hear some people are already hearing back! I've been hovering over my email far too much / checking on my application portals more than is probably healthy this early in the month, lol. And thanks to those who are keeping us updated; it's good to know at least someone is hearing back from their schools!