Jump to content

whydoiloveLatin

Members
  • Posts

    13
  • Joined

  • Last visited

About whydoiloveLatin

  • Birthday 03/09/1983

Profile Information

  • Gender
    Female
  • Location
    no longer in London :(
  • Application Season
    Not Applicable
  • Program
    MA Classics

Recent Profile Visitors

The recent visitors block is disabled and is not being shown to other users.

whydoiloveLatin's Achievements

Decaf

Decaf (2/10)

0

Reputation

  1. I would also like to encourage someone with my achievements. I graduated from a top public university in my state with a 2.6 GPA in engineering and I was able to attend and complete graduate school in the UK (in a different field). I never took the GRE or the GMAT since those aren't required for UK universities; I also did not have much work experience in my field nor did I do any volunteer work but if there is a will, there is a way. Don't give up!! You may have to do things the long way but you will reach your goal eventually!!
  2. Thanks for the reply. I'm not sure. I'm completely new to all of this and I was studying in the UK so I was completely unfamiliar with their education system which is nothing like the American system. I have not received the comments on my dissertation so I have no idea where I went wrong. I missed a pass by one point. I was told that we'd meet with the supervisor one more time during the summer. But I still had one more essay to turn in mid-June and then I spent the following two weeks reading books on how to write a dissertation since I had never written a dissertation before. Then the next two weeks were spent sifting through inscriptions for my dissertation and ended with an email to my supervisor inquiring when she would be away for the summer holiday, etc. which I never received a response to. (I did not choose my supervisor she was appointed to me and I later find out that she wasn't doing many supervisions that year and that she was away all summer. She didn't even know when the dissertations were due!!) A couple of friends asked if I had a good supervisor, but I don't know what a 'good' supervisor is. I sent her one email in July and when she didn't reply back two weeks later I sent another one and cc'd my post-graduate tutor. She did give me feedback on my draft but there was no discussion. She left my draft at home on the day I was supposed to meet with her to pick up her comments and she never dropped it off the following day, so she sent me everything via email. I'm not used to the British education system so I have/had no idea if that was normal or not but some people have said that it was normal. If so, that's understandable for the Ph.D. dissertation which they write in three years but for an M.A. dissertation written over the summer... Until I get the comments back I won't know where the gaps are. My main struggle was the lack of modern sources that were written in English. I even asked my supervisor for a recommended source but got no response. If there is much more feedback given during the writing of a Ph.D. dissertation than for the writing of the MA dissertation I'll be ok, because I'll need the guidance. (btw, my BS is in electrical engineering. Ergo no dissertation was required to complete the program.) Sorry for the long post.
  3. Hey guys, I've submitted my M.A. dissertation (coincidently my first dissertation ever) and thought it was ok, but it turns out that I failed it by one point!!! I have the option of resubmitting it next summer and obtaining an overall 'pass' or receiving a post-graduate diploma with an overall 'pass with merit' (which would be my second p.g. dip.). If I resubmit it my grades will be capped and my g.p.a. will be approximately a 3.0. Consequently I'm debating on whether or not I am capable of continuing on to the Ph.D. or if I'll be able to get into a decent Ph.D. program. I was never aiming for the top schools but the schools that I'm sifting through are: University of Chicago, UCLA and UC-Irvine, Ann Arbor, University of Southern California, University of Colorado at Boulder, NYU, and University at Buffalo. What other universities should I consider? Also, does the M.A. g.p.a. matter when applying for Ph.D. programs? Many thanks.
  4. Hi. Does anyone know anything about the University of Pittsburgh's Classics Program? I know that they are not accepting any applications for the Fall of 2013 so I'm just curious about the department as a whole.
  5. Hi. I'm not sure how helpful this is but have you looked into KCL's Post-Graduate Diploma in the Classical Studies? It's a one year program and I completed it in 2011. At that time the entry requirement was a BA in any field as long as it was not Classics or Ancient History related. I took it because my BA is in Electrical Engineering and even though I minored in the Classical Studies I still did not have enough experience to jump into the Classics. By doing the post-grad. dip. you could get some more experience in the languages and you could also take classes in the modern languages on your own time, for free.
  6. You are not alone! I know of one Malaysian!
  7. Yea, I've already browsed the biblio that we were given in class; my advisor and I actually did that in the first (and only) meeting. I just wasn't sure if I should've received at least one source (be it, a book article, journal or author) after I submitted my dissertation draft. I've been tracing the majority of the sources that I came across in the one book I was given, but they were all for inscriptions. So I have more sources on inscriptions than scholarly essays. I was given a website, but I only found one semi-useful book on that and most of its sources were either not in English or irrelevant to my topic. I've managed to painfully find a few scholarly essays in English but I was just wondering if that was the norm. Thank you so much for your response! It helped a lot.
  8. Hello all. I'm currently writing my MA dissertation on funerary inscriptions and this is the first dissertation I have ever written. As such I am not sure of what to expect from my advisor. I was only given one book which is a collection of funerary inscriptions from my target periods (which I'm quite sure I could've found myself) and nothing else. I did ask for a recommendation of helpful sources but I wasn't given any. So my question is, is it normal to not be given a bibliography? I know that one of my friends was given a biblio to help with his dissertation and I got nothing, even when asked. Thank you for your feedback!
  9. Thanks for responding Pius! After giving some thought about a second M.A. I have come to the conclusion that it may not be the best financial move. I think I'm just worried that I won't appear to be an ideal candidate since I haven't breathed the Classics all of my life and since I plan on teaching English abroad.
  10. Thanks! I had not thought about a second M.A. I'll most definitely give it some thought!!
  11. χαιρε! I stumbled across this website a while back and bookmarked it thinking it would be useful when I start to pursue my Ph.D. and I'm really glad that I did. As you may have deduced from the topic title and my first sentence I would like to pursue my Ph.D. in the Classics, but first let me give you a bit a background information about myself. First off, let me apologise for any spelling/wording differences. I'm American but I've been living in London for almost two years and I've adopted the British vocabulary and spelling for my dissertation and my numerous essays and haven't reverted back to the American system yet. My first degree or bachelor's degree is in engineering, but I minored in the Classical Studies taking the following modules: Intermediate Latin, Greek Tragedies in Translation, Ancient World to 180 BC, and Ancient Greek Civilisation. Since then I have obtained a Post-Graduate Diploma in the Classical Studies with Intermediate Latin, Beginners Greek, Performance Literature, and History of the Byzantine Empire as my module choices and I'm currently finishing up my M.A. in the Classics with Intermediate Greek, Greek Epigraphy, and Pompeii and Herculaneum as my modules. Naturally the next step is the Ph.D. but since I did not have a heavy exposure to Classics prior to my minor I am uncertain as to what I'd like to specialise in/concentrate on for my Ph.D. (i.e. linguistics, philology, epigraphy, papyrology). I really enjoyed my intermediate (and beginners) language courses but I also have an interest in epigraphy and possibly papyrology although I haven't had any exposure to papyrology. My main concern is that I won't appear to be an ideal Ph.D. candidate since my first degree is in engineering with an overall B- GPA and my exposure to the Classics is only two years in length, excluding my minor. I also feel that I'm at a disadvantage because my exposure to the ancient texts are limited as well. (Beginners Latin and Greek was based off of Wheelocks and Athenaze respectively; in Intermediate Latin we covered Catullus, Livy, Cicero and Virgil and a few stories in Fabulae Graecae; in Intermediate Greek we mainly covered Lysias' On the Murder of Eratosthenes and a little Xenophone). I will not be pursuing my Ph.D. immediately after my M.A. because my brain could really use a break and I need some time to reflect on my courses and to plan a course of action. During this 'time off' I'll be teaching English in Asia but I will also use my free time to prepare for the GRE and to familiarise myself with the remaining Greek and Latin texts that I've not been exposed to. Prior to making a Ph.D. application I plan on applying to a post baccalaureate program to strengthen my previous knowledge of the languages. I'm a planner and I like to plan things in advance (but in this case, waaayyy in advance). What advice do you guys have? Am I trying to make a mountain range out of a grain of sand? (which I have a tendency to do. I know the expression is a mountain out of a mole-hill, but I'm a bit extreme. lol.)
  12. Hey I've been in London since September and bought my ticket using STA travel at www.statravel.com. Have a look at www.studentuniverse.com as well. Hope this helps!
  13. Hello. I wasn't sure if you already got your Visa or not but here's what I did last year: I made a checklist of the papers that I was sending in with my Visa application and politely asked if I could have the originals back (i.e. transcripts, loan letters, acceptance letters, etc.). If I remember correctly, it took about a week possibly two before I received my Visa. I sent my papers off in August and was able to leave the following month. Hope this helps!
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. See our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use