BobGant

Well, I got my formal offer from Arizona today. I was rather disappointed by the funding. I knew they weren't going to match Kansas' offer, but I gather it's a cheaper area. Still, the offer was less than $10k and might not cover all of tuition, so I'm pretty sure I'll have to reject it.

Arizona was reviewing apps earlier this week, from what I can tell.

Toronto alerts students by post. A few of us have heard rejections from them in the past week.

Heard from Kansas recently. I'm impressed by the attention they're paying to me (and did even before I applied). Still waiting on my other 3, but it's a relief to hear something positive!

I ultimately decided to apply to these four programs (all MAs) University of Arizona University of Kansas University of Toronto Vanderbilt University Funding is a must, since I would be turning down substantially more lucrative offers (but ones that I'm not as excited about) to pursue this path. Still waiting for my professors to submit LoRs, though...

Based on what I was told and the information on their webpage, I'd guess it's around 8-12 a year who matriculate (and so likely more accepted). They have 10 grad TAs across the first and second year graduate students, and all students are either a TA or a research assistant. Unfortunately, I don't have any better guess than that. Sorry about the name mixup, LateAntique! I'm looking for MA programs rather than PhDs, but just saying that my profile would be competitive for top PhD programs and so competitiveness of a program would not discourage me from applying. The sense I got from reading the blurb about each professor on the departmental webpage is that the department is much more heavily focused on late antiquity than I'm used to - my undergrad school has only 2 professors who deal with Late Antiquity (1 in Latin, 1 in Greek), and so this feels substantially more geared towards that time period than I'm used to. I did not find any faculty members who focused primarily in my areas of interest...the problem, however, is that I can't seem to find such specialization except at PhD programs. This is why I haven't excluded Notre Dame from my search yet. I'm still trying to get a sense of the intensity of classes at these programs...what I've heard about the workload feels incredibly light, but I imagine I must be underestimating it. I also come from a school where 1 course is 4 credit hours, which may explain why the number of credits expected seems so low...

The professor at UKansas with whom I spoke was very helpful and seemed genuinely excited that I had contacted him about the program. I'm truly looking forward to applying. As for Notre Dame, I don't have a sense of how competitive it is, just that my department, based on past students, believes that I would be competitive at top tier PhD programs - my concern is that I don't really fit with the program, which focuses more on Christian Latin. I suspect that would hurt my chances of acceptance, and I doubt I'd find the program my best option.

Thanks for the information! To what extent does one get to choose which of those options one pursues? The .25 number doesn't really seem to be competitive with the funding offered at other programs I'm considering in areas with similar costs of living (unless it's after tax), and even the .33 number appears to be in the lower range too. Have you been able to get by without needing any loans? Macchiato, I've looked at Notre Dame's program and I'm leaning away from applying - at present, it really seems the focus is on Early Christian Latin, which is understandable but not really one of my areas of interest. I haven't decided for sure, but I suspect that it's not the right program for me. For those interested in funded MA programs, I've determined that UKansas offers funding on the order of $13k/year for all students in its MA program. Vanderbilt really seems to beat everyone else when it comes to funding, especially considering the low CoL, as well.

Thank you all for your help. I'd gladly consider Canadian programs, providing the funding is right. I have some sense of the cost of living in Montreal, but I don't know about other major cities - that's something that I can easily research, though. UToronto's website claims that they provide funding ($15,000 + tuition) for their 1 year MA program but not for the first year of the 2 year program. I'll look into those other programs - most of those Canadian programs are new to me, and a couple on the Classical Journal's list aren't schools I've looked at, as well. FSU seems to offer very good funding to in-state residents, so I'll look into how easily I'd qualify as an in-state resident after the first year. Their archaeology program seems very strong, though I can't really tell about their philology program. Many of the graduate courses have the same description and works read as the undergraduate versions, so it's hard to tell what else the classes involve above the undergraduate workload. I ultimately expect to apply to no more than 5 programs, so I will do more research in the coming weeks to identify the best fits for me among these and any other programs I find.

Hello, This fall, I plan to apply to grad school programs in Classics. My (well-ranked) department says that I would be competitive for admissions at top PhD programs, but I'm unsure I want to commit to a program of that length. For this reason, I'm looking into M.A. (and to a lesser extent, M.A.T.) programs. I am not, however, willing to take any debt to get such a degree, so I'm looking for programs that offer full tuition remission and a stipend, even if not every student receives those. I've managed to find a few such programs, including Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, UArizona, UToronto, and WUSTL. I also want to be challenged by my program, though. For example, my current Latin reading list exceeds Arizona's in both breadth and depth, while my Greek reading list is of comparable breadth at not significantly less depth. I suspect that such a program would not adequately challenge me during the course of the degree, if that's what students aim for in their time at the program. Apart from the programs I've listed, are there strong, funded M.A. programs in Classics? If not, what are some possible alternatives? I would prefer not to apply to Ph.D. programs, even though I could possibly leave with an M.A., though I may do so if there are no better options. Any advice would be greatly welcomed.