Do I stand a chance???

[veilside]

Hello,

I am quite limited by what schools in their "classics" dept. or "history" dept. offer a PhD in Ancient History, so unfortunately there are very few to choose from...Basically it is the top of the top that tend to have this specialization for whatever reason.

I am concerned because my GRE's are quite low... What do you think of my chances to the following programs of Ancient History are:

Harvard--- Classics

Harvard--- History

Princeton--- Classics

UPenn---Joint Prog.

UChicago--- History

UNC-CH--- History

WUSTL---History

Stanford---Classics

with these stats:

Cumm. GPA: 3.55

Major GPA: 3.71

GRE:

Verbal: 530 (68%)

Quant: 610 (51%)

Analyt: 5.5 (90%)

I also have extremely strong LOR's, and a very well received writing sample.

My current school is SUNY-Albany. Dual Major in History and Classics

Thank you.

[blukorea]

Hey, I'm kind of doing what you are doing, ancient history PhD in a history department. Classics departments will require strong training in Greek and Latin, regardless of your subfield. I would assume that you have pretty good background since you doubled in classics. All of the programs you listed above are insanely competitive to say the least, excepting Penn State. Unless you would be quite content to go to Penn State for your graduate studies (I don't mean that you don't stand a chance, I am simply saying that even the strongest applicants will face many rejections from the schools you listed), I would add some more viable schools to your list. Re your GRE score, I know a number of professors at the so-called top programs who would raise their eyebrows at a verbal score lower than 700. That said, it is a trendy thing nowadays to tell people that GRE scores don't matter that much. Good luck, and I hope this helps.

[veilside]

Yeah, my languages are fairly strong:

Latin: 10 semesters

Greek: 5 Semesters

German: 1 semester

French: 2 semesters, plus 2.5 years in High School

This is one aspect that might keep me in the running, so to speak, for a while longer. I would be very shocked if I get any positive replies from the Ivies... As far Stanford goes, one of my Reccs is an alumnus there, and tends to believe that by him placing phone call for me will help me out some. UNC-CH invited me to go down to campus and meet with all the ancient profs, even after knowing my GRE scores, and all seemed well with that, but, Princeton is still my top choice and I fear that I'll be knocked out of the running before the race.

I have contacted some of the profs at Princeton (Champlin, Shaw) and feel that I made a good impression, but the bottom line is that my GPA is not a 3.9, and my GRE's are not in the 1400's, and I do not have published articles and such....

[blukorea]

Yes, looks like you have a good language background, though ideally classics departments look for minimum 3 yrs in each. On the second thought you may have a decent shot at Chapel Hill. It is a relatively unknown program for ancient history but they seem to have a solid classics department and good ancient history faculty (esp. Talbert, if you are interested in ancient cartography and travel). I don't know what your specific interests are, but UVA history and UCSB history would fall in that category of relatively under-publicized ancient history programs.

[purplepepper]

Hi,

I don't think I'm the most qualified person to respond to the post--im not in classics, but i am in a similar situation. my ugrad gpa is slightly lower than yours, but my ma gpa is quite high.

anyway, to get to the point, i doubt there are any "cut offs" for the gre. i had a friend in history (who is at columbia) who told me that prospective advisors all told him his gre needed to be higher etc. But after he got in he told me, the truth of the matter is, your application wont be thrown out because of a gre score below the mean. no one is rejected because of a low gre score. people do get rejected though, mostly, becuase they dont have the maturity of a phd student quite yet. How do you show maturity? its in the way you express your research interests in your statement, writing sample, recs, how much language/research experience you have. this maturity can be reflected in your gre score too.

as a matter of fact, princeton publishes their mean gre score of admits in the humanities. and the verbal is at a 660 and the quant is somehwere at 680 or 690.

i too am applying to top programs, like i said, with a less than great ugrad gpa (but a very good ma gpa). all of the profs who i have talked to have encouraged me to apply becuase my experience speaks a great deal of the kind of researcher I will be.

so go for it and apply, becuase no one on this forum knows the nitty gritty of your application (recs, writingetc). and without knowing this, i dont think anyone can make an accurate assessment of your chances anywhere.

like i said, i am applying now too, so i dont know if this advise is useful or not.

[rising_star]

You make look unfocused applying to two departments at the same university (Harvard). I think a mix of non-Ivy schools would be good, esp if you want to get teaching experience.

[misterpat]

Though I am not in your field, my guess would be that your verbal GREs will hurt you. Perhaps try and find a program that doesnt require them (Northwestern doesn't, but they don't have an ancient history specialization). Otherwise, definitely vary up the tiers of schools you apply to.

Your experience with languages makes your verbal score somewhat surprising. It might be a fluke. Did you take it too late this fall? I'll bet you could do better, at least if you prepared a little more.