Prospects for grad school in Classics?

[Pius Aeneas]

Hello,

I've been perusing this forum for a couple days now, and I've decided to go ahead and ask some questions about grad school in the field of Classics-Classical Archaeology in particular.

To start off I figure I should give some info about myself. I am a double major, Classical Civilization and Anthropology with minors in French and Latin, about to start my fifth and final undergrad year. I have about 3 1/2 years of Latin (four if a Summer course counts) and two years of Ancient Greek. My Classics GPA is a 4.0 without the languages and with them it's probably a 3.89 or something like that because I managed to get a B one semester for Greek. otherwise, all my language courses are A's. My problem is that my overall GPA is a pretty pathetic 3.4, on account of a couple slip-ups I had. I plan on taking the GRE next month, and from the practice stuff I've been looking at I'll probably do well. I have two professors who I know will write glowing recs for me, and two other options for a third. My question is this: will my low overall GPA be a serious roadblock for getting into a good Classical Archaeology program? The main programs I've been looking at are Michigan Ann Arbor and UT Austin (I've been looking at other schools for things like Latin MAT as a backup). If anyone can tell me whether I'm aiming too high or can recommend other schools to consider, I'd appreciate it.

[zinalch]

Having just gone through the process last year as an applicant, I don't really feel qualified to say much about your GPA-- my sense is that if everything else about your application is stellar, a 3.4 is very likely not a deal-breaker, particularly if the low grades come from an unrelated subject. But the whole process is so competitive and subjective that it is difficult to generalize.

I suppose that my insight based on my own application process is that the professors with whom I spoke seemed to really know about me (I mean that they seemed to really have paid attention to my application, and to have considered it as a whole). They did not seem to care excessively about my scores and grades, although these topics did also come up in conversation, so were not ignored or totally unimportant.

But, if you're going for classical archaeology, I'd say this-- you pretty much need to have fieldwork experience for most programs, and you probably want to start working on German right away, if you haven't already. Your French minor is certainly helpful, but the more modern language preparation you have going in, the better.

I applied to around 8 schools-- mostly PhD programs, but a few MAs as well. There are several MA archaeology programs that you might want to look into rather than/ in addition to MAT programs-- Arizona, Florida, and SUNY Buffalo all come to mind. I tried to apply to a broad range of programs, with some being super-competitive, and others slightly less so. Beyond that, spend time researching schools and figuring out what programs have strengths in areas you want to study. I think this notion of 'fit' is probably the most critical part of your application. You ought to be able to articulate, for each program that you apply to, how you fit into the department intellectually. Your current professors should be able to give you direction in this research.

Good luck!

[Rendar]

I'd personally say your GPA, etc, is fine for applying to Classical Archaeology programs. People looking at your application will be able to see that your Classics courses are high.

One of the most important things you need to figure out is WHY you want to do this, what you want to research, and how you're going to do it. Oh, and why it's important and why each school you apply to is a place you can get it done in.

Selection committees are going to look to find students that are not only a good fit for them but vice-versa as well. It's just as important for the school to be a good fit for the student.

At the same time if it's archaeology you want to get into you better get some field experience. I've had quite a number of students in the field that start gungho but then find at the end of the six weeks field archaeology is definitely not for them.

[Pius Aeneas]

Okay, thanks for the info. I just feel really stressed about the whole thing. I've been wanting to go into Classical Archaeology for a long time as a career. I know about and accept all of the potential obstacles, so at this point, the idea of not making it into a good program is really weighing on me.

Edited September 19, 2011 by PiusAeneas