field-switching, advice please

[umamei]

*tap tap tap* Is this thing on? Does anyone check this during the summer?

I need some advice, was hoping some of you could help out. I'm not actually a Classics student... yet. I'm a graduate Linguistics student, in a terminal MA program designed to be a bridge to either a PhD program or to a TESOL certificate, depending on which track you take. I'm on the first track. The problem is that I'm really into syntax, historical linguistics, and semantics, and for all the research that's being done, a PhD in syntax or semantics leads most often to positions in industry rather than in academia. Usually a PhD in historical linguistics will lead, in the best cases, to jobs with museums or in academia, but the statistics are bleak and the options for PhD programs that even carry that specialization are minimal. Essentially I don't think I'm a strong enough student to succeed at getting one of the few academic jobs on the market, and I REALLY don't want to work in a corporate environment. That's not what I went to grad school for.

So, I started looking around at allied fields, anthropology, sociology, psycholinguistics, etc. You get the picture. I hadn't realized that Classics encompassed more than just history, i.e. languages. What got me interested in linguistics in the first place was studying Latin and Ancient Greek in high school (on my own--I didn't get very far). Studying these languages again and potentially doing research in them sounds like a dream come true to me.

The advice I need is this--I have no formal experience with either language yet. I have two years before I graduate with my MA in Linguistics, and my school does offer Latin, which I am taking starting this fall. They do not offer Ancient Greek, so I'm studying that on my own. My GRE scores aren't fabulous but they don't suck either (~700 on both parts). My cum GPA is 3.75 so far, and I tend to get A's, so I expect that my final cumulative GPA will be similar to that (if not slightly better). So what do I do from here to make this happen? If I did get into a PhD program I'd be most interested in studying syntax or semantics in the context of either language, but really working with the languages at all makes me happy. Do I need to pursue a post-bacc before applying, or will an intensive summer language program fill in the gaps just fine?

The other thing I'd like to know is whether any of you, or anyone you know, has taken a terminal MA degree in Classics in order to teach Latin and/or Greek at the high school level? If so, did you like it? How easy/difficult was finding a job afterward? I'm interested in teaching, and I really don't care so much whether it's at the college or high school level. I've tutored at both levels, and enjoyed both.

Thanks for any advice you have

[Ardea]

umamei, you might want to look into Indo-European Studies at UCLA. It requires a couple years of Latin, but otherwise you'd be perfectly qualified. They have THE biggest names in the field (Calvert Watkins, Craig Melchert, and others), and it's still a new and developing program. It seems like it would be right up your alley.

http://www.gdnet.ucla.edu/gasaa/majors/ineu.html

http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/pies/home.html

[umamei]

Kemet, I live not too far away from UCLA so I've looked into their programs pretty extensively, but thanks for the recommendation. It is a unique program, but still pretty hard to get into. I like the looks of that program, and if I stay in the field of linguistics I'll probably apply to that, but my main concern is that linguistics degrees right now aren't very marketable within academia unless your focus is TESOL. (Though I suppose the circumstances do change if your degree is specific to a particular language like UCLA's PIES.) I really want to work in academia, not industry, and my main focus is not TESOL. I'm not one of those top-notch ivy-league students, so chances are slim that I'll be able to nail an academic job with a plain linguistics degree given how limited the job market is right now, and I'm really turned off by the alternative.

I'm happy working with language, and I love ancient languages in particular. Since I have two years before I graduate with my MA, I have time to prepare with more coursework, summer programs, etc., but I really need guidance about what exactly I would need to be doing during that time to "fill in the gap" between what I have and what I would need to have before applying to a Classics program, so that I can figure out if it's doable. I'd also like to know more about what the field looks like for recently graduated PhD's and MA's. Is it incredibly difficult to find a job, or is it doable? What about teaching Latin and/or Greek in high schools? Is there still a market for that among private schools?

I guess I'm just trying to figure out if there's a place for me in Classics to do what I want to do--work with language and teach.

[Ardea]

my main concern is that linguistics degrees right now aren't very marketable within academia unless your focus is TESOL...I'd also like to know more about what the field looks like for recently graduated PhD's and MA's. Is it incredibly difficult to find a job, or is it doable? What about teaching Latin and/or Greek in high schools? Is there still a market for that among private schools?

You seem to be operating under the assumption that Classics is more marketable, which is absolutely untrue. The job market is horrendous.

Forum on Part-time and Adjunct Faculty (It's important to note that times are even rougher now than they were 10 years ago when those accounts were written.)

Our own admittedly personal experiences bear these statistics out. At the two institutions where we each created Classics programs ex nihilo in the mid-1980s, Classics is now essentially comatose. At Rollins College, where just six years ago there was one tenured and one tenure-track Classicist, there are no longer any tenure-track positions at all. The endowed chair once earmarked for Classics has been diverted from Greek and Latin instruction. At California State University at Fresno the newly arrived president, faced with budget cuts, targeted the entire Classics and Humanities program for elimination and laid off its tenured faculty, suspending instruction itself. In 1993 that program had four full-time positions; now there are two, and it has taken three years of extra effort to restore a third. Faculty are under constant pressure to teach only humanities and Western civilization courses (which are for a while longer part of the general education menu) in lieu of upper-division Latin and Greek.

We have had as many as 176 applicants for a single faculty position (one small Classics department recently had 141 applicants for a one-year, nonrenewable appointment). Even the rumors of part-time sabbatical replacement billets at places like California State University at Fresno or Santa Clara University bring us dozens of calls from unemployed Classics Ph.D.s at Yale, Berkeley, and Stanford. We both know that, should we leave or retire from our present places of employment, we-like most others in the profession-will not be replaced.

Job prospects for high school Latin are better but still less than great.

Each year existing programs are cancelled, thriving programs are told they cannot expand, and schools that want to add Latin are unable to do so.