What Now?

[ResIpsa]

Hey all, just discovered this site today and am looking for advice on what to do to get on the path towards a classics PhD.

Graduated from Ivy cum laude in 2007, major in history, minor in art history. GPA around 3.7. I discovered classics pretty late in the game and completed 4 terms of Latin. I also worked as a research assistant for a year for a professor in the history department translating and analyzing a 13th-cent. French manuscript written in Latin. So realistically, I had 6 total terms of Latin (this amounts to either 3 years or 2 years depending on who you ask -- the school is on quarters). I received all As and one A- in the Latin work. Most of my art history work was in roman and byzantine art and presumably could have been cross-listed with classics. I also took a few non-translation classics courses but ended up being one course short of the minor because I started so late.

Since graduation I have worked in an unrelated field, and am currently in a professional school that I don't really like. I know that I want to go back to classics and am kicking myself for not having recognized that upon graduation. In my case, it took a wrong turn to make me realize what I really want to do.

SO...I'm assuming I will need to do post-bac first. I have no Greek. What are my options, and will I be competitive? If I were to do the Penn post-bac, would taking the intensive beginner summer Greek and the intensive intermediate summer Latin get me up to speed? Is it even advisable to take those courses concurrently? Would someone in my position benefit from 2 years of post-bac? What is the state of PhD admissions for someone with my credentials (assuming completion of post-bac)?

Thanks for the help!

[spozik]

I'm in a similar situation, except I graduated from a non-Ivy in 2006 with a major in Classics. I had a decent amount of both Latin and Greek, but I opted for a post-bac since I'd been out of the game for a few years. Plus, I wasn't really sure how strong my preparation was in the first place (although now I know that it was pretty good).

I think all post-bacs have their pluses and minuses. The best thing to do would be to opt for whichever one doesn't require you to relocate (if there is one in your area, that is) or whichever is the cheapest. Honestly, you're probably a shoe-in for a post-bac program. They aren't overly competitive. You probably also have matured exponentially (in ways you don't even recognize yourself) since graduation, and coming across as professional, prepared, and committed will help you a lot.

If you don't do two years of post-bac, you're definitely looking at a terminal master's degree first. Getting into a combined MA/PhD program with just a year of Greek is going to prove impossible, I imagine. Even with two years of Greek, you're not their ideal candidate by any means. Fortunately, there are good terminal MAs all around with funding (Vanderbilt, Tulane, Georgia...), and I think that, once you do a year or two of post-bac, you're the kind of candidate they're looking for. If you do well in one of these, you have a good shot of getting into a good PhD program when you're done.

If you want to look around at programs in general and what they are looking for, the CJ website is a great resource. Check this out: http://www.classicaljournal.org/study_classics%20surveys.php . They even have returns from some of the post-bac programs, so you can see what they're looking for.

[LateAntique]

Hey all, just discovered this site today and am looking for advice on what to do to get on the path towards a classics PhD.

Graduated from Ivy cum laude in 2007, major in history, minor in art history. GPA around 3.7. I discovered classics pretty late in the game and completed 4 terms of Latin. I also worked as a research assistant for a year for a professor in the history department translating and analyzing a 13th-cent. French manuscript written in Latin. So realistically, I had 6 total terms of Latin (this amounts to either 3 years or 2 years depending on who you ask -- the school is on quarters). I received all As and one A- in the Latin work. Most of my art history work was in roman and byzantine art and presumably could have been cross-listed with classics. I also took a few non-translation classics courses but ended up being one course short of the minor because I started so late.

Since graduation I have worked in an unrelated field, and am currently in a professional school that I don't really like. I know that I want to go back to classics and am kicking myself for not having recognized that upon graduation. In my case, it took a wrong turn to make me realize what I really want to do.

SO...I'm assuming I will need to do post-bac first. I have no Greek. What are my options, and will I be competitive? If I were to do the Penn post-bac, would taking the intensive beginner summer Greek and the intensive intermediate summer Latin get me up to speed? Is it even advisable to take those courses concurrently? Would someone in my position benefit from 2 years of post-bac? What is the state of PhD admissions for someone with my credentials (assuming completion of post-bac)?

Thanks for the help!

I think you're definitely well-suited to do a post-bacc. You have a pretty good background in some Classics-y stuff. There's no way you could do both Latin and Greek summer intensives at the same time, though. U Penn has a good program as does UNC. If you have any questions about Chapel Hill, I grew up near there and may have some info for you.

[Joe001]

Agreed with everyone here. Do a post-bac, and then apply to a combination of MA and MA/PhD programs. It's a long road (same road as me, actually), but I think once you finish the post-bac you'll have a really good shot.

Edited November 23, 2009 by Joe001