Best Colleges/Universities for Classics

College Search & Selection
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<p>My son, a junior, has known for years he wants to major in the Classics with an emphasis in Ancient Roman history and Latin Literature (prose). What schools have the best Classics programs? Where as an undergrad would you actually get to learn from experts in their field (and not just graduate students)? He also loves History in general, so a school with a strong History department as well would be the best. Any suggestions --we're making our college visit list! Thanks!</p>

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<p>U of Chicago
U of Michigan</p>

<p>Also HYP</p>

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<p>the aformentioned are great. Also look at some of the smaller liberal arts schools like Amherst and William where I think their overall foreign language department is very good. Also, if you want to, you should look at Oxford and Cambridge, where the classics departments are second to none.</p>

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<p>I've heard Yale's classics compartment is not very good compared to otehr schools of the same calibur. I've heard good things about Swarthmore as well, but the person I know ended up dropping greek and just double-majoring in Latin and English.</p>

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<p>

<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=88384%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=88384&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>I strongly, strongly encourage y'all to look at Duke and UNC Chapel Hill, which have a Classics consortium of sorts. Both departments are extremely strong, and even the grad students are great, at least the ones I've run across. Professor</a> Boatwright is the main Roman history and Latin professor at Duke, and she's a truly awesome professor. She co-wrote The</a> Romans: From Village to Empire, which is the standard textbook for many Roman history courses.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the replies. We live on the West Coast, so Oxford/Cambridge are just too far, but the others all sound promising. I was surprised by the U of Chi being so highly touted. They've been pestering us with postcards and I assumed that was the desperation move of a second tier school. I guess I shouldn't have thrown them out!! I was also surprised that Yale did not have such a good reputation as Donald Kagan is one of the Classics Professors. Gives us a lot to ponder (assuming he doesn't bomb his SAT later this year). Thanks again.</p>

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<p>Classics Majors have multiple tracs they can follow. You will want to look at the degree options/majors. Some schools more language based and others have non-language based options. Classical Greek is one thing you need to investigate. How far advanced in Latin is this student now?</p>

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<p>My son is a junior taking AP Latin Lit -- Horace and Catullus. He's already taken AP Latin Lit -- Virgil. Next year he'll take an independent study course, since the school is out of Latin classes (probably he'll focus on Cicero, his favorite writer). He would like to take Classical Greek at college, since with his APs (a 5 on the Virgil AP) and his SAT II (a disappointing, for him, 770 in Latin) he should be able to skip all required Latin courses.</p>

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<p>BurnThis, what I basically heard was similar to what hazmat said. The track wasn't to their liking.</p>

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<p><a href="http://academic.reed.edu/classics/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://academic.reed.edu/classics/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>If this book looks interesting to him- he may want to look at Reed
I have heard Wally Englert described by many as the best prof they have ever had.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1555401244/002-6653936-1152007?v=glance%5DWally"&gt;http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1555401244/002-6653936-1152007?v=glance]Wally&lt;/a> is God- or Jupiter</p>

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<p>
[quote]
I was surprised by the U of Chi being so highly touted. They've been pestering us with postcards and I assumed that was the desperation move of a second tier school.

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<p>U of Chicago is not a tier 2 school. If you are one to follow rankings, it is number 15 on the US News list of best colleges (national universities) and one of the most academically rigerous schools in the country.</p>

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<p>Classics + California = UC Berkeley</p>

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<p>Holy Cross has a very good classics program and offers merit aid.</p>

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<p>I can't imagine a better school for Classics than Columbia....</p>

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<p>Sybbie,
Sorry. I didn't mean that U of Chi was second tier, I just mistakenly had thought they were since they were writing us a lot, like USC (which, as a UCLA alum, I consider second tier). Now that I've done some research, I realize they're a top school and just apparently more friendly than other top schools. Thanks!</p>

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<p>I had heard good things about Berkeley -- and it sure would save us a lot of money! I'm just not sure a UC offers the same "experience" as going away to college.</p>

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<p>Unless you currently live near the campus, I'm not sure what you mean. Many Berkeley students are from far away and "go away" to college to attend there. Attending Berkeley is the quintessential flagship state university experience --> big time college sports, frats if you want them, world class research, interesting college town, road trips to Tahoe, etc.</p>

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<p>U of Chicago yah definetly not 2nd tier my sisters bf went there w/ a 1600!</p>

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<p>U of C is great in classics - as is Yale. ( "not so great a rep? look at Alexander's alphabetical grad rankings.) Princeton is also excellent.
You can't go wrong at any of these schools. Berkeley is excellent as well. You might want to look up the classes offered at the various schools to give you an idea of where the emphasis is at each institution.
While it's not always easy to judge the undergrad experience by the rep of the grad program, there is usually interesting research and access to highly-regarded professors where the grad program is strong.</p>

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<p>Brown classics is a great department. The only TAs teach intro level language, which your S would skip anyway. Then you get awesome profs like Michael Putnam and Joseph Pucci, for example. Brown also has prizes for the freshman with the best latin and greek. In addition, the department has a good range of courses in latin, greek, sanskrit, and then the history/culture courses.</p>

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