<p>Which liberal arts colleges are known for having excellent Classics departments? Right now I'm looking at schools like Bowdoin, Wesleyan, Middlebury-- anything above these in selectivity will undoubtedly be out of my reach. Any information on where to go from here would be great.</p>
<p>Dickinson, Drew, Trinity (Ct), Knox, Holy Cross and Fordham.</p>
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<p>Ummm . . . these are among the most selective LACs in the country. But if you mean you don't think you can get into Williams, Amherst or Swarthmore, each an excellent choice for classics, OK.</p>
<p>Are you M or F? If F, there are several excellent options, including Bryn Mawr and Barnard (which gives you access to Columbia's outstanding classics dept). If M you might look at Haverford which shares a classics dept with neighboring Bryn Mawr, housed mostly at Bryn Mawr but it's doable.</p>
<p>Holy Cross (in Worcester, MA) offers two students majoring in Classics full tuition scholarships each year, and one more scholarship every four years. So, there are always 9 classics majors on scholarship. This, together with 10 full time professors in the dept, make classics at Holy Cross one of the strongest undergrad program in the country. The campus is gorgeous, too!</p>
<p>Oberlin has an excellent Classics department -- check the website for the department (and take a look at Ratemyprofessor to see how happy the students are with the teaching there).</p>
<p>Thanks for the feedback. I live very close to Holy Cross, so I might visit. How much competition is there for the scholarships? Does anyone know where I could find a ranked list of non-university classics departments?</p>
<p>Have you considered St. John's? Their whole curriculum is based on reading the classics.</p>
<p>^ St. John's (MD or NM) is primarily a "great books" curriculum, not an intensive classics (Greek & Latin) curriculum.</p>
<p>The Classics department at Holy Cross has ten faculty members, making it the largest classics program of American liberal arts colleges.</p>
<p>^ I count 8 tenured/tenure track faculty in Classics at Holy Cross, plus a couple of "Instructoirs" who are typically not tenured/tenure-track faculty. The combined Classics faculty at Bryn-Mawr-Haverford would be roughly the same size, with easy cross-registration between the two schools which are only 1 1/2 miles apart. And at 2800 students Holy Cross would be slightly larger than Bryn Mawr and Haverford combined, about 2400. In addition, students at Bryn Mawr or Haverford can take courses a Swarthmore and Penn. I don't mean to knock Holy Cross, but Bryn Mawr/Haverford ought at least to be in contention.</p>
<p>Department size doesn't necessarily correspond to quality. UT Austin has the largest classics program in the country, but I don't think anyone would claim it's the best, although it's a superb department. </p>
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Which liberal arts colleges are known for having excellent Classics departments? Right now I'm looking at schools like Bowdoin, Wesleyan, Middlebury-- anything above these in selectivity will undoubtedly be out of my reach. Any information on where to go from here would be great.
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Well, that depends a great deal on what you're looking for. Do you plan to go the classical languages route or tle classical civilization/archaeology route? If the former, have you had Greek and/or Latin in high school? The list of schools I would suggest would be very different depending on exactly what preparation you have and what you plan to study.</p>
<p>That said, the following LACs and small universities have fairly strong classics programs.</p>
<p>Bard
Beloit
Brandeis (university)
Colgate
Franklin & Marshall
Grinnell
Hamilton
Kenyon
Pomona
Reed<br>
Rice (university)
Trinity (CT)
Trinity (TX)
Tufts (university)
Vassar
Wheaton
Wooster</p>
<p>As mentioned earlier, Bowdoin, Middlebury, Wesleyan, Holy Cross, Bryn Mawr/Haverford, Dickinson, and Oberlin are excellent options.</p>
<p>Reed College in Oregon is great for classics.</p>