<p>How strong is the Classics Dept. @ WUSTL? The Dept. is associated with both the ICCS in Rome and Eta Sigma Phi, but other than that I can't really find anything specific about how strong the Classics program is overall compared to other universities/colleges of the same caliber. If anyone has heard anything at all about the department (good or bad) or is currently a part of it, any input would be great! Thanks.</p>
<p>There isn’t really a proper classics department in the sense that most of their courses are actually taught be some other department. There are several similar departments at Wash U; for example the Applied Statistics departments classes are mostly from Math, Economics, Philosophy, and Political Sciences. (just using it at as an example since I know a lot more about that than classics) But Classics is similar in that their courses are from other departments, but you can still get a major/minor in Classics. My point being, its hard to compare to another school that has an actual department in the subject.</p>
<p>Not sure if I’m 100% accurate but I believe I am somewhat close to how it is. It’s difficult to rate a department that in actuality is areas of other departments.</p>
<p>It’s an area of study as opposed to being a full-sized department with its own courses.</p>
<p>Okay, gotcha. That actually helps a lot… I know I either want to minor or major in Classics/Latin (as part of a double major with something else if I choose to major in it), so I’ll keep this in mind in the future when deciding exactly how I want to go about pursuing my education in the area. Thank you for the input!</p>
<p>Just to clarify, you can still major, minor, or pursue graduate work in Classics, and the classes you take will be similar to that of a school with a classics department. There’s just no department that can be rated or ranked to other schools.</p>
<p>I could be wrong but I believe a lot of these areas of studies (classics, applied statistics) stemmed from the create your own major that Wash U used to use a lot more in recruiting. Certain programs were popular in terms of students choosing them, and so Wash U created the majors, but like a lot of things at Wash U its very interdisciplinary and didn’t fall in the court of a specific department. The create your own major has become a lot less common in past years, not even sure if it’s still offered – likely because many of the creations that did get approval now are open to anyone.</p>
<p>The Classics Dept is small. Take a look at [Department</a> of Classics](<a href=“http://classics.artsci.wustl.edu/]Department”>http://classics.artsci.wustl.edu/)
Your best way to get some direct information might be to contact Prof. George Pepe, who’s the Director or Undergrad Studies in Classics. He’s been at WashU forever and he is an unbelievably nice guy.</p>
<p>marcdvl- Thanks for the further clarification! I really appreciate it.
WCASParent- I did look around on the Classics homepage but I didn’t find much besides what I mentioned in the OP so that’s why I decided to ask here… but I never thought to contact the director. It’s comforting to know he’s a nice guy! I’ll definitely consider it once my college search becomes more serious over the next year 
Thank you!</p>
<p>The Interdisciplinary Project in the Humanities (IPH) is one of the programs at WashU (not sure it’s technically a “department”) that offers a lot of the classes related to classical literature. If you’re interested, it might be worth checking out their website here: [The</a> Interdisciplinary Project in the Humanities](<a href=“http://iph.wustl.edu/]The”>http://iph.wustl.edu/)</p>
<p>(i’m partway through their minor program, called “Text & Tradition”)</p>
<p>Looks interesting… I’ll look into that a little later on as well. Thank you!</p>