It’s been a while since there was discussion of undergraduate programs in Classics. My son is a current Junior in high school with viable grades and test scores for Ivies, but he’ll need to apply to several and definitely apply to a safety. Have things changed much since the discussion on CC a few years back or are the same schools still leading the pack?
Don’t know of the former discussion but University of Chicago and Columbia University are considered top notch in Classics.
Toronto is worth a look.
I’ve written quite a bit over the years about classics. In particular, note my posts [url=<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/12896093/#Comment_12896093%5Dhere%5B/url”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/12896093/#Comment_12896093]here[/url] (my grouping of classics programs by quality) and [url=<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/16471231/#Comment_16471231%5Dhere%5B/url”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/16471231/#Comment_16471231]here[/url] (a more recent ranking of mine and my criteria for a strong classics program).
To answer your question, yes…in general, the same schools are strong in classics. Classics departments are small enough that a handful of retirements or losses to other schools can have a huge effect, and there has been considerable movement within tiers in the last decade, but that is of more interest to a prospective graduate student.
Depending on your state of residence, your flagship public may make an excellent safety. Many of the best classics programs are at public universities.
Thank you for your posts. Warblersrule, somehow I missed your 2013 post, so thank you for the link.
We are in Georgia, so UGA will likely be his safety. Our state’s Hope Scholarship would also make it quite affordable. In addition, my husband is faculty at Emory, so it is nice to see them on your last. My husband is from NJ, so we were looking into Princeton. I see it is missing from your rankings. Do you have specific concerns with their program?
My son may consider continuing on to grad school. Is it your opinion that if he does well in any of your recommended schools, he’ll be a viable candidate for a top notch graduate program? Right now we want to keep his options open and get him into a good school.
No, that was simply oversight. I probably forgot at least one or two other programs. Princeton has an extremely good classics program – definitely top 5, in my book.
Yes, definitely. Any of these would be a great pick. UGA has a very good classics program and also a very strong linguistics program.
That said, be aware that classics graduate programs are horrendously competitive. It’s becoming increasingly common (if not the norm!) for successful PhD applicants to have completed a MA at one of the feeder programs in Canada (Alberta, UBC, UVic, etc.) or the US (Arizona, FSU, Kansas, etc.), so the route may be a somewhat long one.
Definitely check out the University of Kentucky. I am a freshman classics major at UK, and I turned down a full tuition scholarship at USC to take advantage of UK’s amazing classics program. What’s unique about it is that there are 500-level classes taught entirely in Latin (yes, the professors speak Latin fluently!) as well as informal conversation practice sessions which anyone, regardless of level, is welcome to attend. The Greek professors are trying to take their program in a similar direction. Just this year, a grad student started weekly conversational Greek sessions which I have been attending. The website for the classics program is http://mcl.as.uky.edu/classics, and the page for conversational Latin opportunities specifically is http://mcl.as.uky.edu/latin-institute. The classics professors here are also some of the kindest people I have ever met. They love Latin, and they love their students.
As for grad school admissions, the directors of the UK Latin Institute, Drs. Tunberg and Minkova, are fairly well-known in the Classics world, so I think a letter of recommendation from one of them would be looked upon well by graduate schools. Also, for highly motivated students with at least 15 hrs. of AP, IB, or Dual credits, UK has a 4-year BA and MA program in Classics that would also be a plus for Ph.D program admissions and would speed up the process as well.
Also, UK has some pretty great merit scholarships. Full tuition, room and board, $1000 stipend, $2000 study abroad grant, and iPad guaranteed for NMFs, and similar packages for competitive merit scholarship recipients.