<p>What are some colleges that have really good classics departments? Preferably a smaller LAC. </p>
<p>Or ancient history departments (although these are more rare). </p>
<p>Also, anywhere that has good cultural anthropology programs.</p>
<p>Thanks so much!! (Sorry for the wide array of requests)</p>
<p>UChicago and Penn both have stellar anthropology programs--but both are major research universities, not LACs.</p>
<p>I bet Swarthmore has a great program. Plus as a swarthmore student (or haverford or bryn mawr), you can take some more specialized courses at Penn and get the best of both worlds.</p>
<p>Yea, Chicago and probably yale as well.</p>
<p>When it comes to ancient history/classics/anthropology, I think of the research U's-- Penn, Brown, Chicago, Yale, Michigan, and I'll throw in Duke on behalf of warblersrule86. </p>
<p>On the LAC end, check out offerings at Carleton, Swarthmore, Grinnell, Reed, Haverford, Oberlin.</p>
<p>Not an LAC, but UC Berkeley is strong in Classics.</p>
<p>Thanks everybody, but are there any schools that I can consider "safeties" that are good? </p>
<p>I have a GPA of around 3.7 uw, 3.9 weighted. Hardest courses possible. ACT 30 (first try, retaking). Really good ECs.</p>
<p>Maybe Hobart, Ursinus, Ohio Wesleyan and Beloit. Other good schools that you would have excellent chances at are Dickinson, Skidmore and Denison. I believe Ohio Weslyean has Ancient History also.</p>
<p>St Olaf has a good Classics program as well as an Ancient Studies major. It probably wouldn't be a safety, but more of a match.</p>
<p>Average GPA UW: 3.65, W: 3.82
Average ACT: 29</p>
<p>What about St. John's in Annapolis?</p>
<p>St. John's is a Great Books program. No majors or anything. I think you can probably go online and find the reading list. As I recall, it starts with classic texts, and moves forward over the years. Not exactly a "Classics" program, but a very unique liberal arts education nonetheless.</p>
<p>I second St. Olaf.</p>
<p>NRC Rankings for Classics</p>
<p>1 Harvard
2 Berkeley
3 Michigan
4 Princeton
5 Yale
6 Brown
7 Chicago
8 UT-Austin
9 UCLA
10 Columbia
11 UNC
12 Cornell
13 Penn
14 Bryn Mawr
15 Duke
16 Stanford
17 Illinois
18 Virginia
19 Wisconsin
20 Washington
21 Ohio State
22 UCSB
23 Johns Hopkins
24 Minnesota
25 NYU
26 Boston University
27 Cincinnati
28 Fordham
29 Catholic University</p>
<p>NRC Rankings for Anthropology</p>
<p>1 Michigan
2 Chicago
3 Berkeley
4 Harvard
5 Arizona
6 Penn
7 Stanford
8 Yale
9 UCLA
10 UCSD
11 Florida
12 UT-Austin
13 NYU
14 Illinois
15 UCD
16 Columbia
17 WUSTL
18 Wisconsin
19 Duke
20 UCSB
21 Johns Hopkins
22 CUNY
23 Virginia
24 Rutgers
25 Pittsburgh
26 Arizona State
27 Princeton
28 Washington
29 UNC
30 Indiana</p>
<p>Wow thanks so much :]. </p>
<p>Gah, of course Michigan has to be up there. Everybody's pressuring me to go there (in-state) but I really don't want to. It's too large and everytime I've gone there, the freshman almost seem hostile to each other over grades. Does somebody want to prove me wrong? Those are only my personal experiences so I'm open to be told otherwise.</p>
<p>Check the Michigan discussion boards-- I'm sure there are plenty of people there who would go out of their way to prove your impressions wrong.</p>
<p>Those classics ranking are bogus. Princeton has some of the greatest classicists ever, but it's ranked only fourth.</p>
<p>The National Research Council rankings are probably the most respected academic rankings out there. The methodology was certainly the most rigorous and is a measure of faculty quality as well as departmental strength. Perhaps it's not such a stretch that while Princeton is strong in Classics, there are still 3 universities better than it.</p>
<p>I asked this question in another forum.</p>
<p>I agree that the NRC makes very respectable academic rankings. Many people would say that Princeton has the top classics department in terms of star power, but I guess it's possible that those other departments are stronger on the whole. Really, the lesson to be learned here is that the rankings don't tell the whole story.</p>