<p>Love your name, crookshanks.
And good luck.</p>
<p>Thanks @ clubacres…</p>
<p>Going to look @ Holy Cross next week. I hope it’s a good fit.</p>
<p>I will be looking at each schools websites/CDS’s to see what they require. Wish I could apply to them all!! Or maybe not. :)</p>
<p>Thanks again everyone!!</p>
<p>Update</p>
<p>I visited HC–it was not for me. I visited Conn College two days later and really liked what I saw. Thanks again for your input!</p>
<p>Since my original post/the many responses that I have received, I have visited the websites of the schools suggested and it seems like some of the courses offered by the classics depts are lacking. Does this mean that the programs are not that strong?</p>
<p>
I’m not surprised. Most LACs are extremely weak in classics. My rule of thumb for a strong classics program:
[ul][<em>]Beginning Greek and Latin offered every year
[</em>]Intermediate Greek and Latin offered every year
[<em>]At least one advanced seminar in Greek and Latin every semester
[</em>]Decent civilization courses[/ul]
Very few LACs meet those criteria. </p>
<p>[ul][<em>]If you’re female, Barnard is a good option - in addition to a decent classics program of its own, cross-enrollment with Columbia makes its classics offerings superb.
[</em>]Bryn Mawr (and by proxy Haverford) is another excellent option. In addition to the strong program at Bryn Mawr, both offer cross-registration with Penn and Swarthmore. Swarthmore is less conveniently located than Haverford in terms of the consortium arrangement, but it would also be a good choice for classics.
[<em>]Oberlin has a fairly strong program and, unlike many LACs, also a strong tradition in archaeology.
[</em>]Reed has a small but strong classics program and a humanities sequence the freshman year that might appeal to you.[/ul]
Other good programs: Wellesley, Davidson, Franklin & Marshall, Wesleyan, Holy Cross. Decent programs include Colgate, Grinnell, Carleton, Skidmore, Kenyon, Middlebury, and a few others.</p>
<p>The following LACs had more than 5 graduating classics majors in 2010. Although this is a hit or miss measurement most of the time, it seems to include most of the best classics programs.
[ul][<em>]19 Davidson
[</em>]12 Reed
[<em>]11 Oberlin
[</em>]9 Bryn Mawr / Franklin & Marshall / Macalester / Wesleyan
[<em>]8 Bucknell / Holy Cross
[</em>]7 Union
[li]6 Kenyon / Middlebury / Skidmore / Smith / UNC Asheville / Washington & Lee / Williams[/ul]</p>[/li]
<p>If those don’t appeal to you, you’d be better off at a small-ish university. I’d rank these roughly as follows, with the caveat that tiers 1-3 are fairly arbitrary and based on my own opinion:</p>
<ol>
<li>Stanford
2A. Princeton, Harvard
2B. Brown, Duke<em>, Penn</em>, Columbia</li>
<li>Cornell, Yale</li>
<li>Chicago</li>
<li>slight drop - </li>
<li>Hopkins, Northwestern</li>
<li>Tufts</li>
<li>WUStL, Vanderbilt, Emory, Tulane</li>
<li>slight drop - </li>
<li>Dartmouth, Rice, Georgetown</li>
<li>Wake Forest</li>
</ol>
<p>*Duke and Penn are difficult to rank because it depends on whether you include cross-enrollment with UNC and Bryn Mawr. Doing so would bump them up a notch, but I ranked them on their own merit. </p>
<p>Of course, these minute differences aren’t important since you plan to go to medical school – fit is FAR more important.</p>
<p>Thanks @warblers. I visited HC and it wasn’t for me. I have heard amazing things about their classics program.</p>