<p>Ok, guys, I need a little information. I've come up against one of those topics where my own lack of formal education puts us at a disadvantage.</p>
<p>D wants to study classics or possibly medieval studies. Her overall application will make sense for that and I do think she'll stay pretty close to those things when she makes her final decision of major later in her college career. She'll be choosing colleges that offer either or both of those majors, though, so they'll be available. I've been scoping out different schools in a broad range of selectivity that all offer appropriate majors and have today just been looking up the number of students in those majors at her colleges of interest. We thought we had chosen schools that were strong in those majors, but there doesn't seem to be very many students enrolled in them. Some schools have one or two, the most is about ten. Can anyone help me understand this and put it into perspective? Do we want a bigger group? More personal attention? Also, does it matter how many students, will it affect her admissions? If anyone could offer any insight, even the most basic about majors generally, I'd be very appreciative.</p>
<p>About the effect on admissions - it depends on the school. Many top schools do not admit students into a major, they don't even have to choose one till some time in their sophomore year. At these schools I doubt that her choice of major will make a difference. Other schools admit their students into majors from the start - these will want to have a certain number of majors in each field, so it might help there.</p>
<p>The main concern with so few people in the major will be course offerings, IMO. Have her take a look at current and former class schedules--is there realistically enough variety in her favored subjects to keep her interested for 4 years? Be sure to look at what they're actually offering semester to semester and not just the master list of courses they occasionally-might-offer-maybe. Worst case scenario, you could have a department that barely offers enough courses to complete the major, with very little flexibility and low enrollment--and with the same couple of professors teaching everything so if you don't mesh with someone you're out of luck.</p>
<p>It's also possible that there are only a few enrolled in the major, but more who are minoring in it (perhaps people who love classics but went for something more "practical" for their major?), or that the department's electives are popular, and if either of those is the case I wouldn't be particularly concerned. A dept. with lots of people taking classes in it but not so many people majoring in it can be the best of both worlds, since there's decent course selection but more personal attention when it comes to advising.</p>
<p>Glad I could be helpful :) I nearly went to a college with only 2 linguistics professors, and I ended up majoring in linguistics--I think I would have died of boredom, or at least experienced severe intellectual claustrophobia! Fortunately I got to experience the program at a bigger school (which actually doesn't have many more linguistics majors than the 2-professor department did), where the comparatively diverse course offerings clued me in to the value of having more profs at your disposal.</p>
<p>zm, D is a Classics major, and there just aren't that many kids who are interested in the subject these days (although I understand that Latin is becoming more popular in high schools). The advantage of a small dept. is that the student gets to know the professors quite well, and the classes are small, even at a larger school, particularly as you get into the upper-level courses. I really agree with what Pseudonym says: "A dept. with lots of people taking classes in it but not so many people majoring in it can be the best of both worlds, since there's decent course selection but more personal attention when it comes to advising." </p>
<p>As for affecting admissions, I know most people here will say it doesn't matter, since so many kids change their minds about what they want to major in. But I do think it can be a bit of a help when the student has the demonstrated background, although certainly not in a major (pardon the pun) way.</p>
<p>To add to what Pseudonym said- I would look at the classics and midevil studies pages of the school's websites to see the number of full time and part time faculty teaching in the departments as well as the individual semester course offerings. This will also give a clue as to the number and variety of course offerings that are possible in any given semester. </p>
<p>My D is probably going to be a classics major at Princeton (she is a current freshman). But we thoroughly researched classics departments at a variety of schools last year. Classics departments are notoriously small in universities and colleges- I think a lot more people choose to go the "practical"route or at least choose a humanities major that seems a bit more relevant to job opportunities. Also- there are not that many high schoolers that have a background in Latin or Greek going into college. While one can still be a classics major, there will be heavy language work in the first two years to prepare for the major. This is what my D will be doing. She is taking Latin this semester and next. She will take "Turbo Greek" in the fall of next year- this is two semesters worth of Greek in one semester. Counts as two courses. At the end of one year of Latin and this one semester of Turbo Greek, she will be prepared to read the classics in the original- it is heavy duty language prep. All geared toward the reading and writing of the languages, since they are not really spoken any longer. (Although modern Greek speakers would have an advantage, since ancient Greek is recognizably similar)</p>
<p>Also- I do think indicating a desire to be a classics major will give a slight advantage in admissions, even if your D doesn't have a background in the languages but can convey her interest in studying them. Because classics and midevil studies departments are so small, they are always on the lookout for students who are interested in the field.</p>
<p>You may do better at a university with grad students. For example, at Harvard only a handful of undergrads actually major in German, (maybe four a year?), but there are grad students taking courses too and lots of students take some language courses even though they don't major in the subject. </p>
<p>As long as there are enough choices and professors being in a small major is a good thing. You do get to know those profs much better!</p>
<p>Another option is the best of both worlds- small, but large. Amherst and UMass/Holyoke or the Bryn Mawr/Haverford/Swarthmore/Penn consortium. Small, but opportunities for many classes closeby. I have no idea of what the classics or medieval offerings are there, but worth a look.</p>
<p>I don't know about your daughter's intended majors at all, but a couple of questions that come to mind are these:</p>
<p>Is she aiming for a PhD? Seems if she wanted to work in these fields, not just study them, she might need a phd? If so, how are the various schools for preparation and acceptance into phd programs? (Some of the lac's such as Bryn Mawr are good in this regard, though I don't know of this specific field.)</p>
<p>I wonder how, if at all, budget cuts or freezes would affect a small dept that already has few courses and few teachers? Is this something one has to be concerned with?</p>
<p>I suspect that to some extent classics is an elite-university area; that's where you get a critical mass of students with the background, interest, and self-confidence to commit to something so uncommercial. My kids had several classics-jock friends, and here is the list of places they focused on: The Ivy League universities, Barnard and Bryn Mawr, the University of Chicago, Toronto and McGill in Canada, and the University of Michigan (which is very strong in this area). Some of the Catholic universities ought to have good programs, too, but I don't know much about them. I suspect that there are LACs other than Bryn Mawr that offer good programs, too -- Donna Tartt's The Secret History seemed to be a roman a clef about Bennington, and it certainly featured a vibrant, if small, classics program.</p>
<p>A small college is going to have a small contingent of classics majors, no matter how good the program is. It just isn't that popular. A large university may have a similarly small group percentage-wise, but at least there will be enough people so that they could double-date if they wanted to.</p>
<p>So, for PhD, an undergraduate school where she can do very well: so, a place where she is comfortable, the dept. is very supportive with good advising, maybe with a reputation in her field even if not the most "name brand" on her list to most of the world. </p>
<p>If she feels like digging for info, maybe look into where can she do a summer/semester/year abroad (England? France?) where it will comfortably fit into her program of study AND, ideally, be funded (summer?) or not cost more than her usual term of school? Who has a Track Record of sending similarly interested students to intern at significant museums or historic sites?</p>