<p>WM currently entering 2nd semester Freshman year at BU. Have a 3.6gpa from first semester and SATs of 1300 (700M/600V). Looking to major in Classics possibly. Will not be applying for fin. aid (not sure if this even matters).</p>
<p>Any ideas on my chances of being admitted for next Fall? Any and all input appreciated.</p>
<p>I’ve heard transfers to Wake are easier than regular admissions. Don’t know too much about it though.</p>
<p>Is the classics program better at Wake? Why would anyone choose to leave Boston, especially if you’re studying classics? There are probably more opportunities to meet people with your interests in Boston than anywhere else.</p>
<p>Just not loving life at BU (lack of social life, etc. Boston’s great, but you’d better be 21!) Also, school is very strict re: social life and to do anything, you’ve got to know people off-campus. Thought I would love it, but it hasn’t turned out that way. Also, I grew-up here so am looking for something different.</p>
<p>dunderheader- I just posted to your “southern hospitality” question. 
Question: why would you say: “There are probably more opportunities to meet people with your interests in Boston than anywhere else.” I am curious as to why you think that Boston University, which lots of NJ kids I know attend for biology,would be a better place to study the classics than Wake Forest? Thanks.</p>
<p>
Although this was not addressed to me, I’ll take it anyway, as the resident CC classicist.</p>
<p>Boston U has a much stronger classics program than Wake with more renowned professors. At the moment, the classics department at Wake has 4 full-time classics professors (emeritus and adjuncts effectively don’t count). BU has 13, and that’s not even including the classical archaeologists in the archaeology department. </p>
<p>BU has extremely close ties to ASOR and the Museum of Fine Arts, as well as hosting the local society of the Archaeological Institute of America. It also offers the opportunity for students to study other ancient cultures offered by the university – Egypt, Mesopotamia, Turkey, and the like. Students are allowed to take Hittite, Akkadian, and Sumerian at nearby Brandeis, should they so choose. Classics and archaeology are BU’s true strengths and some of the few areas in which it can compete with pretty much any college in the country.</p>
<p>That said, I am a big fan of schools in my native NC, and Wake is a great school. The OP could do quite well if it’s a good fit for him. </p>
<p>I would also strongly encourage an application to UNC, which does not consider residency status in transfer admissions and has an extraordinarily strong classics program and social scene.</p>
<p>Hi, NJMom. Actually, I say that not because it’s better to be at BU, but to be in Boston. I said that I went to BU, but got my education in Boston. As expensive as the city is there are so many free things to do and explore if you are interested. And you can find meetings, lectures, films on the most esoteric things. Spent lots of time going to lectures at Harvard and even MIT (okay, so I dated someone from MIT). I just think in sheer numbers of people reading, writing, studying the classics, there are probably more than at Wake, and those are probably university-related. In Boston, there are opportunities to take advantage of free or inexpensive university-related activities even though it’s not your university. And yes, BU has (or had, I don’t know anymore) a good biology program. And yes, there are of kids from Jersey and LI. We joked that BU was Hofstra University - Boston campus.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info. dunderheader and IBclass06- I had no idea about BU and classics- I know I should not assume, but I always think of BU as “sciencey” (I know it is not a real word!) I did know about the excellent Classics department at UNC, as my son looked at it for graduate school.</p>
<p>Left unsaid, of course, is that Boston U has 18,534 undergrads to Wake’s 4,476 undergrads which means that Wake Forest actually wins the undergrad student to classics professor ratio…</p>
<p>Demon Deacon- you remind me of my son- no matter what, he can argue that Wake Forest is the best! Go Deacs!</p>
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This is getting off track, but I suspect you actually have it in reverse. Classics tends to be the most unpopular liberal arts major (along with geology), and even Berkeley graduates only about 2 or 3 classics majors a year. It’s quite typical for faculty to outnumber undergraduate classics majors. Put a different way, the number of classics majors at any given college tends to be constant, but the number of faculty rises as one examines larger institutions. </p>
<p>As Victor Davis Hanson put it in Who Killed Homer?,
</p>
<p>Sadly, the field has dwindled even more in the last 15 years. In 2005 nationwide only 35 seniors majored in Greek and 89 in Latin. Yep, the field is THAT tiny.</p>
<p>You are right. There was an short article in the Sunday NYT about some universities dropping classics (and I remember American Studies, too) departments.</p>
<p>Sounds like your son wants a more traditional school experience. The T running up Commonwealth Ave. isn’t quite the same Wake’s campus, and the Terriers tearing up the NCCA hockey teams isn’t the same as ACC Deacons basketball. If he’s looking for that school identification thing (outside of the classics program) BU isn’t the place.</p>