Applying as a Classics Concentrator to Ivy League Schools

Chance Me / Match Me
1

Hello everyone,

I started taking Latin in eighth grade, and I’ve really enjoyed it and I’m hoping to continue this discipline in college. The classics offered me a fresh perspective on the modern world by studying it through the lenses of Ancient Greece and Rome. I’m an Asian female, and I’m decent at math and science (meaning I do well in my classes), but not to the degree that they could lend me a competitive edge.

This past March, I went to Harvard to attend their certamen tournament (Latin academic bowl), and I was also able to sit in a Vergil seminar. I really enjoyed the experience, so I’m angling my prospects towards these schools.

I’m looking for some advice on applying as a classic concentrator to the Ivies, and any experiences would be greatly appreciated.
Student:

College Class Year: 2021
High School: Public
High School Type: sends some grads to top schools
Will apply for financial aid: Yes

Academics:

GPA - Unweighted: 4.00
GPA - Weighted: 4.67
Class Rank: top 5% (2/655)
Class Size: 655
AP Classes: Human Geography, Chinese, Microeconomics, U.S. Government, Environmental Science, English Language, Statistics, Calculus BC, Physics C Mechanics, Latin, European History, Biology, U.S. History; scored 5 on all exams taken

Scores:

SAT I Math: 800
SAT I Critical Reading: 800
SAT I Writing: 800 (essay score 10)
(I’m taking the Subject Tests in June)

Extracurriculars:
Significant Extracurriculars: Latin Club and Certamen (Latin Academic Bowl): 2013-2016
Speech and Debate Team: 2013-2016
Global Connections: 2015-2016

Leadership positions: Speech and Debate Team Speech Captain (2015-2016), Treasurer (2016-2017)
Editor of School’s Junior Classical League: 2016-2017
BEST Robotics Student Volunteer Leader 2013-2015
Editor of school Lit Mag 2014-2015

Volunteer/Service Work: BEST Robotics
Global Connections
AP Summer Institute Volunteer
KSU Mechatronics Promotion
Peer Tutoring in Science and English

Honors and Awards
Perfect Scores in National Latin Exam 2014-2016
Perfect Score on the Medusa Mythology Exam 2016
First Place in the Nation for Latin Literature 2015
Second Highest Scorer at state Junior Classical League Convention
Speech and Debate Letter and Bar
Gold medal on National Roman Civilization Exam 2013-2016
Gold medal on National Classical Etymology Exam 2014-2016
Gold medal on National Latin Vocabulary Exam 2015-2016
State champions of Latin Academic Bowl (Certamen), Advanced Division 2015-2016
4th place on Nationals Latin Academic Bowl, Advanced Division, 2015
National Honor Society
Science National Honor Society
National English Honor Society
Social Studies National Honor Society
Latin National Honor Society

College Summer programs
Accepted by Emory’s Precollege Program
Attended Georgia Tech’ Bio@Tech

2

What kind of debate do you do? Does your team compete on the national circuit – e.g., Wake, Heart of Texas, etc.? Have you met any of the Ivy college coaches and are you potentially interested in debating in college? That’s another hook. Your grades are good, your test scores are excellent, and classics tend to be undersubscribed these days. I;m not sure whether that plays into admissions decisions (i.e., we need to keep these tenured professors busy), but it can’t hurt. Take a close look at Dartmouth. D was a 13 in Classics, the professors were amazing, and the Classics foreign study program (one full quarter every other year) was the experience of a life time for her and others. Here’s the official college blog from 2015: https://greekfsp2015.■■■■■■■■■■■■■/ Oh, there’s also a Rome program in the alternate years, which obviously covers way more than Rome. Some people do both, but that’s a lot of time away from Hanover. D was a Latin fiend like you, but got turned onto Greek her first year and (now in grad school) has concentrated in that – without losing her Latin chops. Happy college hunting!

3

@AboutTheSame Thanks so much! Our debate team was started about 3 years ago, so we haven’t built up to the point where we have a strong presence in the national circuits. However, we have been sending people to state qualifiers for the past two years. My school is big on LD and policy. I did LD my freshman year, but I didn’t particularly enjoy it. I switched to IE (speech), entering in Original Oratory, in which I was able to qualify for state. I’m definitely going to try and branch out into policy in college because I’ve helped some of the policy kids run their practices, and it seemed really interesting.

Right now, I’m leaning towards more Rome than Greece since I’ve been studying its language and culture for the past four years (and I’ve had minimal exposure to Greece), so I’m hoping for a college with a program that allows me to study abroad in Italy in the summer.

But who knows, maybe I’ll like Greece more?

4

The classics department encourages both languages. I should say that I think the college places roadblocks in the way of summer study abroad for credit [hefty transfer fees] since they prefer students to use one of the school’s own FSPs. Here’s a link to to the Rome FSP: http://classics.dartmouth.edu/foreign-study/rome-foreign-study-program And here’s the blog for the latest iteration of that trip, so you see what they got up to if you’re interested: https://romefsp2015.■■■■■■■■■■■■■/

D also considered Harvard [accepted but she chose Dartmouth] and Georgetown [her early decision “safety”], but found the professors and students at Dartmouth when she visited to be far more open and interesting than the folks in Cambridge.

If you’re interested in getting a head start on policy debate (which is very intricate and time-consuming, mind you), here are the Dartmouth summer programs for high school debaters: http://ddidebate.org/ UC Berkeley has an excellent program as well. D did not care for the Northwestern program as much as those two.

5

You really do stand out compared to the typical Harvard/Ivy obsessed student. Looks like you really have a lot of passion towards the classics. Just come up with a compelling story about why you love it so much. Even in spite of having stellar grades and scores, you are interested in an underserved major.

There aren’t that many students interested in the classics anymore, so I think this does give you a decent advantage. I’d be surprised if you don’t get into at least one of the top schools. Please post here once your final results are back.

Good luck.

6

I’m pleased to announce that I was accepted into Princeton with an intended major in classics.

7

Congratulations! Very happy for you.

8

congratulations!

9

Good for you. Nice work!