Are you suggesting that Amherst graduates do not have good outcomes after undergrad graduation?
We know a bunch of very successful Amherst grads who went on to graduate or professional schools. Perhaps they report their employment outcomes to their grad or professional schools. Disclaimer…that’s what my own kids have done. Their grad and professional schools know their outcomes because those programs made their outcomes possible.
Not at all.
I’m saying for the major they don’t publish outcomes due to low or no data.
We already saw from @AustenNut they have few grads.
If I was going to any school for any major, I’d want to know about outcomes.
They show none - so I’d investigate / request.
As a comment on this, biological anthropology tends to focus on prehistoric humans and their ancestors. For a focus on ancient societies, the subfield of anthropological archaeology may be of interest to your daughter.
This might be correct from the perspective of faculty, but from the perspective of undergrad students, a letter of recommendation from a professor you worked with for multiple years is often stronger than one from a professor who only knew you for a semester and has since moved to a different university. Not to mention professors with tenure are more likely to have the time to spend mentoring students, while visiting professors are primarily there to research.
I’m just speculating though - I don’t have any personal experience here.
For my money, I would begin my search for programs with Brown. With such a unique and specific interest, their open curriculum is a real advantage for forming the program of study that she wants. I also think that her very specific interest might give her a fighting chance for admission by distinguishing her from the other applicants.
Brown’s Classics program not only offers majors in Latin and Greek but in Sanskrit as well. It is just superb in this area. They offer majors in Archaeology & the Ancient World; Earth, Climate, & Biology; Anthropology with a track in biological anthropology; Egyptology & Assyriology; and many other related majors. The open curriculum allows her to pick courses from these and other departments to form the specific focus of study that matches her interests.
An alternative that is less expensive and less competitive is SUNY Binghamton. They have the programs in biological anthropology and the Classics to match her interests. The SUNY colleges are the best bargain around for out of state students.
There are many other excellent suggestions on this thread, but I’d start with these two.
A gazillion years ago, my senior thesis advisor and one of my grad school application recommenders was a young, not tenure-track/visiting professor (I forget her exact position). I took a seminar with her, and then did the thesis with her because she was doing related scholarship and we had established a good relationship.
I also had support from full-time faculty, but it did not appear to hurt me to have her on my list–I got into top PhD programs including the best one in the world for my interests.
There is no knowing what role she specifically played, but I have always wondered if it might actually have helped in the sense we worked closely together and I do not think there were a lot of other, if any other, students in my class year doing that with her. She also went to a top PhD program herself, which is almost a given in most fields, but I think in that sense could credibly discuss whether I was suited for such a program.
To the extent that it may be important to you, note that Middlebury is an example of a school with zero reported first majors in classics in a recent year:
In looking through the College Navigator information, it’s interesting to see that a few LACs compare with much larger schools. Hamilton, for example, shows as many classics majors as Columbia and Barnard combined.
Very helpful. Thank you
Well, this is odd, because my nephew just (this year) graduated from Middlebury with a classics major, and he definitely wasn’t the only one. That’s why I put little stock in these kinds of reports – it seems like the data is unevenly reported, they often don’t take into account second majors or minors, or students who might be very active in these departments without majoring (i.e., an art history student who takes cross-listed courses in classics, etc.).
However, by itself, this doesn’t show a contradiction in the U.S. government information, which has yet to be updated to include the current year.
And who knows if that will happen. There have been substantial layoffs at NCES, which is the ED agency in charge of IPEDS. IPEDS data powers College Navigator. Time will tell what happens, meanwhile I will be telling students to contact colleges directly for the information they need, the Institutional Reporting department is typically responsible for the CDS, as well as providing the government the rest of the data it’s typically required. Not sure those requirements are still in place/will remain in place.
this is odd because my nephew, just this year graduated with a major in Classics . . .
Yes, that was this year. The previous poster said, “in a recent year”. It looks like we’re talking about different years for the data set..
Sure, but I imagine there’s more continuity over time than these numbers suggest (see my other comments about second majors, minors, and others who take a lot of courses in a department). Moreover, if there are zero (first) majors one year (maybe more second majors and minors who don’t show up in these stats), but more in subsequent classes, that “zero” number really doesn’t accurately suggest the vitality of the major.
That’s my concern with Amherst. They show none in career data the last six years - that’s why I would do as @Mwfan1921 suggested to contact the school and ask - where have the grads (assuming there are any) gone.
It’s worthy of research rather than including or excluding four years and hundreds of thousands of dollars, regardless of the power of the school name in general.
Not every department reports this information consistently. There are some that always have a “what our grads are doing” link, which is helpful and nice to see, but in small majors in small colleges, it might be less consistent, because it probably depends in part on alum reporting. I can imagine that it slips some grads’ minds to report, or maybe they don’t have everything figured out right away, and then when they do, they forget to report back. I have a hard time believing that Amherst Classics grads are having a hard time finding jobs or grad/professional school placements. Most of those positions are unlikely to be in the discipline of Classics, of course, but they’re probably not settling into life as baristas, either, at least long-term. My aforementioned nephew who just graduated from Middlebury is off to a T14 law school in the fall, but that information is not on the classics department page, which instead has a few profiles of alums who graduated longer ago and now are in more established careers. So I wouldn’t be troubled by the absence of this info on Amherst’s Classics Dept. site.
I agree - which is why it doesn’t seem like too much to investigate rather than assume. Their career data matches what @AustenNut shows - that it’s not a school where people study Classics. It doesn’t mean they shouldn’t - just that they don’t.
Typically the higher end colleges show a higher % reporting. I admit I don’t know if my kids reported - both I told to. But the more elite the higher % reporting they show which makes sense as more are invested in the school.
My point is simply - inspect what you expect. So you know what you are walking into.
According to Middlebury’s Office of Institutional Research, the number of Classics/Classical Studies degrees awarded over the last few years is as follows:
2020: 5
2021: 5
2022: 5
2023: 2
2024: 4
In terms of fall majors (across all years), the numbers are as follows:
Fall 2020: 5 Classics majors, 4 Classical Studies majors
Fall 2021: 6 Classics majors, 6 Classical Studies majors
Fall 2022: 5 Classics majors, 3 Classical Studies majors
Fall 2023: 9 Classics majors, 4 Classical Studies majors
Fall 2024: 10 Classics majors, 3 Classical Studies majors
Williams doesn’t cite specific outcomes for its Classics majors — which in the past 5 years have varied from 10 to 5 graduates — but they do emphasis its versatility. I quote the following in whole because it’s a lovely plug for the diverse value of a liberal arts education. 
“Classics majors at Williams have gone on to graduate school in classics, art, archaeology, history, Medieval studies, English, Italian, chemistry, journalism, and engineering, as well as to schools of medicine, law, and business. We also have a strong tradition of educating secondary-school teachers of Latin, Greek, and other subjects. Other majors have become investment bankers, librarians, business executives, software designers, farmers, economists, diplomats, and book editors. The sheer variety of these activities attests to the rich variety within Classics and to the continuing vitality of the liberal arts.”
But they do - but they show:
4 in 2024, including 2 in finance, 1 in consulting and 1 in technology
2 in 2023, including 1 in non-profit and 1 in technology
2 in 2022, including 1 in healthcare and 1 in litigation
1 in 2021, in healthcare
Their career platform - hmmmm - stinks - so many other schools do it better - but they do have outcome data.
I wish it were standardized nationally - maybe that’s a business idea 
Destinations After Williams – '68 Center for Career Exploration