Chances for Classics Grad School admission- little language experience

warblersrule
Sun, 21 Jul 2019 22:29:08 +0000

The general bare minimum for Classics programs:

[ul][] PhD program - 3 years of one ancient language, 2 years of the other, reading knowledge of German and French
[] MA program - 2 years of one ancient language, 1 year of the other, reading knowledge of German and/or French[/ul]
This is a minimum; successful applicants usually have 3/2 years (for an MA) and 4/3 years (for a PhD). Archaeologists are given slightly more leeway in language training than philologists, but your chances of admission are better with a strong language background. The best classical archaeology programs - Michigan IPCAA, UCLA Cotsen, Berkeley AHMA, Brown Joukowsky, Penn AAMW, etc. - each accept only a small handful of students each year, so just meeting the bare minimum doesn’t cut it. Keep in mind that newly hired classical archaeologists are usually expected to be able to teach Greek and Latin at all levels.

You could probably teach yourself enough Greek to be able to jump into an intermediate Greek class in a postbac or MA program. Mastronarde’s *Introduction to Attic Greek/i is the best introduction to classical Greek, in my opinion, but JACT’s Reading Greek is good too, and of course Hansen & Quinn is a classic.