<p>What are some good schools for classics? Does declaring classics as a major help my chances of admission?</p>
<p>The “top” (whatever that means) schools for Classics include Michigan, Berkeley, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Penn (my university), etc. Note that because Classics departments tend to be small even at the bigger schools rankings can be extremely fluid - the movement of one or two to researchers can have a huge impact.</p>
<p>However - there are a large number of universities that will give you a more than adequate Classics degree. Virtually all the “state flagship” schools have very good to excellent departments. </p>
<p>Assuming you want to eventually continue your studies in grad school here’s what you want to look for:</p>
<p>Professors who are actively publishing in the field. You can usually find this information on the department website under the Faculty section.
Enough classes to get the equivalent of 2 years beyond the elementary level in both Latin and Greek.
Enough flexibility to let you get 2 years of German or French
Ideally, you’ll also have the opportunity to do a “senior thesis” or a similar research project.</p>
<p>Don’t be afraid to look at SLACs as well as the big universities - there are quite a few that have excellent departments and many have close relationships with larger universities nearby that will enable you to take classes and use other resources at those universities. (For example, Bryn Mawr has such a relationship with Penn.)</p>
<p>I don’t think that declaring Classics will affect your application either way. However, your advisor may have information about specific schools that could affect your decision to mention it. Do be aware that because of the language intensive nature of Classics you’ll want to get started pretty much from “day 1” of your college career.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>