My DD is a senior and we’re trying to make a college list for her. She wants to major in Classics and Archaeology. We live in Texas so UT-A seems a good option, but she’s not thrilled about a huge state school, so wants to investigate smaller schools. She’s not sure about leaving Texas, but would do so for the right college.
Her GPA is 4.1 (weighted), 3.9 (unweighted). SAT 1530 (740 Math, 790 English)
She got a 5 on Latin AP as well as on English Lang and Spanish Lang APs. We lived in the UK until her sophmore year and so she took the Ancient Greek GCSE and got a 9 (highest score).
She’s really passionate about Classics but is not interested in Ivies - and they’re always a far reach, aren’t they?
Does anyone have suggestions for schools not on her list so far? Right now she’s planning to apply to:
UT-Austin
Duke
Stanford
Haverford
Rice
Brandeis
College of Holy Cross
Trinity U (TX)
William & Mary (maybe)
Any comments or suggestions most welcome! We only have a couple months beofre the Early Action deadlines. She doesn’t want to apply Early Decision anywhere, so as not to limit her choices. We realize this reduces her chances for the really selective schools like Stanford, Duke, Haverford etc. Thanks!
If you have questions on W&M, I’d be happy to answer them (though I have limited insights on Classics, other than that graduating Classics majors don’t wear a mortar board, but, instead, a crown of laurel leaves, which I think is great).
[Edited to remove a link to a virtual senior interview; I hadn’t realized signups had closed for it. No worries, though!]
For a student particularly interested in classical archaeology, I would look into U of Cincinnati. Not really a “small” school exactly (though smaller than UT), but a large and robust program with an emphasis on archaeology and multiple field research programs underway.
Univ of Chicago and Yale come to mind. Not sure why she is not interested in Ivies, but the fact that they are are a “far reach” for anyone does not make them not worth applying to for a kid who meets the general qualifications and would thrive in a particular program.
I would be cautious about U of Chicago right now. They’re talking about scaling back humanities heavily, including grad programs that require language instruction other than in English. True, the discussion at this point is about graduate programs, but they’re discussing a lot of restructuring in the liberal arts and sciences that will inevitably cascade down to undergrads.
I’d suggest checking out Bryn Mawr as well as Haverford. Both can work but Bryn Mawr would be more “home base” for her interests:
Oberlin also has robust offerings in this combination of interests:
For universities, WashU is still reachy, but not necessarily quite as reachy as the most selective colleges in coastal locations, and they have a flexible curriculum with good offerings in these areas:
Is Yale particularly good in any area of Classics/Archaeology?
I see it on a lost of lists as a top Classics school, but those lists show all of the Ivies: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Brown as good for Classics, so it’s hard to tell one from the other, really.
Oberlin, at which the study of classics remains fairly popular in relation to national trends, would be worth exploring. Oberlin also offers a major in Archaeological Studies.
Hamilton graduates more classics and archaeology majors than some much larger schools. The college offers a rare geoarchaeology major with which your daughter’s combined interests may align especially well.
Bryn Mawr might be worth considering as an alternative to Haverford.
Holy Cross, while superb for the study of classics in many ways, does not appear to offer a track in archaeology.
IPEDS can be helpful in researching classics programs by the number of graduating first majors in the field (see, e.g., College Navigator - Duke University under Foreign Languages, Literatures, and Lingustics).
St. John’s College Annapolis or Santa Fe (or both!). Quite small and quirky, but reasonable starting price with merit available. The program is the old University of Chicago program.
D doesn’t want to go to an all girls school, hence applying to Haverford. If you get into Haverford, you can take courses at BM. I realize Bryn Mawr has higher acceptance rates but she won’t be swayed. We spoke to the Holy Cross Classics chair and she said they had some hands-on archaeology opportunities within the Classics program, just not a separate major for that.
Confused because there are colleges with Classics in Texas and neighboring Arkansas and Oklahoma -so if this is true, why aren’t they, beyond Trinity, on the list ?
SUNY Binghamton is very good and provides a cost effective alternative without the insane Ivy League admissions hurdles. Harvard & Cornell are also excellent.
That 9 in Classical Greek at GCSE is impressive and definitely should be highlighted in her application. (For American readers, it includes a 1 1/2 H Language exam, mostly short answer; plus 2 1-hour open ended exams in literature and/or culture. A 9 means the student ranks top 1% nationally among a pretty self selected, highly performing group.) Coupled with the AP 5 and, I assume, relevant AP/DE History classes and vaguely-classics-related ECs, she should be a very competitive candidate at many schools, including Ivies (which have astounding resources for Classics). Perhaps run the NPC on a couple and revisit the matter if they’re affordable. (Princeton, Brown, Yale?)
For UT, she should apply to the Honors Programs (not sure if it’s by application or invitation) and Plan II - in case she ends up at that university, it’ll help individualize her studies.
Seconding the idea of exploring Hamilton and Oberlin (different vibes for sure ).
These are the numbers of graduating majors in classics, Ancient Greek, or Latin at several liberal arts colleges for a recent year based on IPEDS information:
As noted above, archaeology appears under Social Sciences. Hamillton, for example, shows 5 graduates in archaeology: College Navigator - Hamilton College.
If you’ve lived in the UK, have appropriate GCSE grades and are looking at colleges like Duke and Stanford why wouldn’t you apply to Oxford? It has over 100 classics students per year, plus many additional students taking classics in combination with other subjects (eg 24 in classical archaeology and ancient history). And the admission rate is high for the very well qualified students who actually apply (35% for classics).
Although I personally quite like St Louis, I understand it is a heavy lift for some kids.
Unfortunately more popular locations mean harder and less predictable admissions, but what about Boston University? Among other reasons to recommend it, it actually has a joint major in Classics and Archaeology:
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