Schools for Classics and/or Ancient History

warblersrule
Thu, 15 Sep 2011 00:40:03 +0000

Hobart & William Smith does not belong in a discussion about the best classics programs. Having only three professors should set off alarm bells for any department, as does the tiny number of graduating majors (3, compared to 17 at Oberlin and Holy Cross). Too few faculty members results in too few courses being offered, and consequently it is able to offer only one year of Greek and two of Latin regularly, with upper level courses being cycled on a 3 year basis and (judging by the registrar’s website) heavily dependent on student interest, with all language courses above the elementary level this year being marked “TBA.” I’m sure it’s a decent LAC for other things, but many private high schools have more impressive classics offerings.

Mount Holyoke is a decent suggestion, but better options would be Bryn Mawr, Barnard, and Wellesley (more or less in that order).

UCLA is indeed quite strong in classics, but I think someone interested in northeastern LACs and universities would feel quite a lot of culture shock there, and high OOS fees and poor job prospects for classics majors make a bad combination. Again, there are better options – UNC and UVA meet financial need for all domestic students, and Michigan is usually at least moderately generous to most students.

[I created an extensive though probably not comprehensive list of the best classics programs in another thread.](http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/12896093-post2.html)

I wrote about what makes a good classics program [in this post.](http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/10624995-post2.html)

[A detailed list of classics programs](Undergraduate Programs in Classics)

[A list of graduate programs (also useful for undergraduate study)](U.S. Graduate Programs in Classics)

[Detailed information about many of the bigger departments](http://classicaljournal.org/study_classics%20surveys.php)