Trinity U in San Antonio vs UT Austin (Plan 2) for Classics Major

blossom
Mon, 26 Jan 2026 17:00:06 +0000

Definitely count the double major/minors if you’re trying to figure out the size of the cohort. Classics (especially if you think grad school is part of the plan) lends itself to a minor with Art History, Architectural Studies, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Near Eastern Studies, etc. She will see some or all of these students at some point and at most colleges, they form a very nice “pack”… whether study groups or just informal get togethers.

Agree with the suggestion to check to see how many of the Trinity courses are offered each semester and what the sequence looks like. You can’t predict the future- so a professor can go out on parental leave next Spring and there’s no way to account for that, but a robust course offering can handle one or two professors being on leave, on sabbatical, in Southern Italy on an excavation, etc. Missing courses (even if listed in the catalogue) makes it hard to plan and to fulfill the expectations for grad school.

“Personally, I wouldn’t let the ability to take grad school classes as an undergrad color my decision. Few end up doing that.”

Sorry- virtually EVERYONE in Classics is going to take grad school classes as an undergrad. I did, first semester of my freshman year, and I’m hardly a genius. That’s just the way it is. A visiting professor is giving a seminar on “The origins of democracy in the ancient world”-and your particular interest is on the political system of ancient Rome– you’re taking that class if the university allows it. An econ professor and a classics professor are teaming up to teach a graduate class on the “Economics of slavery in antiquity”– there will be a line out the door of undergrads who want to register. This is how the system works. The undergrad curriculum is designed to cover off the major areas of language, literature, philosophy, architecture. But students will want to do a deep dive into many of the areas covered specifically by the grad program. Especially if they want to take classes in fieldwork for preparation for archaeology. Or have a particular interest in Ovid. Or want to combine classical and modern tragedy for grad study. These will likely require taking grad school classes- and you want to be in a place which encourages these upper level or collaborative pairings.

Keep us posted!