Can I ask what college you go to (or for colleges that you were considering when you were applying)? Latin (and just ancient history in general) is my passion and I would really like to look into more colleges with Latin/Classics programs.
I’m in the MA program in Classical Studies at Tulane University in New Orleans, LA, which is also where I did my undergrad. (I did a double major in classical studies and medieval and early modern studies, with a double minor in history and English literature.) I did my first MA at the University of Leicester in England, in Roman archaeology; I’m doing a second MA because I didn’t have the language experience needed to get into a PhD program.
I think you’re asking about undergrad rather than graduate school, but classics programs tend to be small enough that there’s not a big difference. When I was applying for undergrad, I wasn’t looking at classics programs; I just lucked out in that I went to a university that has a pretty decent one. But some of the universities that I know off the top of my head that have good classics programs are, in no particular order:
University of Washington (Seattle)
University of California - Berkeley
Ohio State University
Rice University
University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
probably all of the Ivy Leagues — Brown, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Dartmouth, um, am I forgetting any? (There are a couple people in my current program who came out of Brown and Dartmouth.)
University of Toronto
Those are the ones I know off the top of my head, however, a lot of state universities, especially the bigger ones like the UCs, will have classical studies programs, at least at the undergraduate level. In my first MA program, the other two Americans had both come out of mid-level state universities, so you definitely don’t need to go to an Ivy if you’re thinking about pursuing classics at the higher levels after undergrad.
My biggest advice for anyone who’s thinking about majoring in classics in college is to start taking Latin and/or Greek as a freshman, which all classics programs worth their names will offer. I did not — I didn’t start taking Latin until I was a junior and Greek until I was a senior, to the extent that I am, as a first year graduate student, now taking Greek 101 again with all the undergrads. Even if you’re not sure that you want to commit to classics as a major, take one or both of the languages from the start, because you will not be able to get into graduate school if you don’t have both. (It’s generally 2-3 years of one and 3-4 years of the other.) Since you said you’re already studying Latin, you’re probably a lot better off than I was. (My small town public high school did not even offer world history when I was there, just U.S. history. Coming to Tulane, which has a lot of students from private preparatory schools, was a big shock for me.)
If I read you wrong and you’re asking about grad instead of undergrad…when I was applying I was looking at programs with a little more emphasis on ancient history and archaeology than straight up classics, because I’m weak on the languages, and at terminal MA and post-baccalaureate programs, both of which are aimed at getting you up to speed on languages in case, like me, you didn’t quite get them down in undergrad. The ones I know off the top of my head are the University of Washington (this is largely because I’m from Washington and my parents were pushing for me to come closer to home), Emory University, Brown University, and Ohio State University. I know Notre Dame also offers a terminal MA and that there are a few others besides Tulane that do. (Terminal MA basically means they only have an MA at graduate level, not the PhD.) Post-bacs…UC-Davis, UNC-Chapel Hill, and the University of Pennsylvania are the ones I know without having to check more closely. A post-bac is what you do if you already have a BA and are looking to get into an MA or PhD program, but aren’t quite up to snuff.
Also, yeah, I did my first MA in England for various reasons, and at this point I’m seriously considering going back to England for the PhD, mostly because my current MA is killing my soul and all the scholars who are working in the sub-fields I’m interested in are in England.
