Overview

Classics majors at Williams have gone on to graduate school in classics, art, archaeology, history, Medieval studies, English, Italian, chemistry, journalism, and engineering, as well as to schools of medicine, law, and business. We also have a strong tradition of educating secondary-school teachers of Latin, Greek, and other subjects. Other majors have become investment bankers, librarians, business executives, software designers, farmers, economists, diplomats, and book editors. The sheer variety of these activities attests to the rich variety within Classics and to the continuing vitality of the liberal arts.

Graduate Study

Students interested in pursuing graduate study in Classics or related fields should consult, as early as possible, their professors at Williams, their single best resource. We can advise you on your course selection at Williams, graduate programs and fellowship opportunities, and we can put you in contact with Williams graduates currently pursuing advanced degrees in Classics (and related fields) in both the United States and Great Britain. If you’re just beginning to play with the idea of graduate school, you might start by consulting the Classics bulletin board in Hollander Hall, as well as some of the online resources below.

The office of the Dean of the College oversees most Williams graduate fellowships and provides information about other fellowship opportunities. The American Philological Association offers the Lionel Pearson Fellowship for graduate study in Classics or a related field at an English or Scottish university. The Classics Department administers the Charles Bridgen Lansing Fellowship, which may be used to support graduate study in Classics or a related field.

Note that a reading knowledge of French, German, and Italian is required in at least two of these modern languages by Ph.D. programs in Classics, Ancient History, Classical Art and Archaeology, and Medieval Studies; it is a good idea to have studied at least one of these languages before entering a Ph.D. program. Note also that most Ph.D. programs in Classics will expect students to have taken significantly more courses in Greek and Latin than are required for the major at Williams. To address the situation of students who need to study more Greek or Latin before entering a Ph.D. program, a number of post-Baccalaureate programs have been created.

Some online resources

• GradSchools.com Graduate Programs in Classics
• Participate in the National Doctoral Program Survey. It is administered by the National Association of Graduate and Professional Students and hosted by Arizona State University.
• APA Guide to Graduate Programs in the United States and Canada. A wealth of information about programs in classics, classical archaeology, and related fields, available in book form for $15.00 US from the American Philological Association.
• Academic Departments and Programs in Anthropology and Archaeology, from ArchNet.
• A thorough list of American colleges and universities with links to the home pages of each, from the University of Florida. You will also find here links to similar listings of international universities, and to Canadian universities.
• Graduate Education in Classics, “a continuing conversation…” that involves essays, papers delivered at a recent APA panel on the topic, and a discussion group with an interactive form for submitting comments.

Teaching

Students interested in secondary-school teaching should consult the Classics faculty as soon as possible. Some of us know a great deal about teaching Latin (and Greek) in public and private schools, and we can put you in contact with Williams graduates who are secondary school teachers. You should also become involved in Williams’ Program in Teaching.

Here are some helpful online resources for students seeking positions in Classics. Williams’ Office of Career Counseling can direct you to others.

Placement Information

• Secondary School Programs in Classics. A listing of programs and their on-line contact information maintained by the ACL.
• The APA’s report on state certification requirements for Latin teachers includes links to each state’s pages on teaching and certification requirements. The list of state links begins about one-third of the way down the page.
• Educational Associations and Organizations from the U.S. Department of Education.

Placement Services

• The American Classical League Placement Service.
• New England Latin Placement Service.
• Teacher Placement Service of the Classical Association of Virginia
• The University of Texas at Austin maintains a Latin Placement Service that lists open positions in Texas and nearby states.
• A state-by-state list of placement services is maintained by the National Committee for Latin and Greek.