Hey everyone, I hope I’m posting in the right section for this question! Anyway, over the last few months, I’ve been studying Classical Greek (wanting to move to Latin as well in a little while), but was wondering what exactly can you do with a degree in Classical Studies these days? I know some of the obvious answers, such as teaching, or translation, but other then this, what type of work can you get these days with this type of degree? Forgive me please for my ignorance, many blessings for any advice!!
I can only speak for myself…I am a Koine Major, Hebrew Minor. I hope to eventually teach…probably at a small bible college for starters, I’d love to sit in a classics chair at a major university one day (it’s a bit of a dream). I also edit Greek and Hebrew databases for a small Bible software company, which I’m hoping will eventually take off into a more full time gig.
Those are my plans for Greek, but more than anything else, I wanted to learn the language because I love it, and in my opinion the most important documents to ever be written in all time and history are written in Greek (not just the bible, but also TONS of classical lit.).
Majors in Greek or Latin can also go on to become healthcare professionals.
It’s the route I’m planning to take, although I must admit that the idea of being a professor of Classics / Latin at a university someday is rather appealing.
From what I’ve heard finding a teaching job at the college level is very difficult, even if you have a PhD from a respected school. For that reason, I’ll probably end up going route #1.
I plan to major in Theatre in college, and to pursue a career afterwards. I might minor in Classics, or even double major if I can wing it, but Theatre will be my first priority. The obvious application of Ancient Greek would be work in Greek drama, which is how I got involved in Ancient Greek in the first place. A common complaint of translators is that they are classics scholars who don’t know much about theatre or vice versa. Even if I never translate, having access to the nuances of the original Greek will help me act in, direct, or even design lights for a production of a translation.
Nevertheless, my main purpose in learning Ancient Greek is not “How can I make a career out of this?” but “How can I enrichen my life?”
One time, when an an alumna came back to my school, she asked my history teacher wheather she should go into English or into Classics. My teacher said, without hesitation “Classics”. Why? : because she would probably have better job prospects.
I also know somebody with a “Classics” major, though in archeology rather than ancient literature. She spent many years working in archeology, including translating archeological data in German into English.
The easy answer is “anything you want to.” I just interviewed the Classics department at the University of Michigan for a magazine article. It will appear in The Celator later this summer. I then extracted from that and added to it for another write-up in a numismatic quarterly. The quote I got from several people at the U of M is that there is no better education at the undergraduate level than in Classical Studies.
Kids who go to college thinking that their major relates to their career do not understand how a major university works.
A classics major applying for law school will stand out against 3,000 political science majors.
A classics major – given the other parameters – will be accepted prima facie at any Wall Street firm.
Classical studies are enjoying a resurgence because Latin has shown tremendous resilience in “alternative” schools and in homeschooling.
My review of The Celator is in the Links Board. You might consider numismatics. I know many coin dealers in ancients who have classical educations. See for instance the VCoins dealers at www.vcoins.com, just for a slice through the middle. If you click on www.coinarchives.com, you will find a few other dealers with very traditional educations before they got into the trade. Antiquities and antiques, books and manuscripts, there are all kinds of things to buy and sell. Consider this: Newton’s Principia Mathematica was written in Latin and then translated into English. Latin was the language of learning until the 18th century! You can put it to good use.
I happen to have an old Latin textbook with me here at work and from it fell this newspaper clipping, from The Cleveland Plain Dealer, May 6, 1996. Nida Glick, the Latin teacher at Lincoln High School passed away at age 92. During World War II, she quit teaching to join the Coast Guard SPARS where she worked in intelligence. She returned to teaching after the war. Miss Glick had been my mother’s Latin teacher – which is how I came by the clipping – and was chair of the language department when I went to LHS. So, with a degree in classics, you can work as a cryptologist, it seems.
