I’m sure this has been asked countless times, but a search of the archives failed to bring anything up for me.
I’m in my junior year of highschool, and am trying to decide what I should major in when I go to college. I want to do something in the languages/literature line, but I also want to be fairly certain of being able to get a good job.
I’m considering majoring in classical languages. I’ve done some research on the benefits of doing this, and have come up with these webpages-
From which I’ve surmised that it’s a fairly good choice of a major.
However, I was conversing via the net with a friend of mine from a different forum who downplayed the benefits, and told me I should “trust real life over the Princeton Review.”
So I figured I’d ask here. I know that some of you are Classics majors. Were you able to get jobs easily, and what fields are they in? Would you recommend a Classics major as a useful major to get?
I think that a sense of accomplishment of one’s dreams is paramount in life. If you really want to be a classicist, then I say you should pursue that desire as far as you would dare to take it.
Just so you know, I’m not a classics major. I am majoring in music, which has been a lifelong love of mine, but not necessarily a secure career choice. Oh well, age quae cupis, i guess.
good luck
jon
I understand Fabiola’s question. I don’t care how much you like classics, it is prudent to investigate whether or not it will pay for the bread and eggs.
If you can make your main interest your career; Great! If not; You still have to eat.
(BTW I am a carpenter and study Greek as a hobby.)
What I’m saying is: even though a sense of accomplishment of one’s dreams is very nice, many of us get a real sense of accomplishment doing something that is NOT our fist choice.
I know that this does not really answer your question, Fabiola , but I wanted to say this so that you won’t feel overly disappointed if you can’t make your ‘first love’ your carreer.
Well, you should also read “Who Killed Homer?” by Heath and Hanson.
If it is any indication, most people on textkit don’t major in the classics or do not have a classics degree. Academic love and academic bureaucracy don’t mix well I suppose…
I am a senior in high school. I figured out that I was going to major in theatre in college during the summer between my sophmore and junior year, and it hasn’t changed since, and I doubt it will. However, if I were not majoring in theatre there is a good chance I would major in Classics - only if I like the classes though. I still might minor in Classics, depending on how much free time I have and how much I like the Classics classes at whatever university I will attend.
One thing about majoring in Classics is that if you declare it on your application, you have a higher chance of getting in to the college of your choice. Professors often have a strong influence on admissions officers. A Buisness proffesor knows he/she will have many buisness students, so he/she does not feel compelled to put pression on admissions officers. However Classics professors always worry that not enough students will go into classics to keep their department alive, and will strongly encourage admissions officers to admit students who show an interest in Classics.
I think the question ‘will Classics bring in my bread and butter’ is more critical at the graduate level than the undergraduate level. After all, how useful is a major like “American Studies”. A classics degree would serve you well if you went into law school (you’ll understand a lot of Latin legalese and have good language, rhetorical, and analytical skills), medical school (a lot of Latin/Greek medical jargon down) and many other professions. So I do not think this should be a strong factor right now.
Classics is the arts degree - language, literature, history, philosophy, archaeology philology all in one. Every one asks me the same question, “What are you going to do with Classics?” I would need to do a degree in another two languages, English, history, philosophy and linguistics degree to have the same skills I would have after a Classics degree course. Every one sensible recognises this choice: Classics or [insert Science] It also depends on your passion and ability in the subject - if you’re naturally better at something and enjoy it more, even if it is maths, go for it. Go erept a chicken if you need eggs. What is most important is that you do what you love, follow your dreams, reach for the sky!!!
~E
PS You’re still a iunior so stop worrying about maiores and get at dem honeyz!!!
PS You’re still a iunior so stop worrying about maiores and get at dem honeyz!!!
fo’ sho’, as they say.
and, knowing a little latin can help you there, too… just say a few words in our beloved tongue and they’ll be all over you like like bees on honey… seriously. latin and guitar. that’s all it takes.
Yeah well, I have a better chance of a scholarship if I “get the ball rolling” in my junior year with applications and stuff, so I’m trying to decide what I want. It’s difficult because I’d be happy doing a lot of very different things- but… a degree in classics would actually probably be considered the most “practical” of the lot.
I suppose if I decided I’d be okay with being a Latin teacher, I wouldn’t have to worry? I’m not concerned with making a lot of money, just enough to support myself.
And thanks, Glottal- my junior year is going quite well! I’m currently waiting on my SAT 1 scores, hopefully I did well enough on that so I won’t have to take it again and then I can go on to the SAT 2’s.* How’s your senior year going?
*SATs are very annoying secondary college entrance exams. SAT 1 is a “reasoning” test and the SAT 2’s are subject tests.
Good luck on your SAT. May you sacrifice only one Saturday morning.
I did zero studying and got 650 - 650 - 710 on my SAT, the best score being Critical Reading. I only did it once, but I also took the ACT. I only took the ACT because the testing location was near my house, but I got an even higher score on the ACT - a composite score of 33 - so that’s the ones colleges are looking at. Generally, people perform better on the ACT than the SAT because the ACT is dumber (except the science section is awesome!)
Being the off-track person I am, I took the SAT II before the SAT. I took French, U. S. History, and Math Level II. I only got 540 on the Math SAT II, but I was taking that for curiousity rather than getting a high score.
It does help to get the ball rolling early. If you know your major, you can look for colleges with strong departments in that area. Even though I don’t have any acceptance letters yet, I am already looking for housing, and I am finding some good deals I would miss if I were to start my housing hunt a few months from now.
I am currently a junior in high school and planning on being a Classics major. My top two colleges are Michigan and Tufts. I do not think it wise to determine a career choice on utility alone. Everyone I tell I am intending to be a Classics major merely responds with the same ignorance: " But Latin and Attic Greek are dead languages." So many people base their occupations and majors solely on the basis of pecuniary efficacy;as a result, many people change majors or lead miserable lives in insipid vocations. If you have a passionate propensity for classical languages, then be a Classics Major. If you cannot find a career in this field, you can use a Classics degree as the basis for sundry graduate level studies.
I’m glad to hear someone else has put in a lot of time on Classics & music - Latin & saxophone in my case. Even if it doesn’t do a lot for your career it will keep you sane and happy for the rest of your life. If I only concentrated on my finance type job I would go completely ga ga and probably not be able to work at all.
Bleh the SAT maths. I’m hoping for a 600-650 for my math score; I’ll be seriously disappointed if I get scores under 700 for my critical reading and writing scores.
Might try the ACT.
Interesting about the music/classics- my first love is piano. I actually was planning on going into (classical) piano performance, but decided against it.
Major in classics and do some verse composition - out of the billions of people on earth surely only a few hundred can do this well. You could then sing your dactyls. It may not make the honeys flock but you can be a part of my church.
Major in classics and do some verse composition - out of the billions of people on earth surely only a few hundred can do this well. You could then sing your dactyls. It may not make the honeys flock but you can be a part of my church.
o snap, id carpe that shyte fo’ shizzle if i wuz u.
Unless you’re after a job in a highly technical field (electrical engineering, say), your undergraduate degree is a sign to potential employers that you are capable of learning, not that you’ve been trained to work for them. In my work, of the four Unix system administrators only one, our boss, has a degree at all related to computing. The other three are psychology (focus on brain chemistry), history (Byzantine) and meteorology. I know a programmer whose degree is music composition. This is the rule, not the exception.
Study the classics. It’s as much training for work as any other major (again, unless you plan to become a doctor or a rocket scientist, where a view to graduate school is in order).
What do you want to do as a career? That should help you decide which major to pick. What do you really love to do? That should help you decide what career to pick.
Silly young people are in the process of applying to universities round these parts, and they literally look through a large directory of courses and pick the ones which they… “wouldn’t mind” doing and which, naturally, have sufficiently low entrance requirements. I do not understand their lack of consideration for how they will spend the next three years of their lives which in turn will shape their futures. By contrast I was set on the Classics and none of this Classical Studies trollop after my decision that Sciences whether medical or engineering or physics would have made me miserable. You can’t really change what you are designed to do. Do that at which you are most strong and which you love.
By contrast I was set on the Classics and none of this Classical Studies trollop after my decision that Sciences whether medical or engineering or physics would have made me miserable.
I’m glad that you worked through your dilemma, E., and even happier that you’ll be studying classics. How is the Cambridge process moving?
