Need help/ advice on ancient history at uni

Hey,
I'm looking at studying ancient history (possibly with medieval history) at uni but would like advice or help from those who have or are looking to study it themselves - things like why they have picked certain unis over others.

Favourite unis so far are Reading, Royal Holloway and Cardiff however I like the idea of being close to London.

Any feedback will be appreciated

Thanks,

Harrison

There's a wiki article that might be of interest - although not specifically about ancient history, there's relevant material just the same. TSR Wiki: History Degree

Thanks for the reply I'll have a read through. Are you a history or ancient history student yourself?

Ah... That'd be telling


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Hey,
I'm looking at studying ancient history (possibly with medieval history) at uni but would like advice or help from those who have or are looking to study it themselves - things like why they have picked certain unis over others.

Favourite unis so far are Reading, Royal Holloway and Cardiff however I like the idea of being close to London.

Any feedback will be appreciated

Thanks,

Harrison

Hi there. I'm going to be studying ancient history too. If you want to stay relatively close to London, there's Bristol and Exeter too. They aren't extremely close, but it's most likely doable.


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Hi there. I'm going to be studying ancient history too. If you want to stay relatively close to London, there's Bristol and Exeter too. They aren't extremely close, but it's most likely doable.


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I think that's possibly your American perspective? To most UK students, Exeter and London mght as well be on different continents!

Ah nice do you know when and where you're going yet?

I think that's possibly your American perspective? To most UK students, Exeter and London mght as well be on different continents!

Indeed. Haha. Maybe it's the availability of trains over much of England that make it seem more realistic to me.


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I'm from Portsmouth so the distance seems like quite a lot aha

I think Americans are used to travelling long distances within their country, or even within their own state, so when they see a map of the UK they think every journey must be short!

OP - how close to London is reasonable - either in distance or travel time?

I think Americans are used to travelling long distances within their country, or even within their own state, so when they see a map of the UK they think every journey must be short!

OP - how close to London is reasonable - either in distance or travel time?

I mentioned Cardiff as it's got good rugby links but preferably not much further away than Reading or Royal Holloway are

What about being in London? KCL and UCL both offer ancient history. I'd rather not be in London, so I'm not applying to them (although King's has a module on my favourite topic). But what's right off one person isn't always the same for everyone else!


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I just finished my ancient history degree, what sort of things did you want to know? I chose Manchester based purely on the course - it just offered more of what I was interested in. I did the same for choosing where to apply for my MA - Cardiff has an amazing course IMO (though I don't know about the BA - I last looked at that 4 years ago so it's likely changed since!).

For an undergrad degree it was also nice to go somewhere that had a proper Classics department (i.e. that taught the literature too, rather than just focussing on the history) because I found that to be a nice insight into the sources and helped me learn more about the subject. Of course, as a general rule, on ancient history degrees those sorts of modules are optional.

Hey, thanks for replying only just checked this so sorry for the late reply. What other unis did you look at as well as Manchester? I live in Portsmouth so Manchester is quite a way away from here aha. Do you know much about the undergraduate course at Cardiff (for either ancient history on it's own or combined with medieval)
Thanks again, Harrison

I looked at Cardiff, Birmingham, Bristol, and Durham. I'm afraid I know nothing of Cardiff's undergrad course now - I looked at it 4 years ago and as academics come and go, courses can change a lot.

Of course when you get to uni you may find that what you thought you were actually interested in is way off base (before uni I thought I was most interested in Greek politics, turns out I MUCH prefer Rome in general and particularly Roman social history), but all unis will make sure that you get a good grounding in both Greek and Roman history.