classics students at oxford

dear people that got accepted to study classics at oxford (or cambridge) did you mention language in your personal statement at all?

Reply 1

Mu-tron

10

As people have probably told you, there's no fixed template or rule about what should be mentioned in a personal statement; what matters is not ticking off a checklist of things you "should" mention but mentioning all the things about you which demonstrate your academic record and ability. The main rule is that it should be mostly academic.

If you're talking about modern languages that you speak apart from English, then you can certainly mention languages that you have and how they would help you learn/improve your grasp of classical languages (depending on whether you've already started to learn them). Is that what you meant? And what are the languages you've got in mind?

Reply 2

beautifulworld

18

i didn't gain an acceptance, but if i mention language in my personal statement, i would write about how it connects to academic study at the undergraduate level. i learned this from Matt Williams' YouTube video. he is at Jesus College, Oxford. he posted a video on personal statements

Original post by aiqndj

dear people that got accepted to study classics at oxford (or cambridge) did you mention language in your personal statement at all?

Thanks for the tag @The_Lonely_Goatherd! Current Oxford Classics student here!

@Mu-tron has given some good advice. There will be people who have and who haven't mentioned language in their personal statements. I just read back mine (from about 4 years ago...!) and I only mentioned that I enjoyed studying Latin, as I'd done Latin A-Level. If you're particularly interested in/enjoy classical languages then you can talk about why you want to study these more, but I don't think you *have* to. Some people do Classics at Oxford because they love the language and others (like me!) prefer the history or literature side of things.

Reply 5

Mu-tron

10

Original post by elilast

Thanks for the tag @The_Lonely_Goatherd! Current Oxford Classics student here!

@Mu-tron has given some good advice. There will be people who have and who haven't mentioned language in their personal statements. I just read back mine (from about 4 years ago...!) and I only mentioned that I enjoyed studying Latin, as I'd done Latin A-Level. If you're particularly interested in/enjoy classical languages then you can talk about why you want to study these more, but I don't think you *have* to. Some people do Classics at Oxford because they love the language and others (like me!) prefer the history or literature side of things.

Thanks 😊 and if you ever decide to do a masters in the Oxford classics faculty and you want advice, hit me up!

(edited 7 months ago)

Reply 6

aiqndj

OP

5

thank you for the response. i am asking because my personal statement is 96% literature, ancient history and philosophy. i have two sentences about being excited to learn ancient language as i feel like what i would have to say about language is generic and not as valuable as my thoughts about other things i have read and mentioned in my personal statement.
would the fact that I take A level spanish (and might be predicted A*) and a hopefully good CLAT score be enough to demonstrate that I am suited to the course and the fact that it is heavily language based?

Original post by Mu-tron

As people have probably told you, there's no fixed template or rule about what should be mentioned in a personal statement; what matters is not ticking off a checklist of things you "should" mention but mentioning all the things about you which demonstrate your academic record and ability. The main rule is that it should be mostly academic.

If you're talking about modern languages that you speak apart from English, then you can certainly mention languages that you have and how they would help you learn/improve your grasp of classical languages (depending on whether you've already started to learn them). Is that what you meant? And what are the languages you've got in mind?

Reply 7

aiqndj

OP

5

thank you. how much of your personal statement was taken up by you talking about latin?

Original post by elilast

Thanks for the tag @The_Lonely_Goatherd! Current Oxford Classics student here!

@Mu-tron has given some good advice. There will be people who have and who haven't mentioned language in their personal statements. I just read back mine (from about 4 years ago...!) and I only mentioned that I enjoyed studying Latin, as I'd done Latin A-Level. If you're particularly interested in/enjoy classical languages then you can talk about why you want to study these more, but I don't think you *have* to. Some people do Classics at Oxford because they love the language and others (like me!) prefer the history or literature side of things.

Reply 8

elilast

12

Original post by aiqndj

thank you. how much of your personal statement was taken up by you talking about latin?

The only part where I mentioned specifically the language was in one phrase where I said I'd always enjoyed studying Latin at school. I also had a short paragraph on Catullus, and one on my interest in translation of ancient literature, but didn't directly talk about the language at all apart from that.

From what you've said above, in my non-expert opinion it sounds fine. If you want to learn the languages to get more of an insight into ancient history and literature I would think that'd be a perfectly decent explanation which you could give in an interview if they ask more about it!

Reply 9

elilast

12

Original post by Mu-tron

Thanks 😊 and if you ever decide to do a masters in the Oxford classics faculty and you want advice, hit me up!

Ah thank you, I might indeed take you up on that!

Reply 10

Mu-tron

10

It's been a long time since I wrote a personal statement, but as I said, there's no one way to write it, so I wouldn't worry about writing about Latin the same amount as other people have done. I think if you mention that you enjoy learning languages and that your Spanish will help you with Latin (which it massively will - you'll smash the imperfect tense for one thing, as it's virtually identical) that's fine as it is.

classics students at oxford

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