Classics & English with no experience?

Hey everyone,

I'm a Year 12 student taking AS Levels in English Literature, French, German, and History. I'm predicted AAAA and my specific strength is English. I've started to think about applying for an English & Classics joint honours degree at somewhere like Bristol. The course info says that you don't need to know Latin or Greek and can learn it from scratch, but I'm wondering how I'd cope and how I'd compare with other students. There are only 8 places - what if I'm the only student with no experience of the Classics? I know you can teach yourself a little but I honestly don't know if I'm going to have time. I've always wanted to learn Latin but my school is an average comprehensive that doesn't offer it.

Advice would be appreciated

The fact that your school does not offer Classics means that it should not prejudice your application to study them, but you may need to do some self-teaching before you go to uni, if you are accepted. You study French which will help you with Latin; French, as a Romance language, derives from Latin and often one can see how the French word comes from the root Latin word. This is even more apparent for students of Italian.

I have only studied Latin very briefly so cannot comment, but I know that it has a case system (as does German). Greek is more difficult - the alphabet must be mastered before you can get any further. My advice would be, however, to look into learning a little of each on your own time to gain a better idea of whether you'd really want to do a degree involving Classics.

Yes, I was hoping that my languages experience would be useful for studying Classics. Do you know what would happen if I applied for Joint Honours and didn't get in? Would they consider me for English on its own? I know that Oxford does that.

I think it really depends on the different universities. I applied for a Joint Honours this year (History & French). I received an e-mail from Durham asking me if I wanted to be considered for a different course because whilst they wanted to accept me for History, they didn't for Languages. Really, I think it depends on the individual university which is perhaps something you could ask if/when you go to open days.

Have you any universities in mind at the present moment? You mentioned Oxford; I think a higher proportion of candidates applying there would have previous experience in Classics, but I may be wrong.

Yeah, I couldn't apply for English & Classics at Oxford because you have to have studied Latin or Ancient Greek at A-Level. At the moment I'm thinking of English at Oxford and UCL, and English & Classics at Bristol, Durham, and either Leeds or St Andrews. The only thing is though that I'm not sure what I'd put for Classics in my personal statement, having only studied Greek mythology at primary school... I don't have any sort of track record.

Yeah, I couldn't apply for English & Classics at Oxford because you have to have studied Latin or Ancient Greek at A-Level. At the moment I'm thinking of English at Oxford and UCL, and English & Classics at Bristol, Durham, and either Leeds or St Andrews. The only thing is though that I'm not sure what I'd put for Classics in my personal statement, having only studied Greek mythology at primary school... I don't have any sort of track record.

yeah i got accepted to oxford this year to do C&E and i haven't studied latin before.

in terms of writing for PS it might be worth going on a general classics summer school like the one at Repton (which you can find here: http://www.jact.org/summer_schools.html)

yeah i got accepted to oxford this year to do C&E and i haven't studied latin before.

in terms of writing for PS it might be worth going on a general classics summer school like the one at Repton (which you can find here: http://www.jact.org/summer_schools.html)

What's C and E like? Do/did you you find yourself with a much larger workload than people studying single honours? Am I right in thinking the application process involves separate interviews for Classics and for English?

Thanks for your tim

Hiya, just wondering what your experience of the application process was for classics and english and how you got in? I’m torn between English Lit, English and Classics or just straight Classics. I love English to death and loved Latin GCSE, and though I don’t have any classical a levels (my school doesn’t offer them), I did a Classics summer school run by Wadham College and fell in love with it again. I’d really love to apply for English and Classics, but the course is so competitive with only 13 spots I don’t know if it’s worth it since there’s such a high chance of rejection even for competent students, and I loved my week at Oxford so much that I will be really sad if I don’t get in—how likely do you think it is that they’d let me switch to Classics and English in the first term if I got in on English? I would have to do the Classics II course so I wouldn’t want to wait a whole first year of English before switching since then I’d be spending 5 years there! The other option (if I don’t go for English and Classics) would be to apply for Classics and switch to Classics and English after the first year of learning Latin and Greek, but I feel slightly less confident about applying. TLDR: how did you manage the application and getting in on such a competitive course, and how likely would they be to let me switch to Classics and English if I managed to get in on English Lit?

I don't know if you managed to get into Oxford or not, but did you at least get a reply about the C&E course? I'm thinking of doing it when I get into y13 next year

Hiya, just wondering what your experience of the application process was for classics and english and how you got in? I’m torn between English Lit, English and Classics or just straight Classics. I love English to death and loved Latin GCSE, and though I don’t have any classical a levels (my school doesn’t offer them), I did a Classics summer school run by Wadham College and fell in love with it again. I’d really love to apply for English and Classics, but the course is so competitive with only 13 spots I don’t know if it’s worth it since there’s such a high chance of rejection even for competent students, and I loved my week at Oxford so much that I will be really sad if I don’t get in—how likely do you think it is that they’d let me switch to Classics and English in the first term if I got in on English? I would have to do the Classics II course so I wouldn’t want to wait a whole first year of English before switching since then I’d be spending 5 years there! The other option (if I don’t go for English and Classics) would be to apply for Classics and switch to Classics and English after the first year of learning Latin and Greek, but I feel slightly less confident about applying. TLDR: how did you manage the application and getting in on such a competitive course, and how likely would they be to let me switch to Classics and English if I managed to get in on English Lit?