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History or Classical Studies/Civilisation?

Hi! I've just started my A Levels (in Y12 but have started Y13 content) and have found myself torn about what I want to study at university. I currently study both History and Classical Studies as A Levels and love them both. We've started writing personal statements at school now which is what has pushed me to decide.

Does anyone have any advice about how to make a decision? I'd love to hear from anyone who studies either subject at university!

Thank you :smile:
Hi :hello:

One of our former History students recently wrote a TSR Post on 5 Points about our History course - you might find this helpful in gaining some perspective on what it's like to study History at uni.

I hope this helps! If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

Melissa :biggrin:
(edited 2 years ago)
Hey, a couple things you might want to consider: there are lots of fairly different classical civ degrees you can do, with more or less philosophy or anthropology components for example, so you might want to look at that in more detail (you could find one with lots of history even!). You could also as well take Classics and study the Latin and Ancient Greek languages from scratch if that might interest you. Similarly for History, what the degree is like will depend a lot on where you do it, so having a look at the courses at unis you're interested in could be useful. You still have loads of time to decide.
Good luck :smile:
Reply 3
Sounds like a History and Ancient History degree is perfect for you! Ancient History covers Greek and Roman history as much as a classics degree does if you only take the relevant modules and you always the option to study an ancient language if you want to!
Perhaps think about what it is you like about each subject; for example, if you like the subject matter of classics, and the methods, although not necessarily periods, studied in a history course, then an ancient history degree might allow you to study the periods you are interested in using historical methodologies. If however you are interested in the periods of modern history you are studying, but enjoy e.g. the literary or language aspects of classics, you may want to consider joint honours courses in history and languages (perhaps taking up a modern language), or history and English.

There are however courses combining ancient history and (modern) history though, up to and including Oxford (Ancient & Modern History) and Cambridge (the history course at Cambridge allows you to study ancient history as well as modern history).

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