Y12 hoping to study Classics at uni - tips?

I’m in Y12 and studying a level Latin, English Lit and History, and am hoping to study Classics at uni (possibly Oxbridge). What can I do now to build up my personal statement and increase my knowledge of the subject so I can hopefully go on to study Classics at one of these places (I know they are very competitive so I will need plenty of things to set me apart from other applicants). Any book recommendations/ podcasts or other things I can do would be good, or anything in general about studying Classics would help a lot!

I’m in Y12 and studying a level Latin, English Lit and History, and am hoping to study Classics at uni (possibly Oxbridge). What can I do now to build up my personal statement and increase my knowledge of the subject so I can hopefully go on to study Classics at one of these places (I know they are very competitive so I will need plenty of things to set me apart from other applicants). Any book recommendations/ podcasts or other things I can do would be good, or anything in general about studying Classics would help a lot!

Hi, I'm studying Classics (IIA) at Oxford as we speak!
Here's what I put on my PS, if that inspires you -
Natalie Haynes - I went to see her a couple of her talks, but I also listened to her podcast (Natalie Haynes Stands Up For The Classics) and I've read a couple of her books
Sappho - Anne Carson's "If not, Winter" translation
Oedipus the King & Antigone - Robert Fagles' translation
Ovid's Metamophorses - I've read a couple of these books but I specifically referenced Book 8 on mine, mentioning a line from it & an OpenLearn course I did on Icarus (this is free and I did it specifically for my personal statement)
Medea, Antigone, and Phaedra at the National Theatre - you can see these recorded - I slandered Phaedra in my personal statement and went on to say I read Seneca's Phaedra (theoi translation; it's free online, I did this for my PS)
UCL's 2023 performance of Plato's Symposium
I mentioned some ancient language summer schools on mine because I was coming in with no ancient languages - you can either mention some extra Latin or some translations you did on your own (if there's a competition you can enter to provide solid proof, even better, but not necessary) or let your Latin A Level carry you
I mentioned some specific bits of Roman history also and that I did some presentations on this for my school's History Society - I will say that you can probably lie about this because they never once checked - I then mentioned Barry Strauss' The Death Of Caesar which is a v good book and I would recommend
I mentioned my EPQ (which was on Knossos) and visiting an exhibition at the Ashmolean also!
The content isn't everything - a lot of it I did v late for my PS and I hadn't necessarily read books cover to cover - it's about picking specific details out and analysing it - I had mine split introduction/plays/ancient languages/Roman history/conclusion - you want both breadth and depth
I can send my PS if anyone wants to read it, and if anyone wants more help, let me know!

Hi! I can’t seem to message you privately but is there any way I could see your ps? Also I’m doing a personal statement on the Minoans so probably very similar to yours

Hi! I can’t seem to message you privately but is there any way I could see your ps? Also I’m doing a personal statement on the Minoans so probably very similar to yours

The first time I read Sappho poetry, I was consumed by emotion so fierce I had to set down ‘If Not, Winter’ in order to cry. When I read Oedipus the King, I was barely able to prevent myself from screaming at him to stop asking questions, and I have entertained the daydream of being a part of the dinner in Plato’s Symposium; “the father, a father no more” in Book 8 of Ovid’s Metamorphoses was a devastating use of language, leading me to do an OpenLearn course on Icarus. To me, the classical world is captivating, indulging my love of literature, poetry, and theatre, and I am attracted to the breadth of topics that can be studied in a classics degree, particularly ancient languages and history.
As an actor myself, I have an interest in Greek plays, the first I saw being modern interpretations of Medea and Antigone at the National Theatre, using original scripts. This was followed by Phaedra with a modern script, which followed no coherent plotline and lacked the moral messages found in Greek plays. This led me to read the original, curious to see if Roman theatre wasn’t as good as Greek theatre, and discovered that I enjoyed Seneca’s Phaedra; it gives her more autonomy than Euripides’ Hippolytus and casts her in the now well-known archetype of the wicked stepmother that’s prevalent in famous fairy tales like Cinderella. However, I also enjoy original versions of plays: Plato’s Symposium (UCL 2023) was interesting due to its depiction of love in the Greek world, my favourites being Aristophanes’ and Alcibiades’ monologues. The presentation of desire is what I find fascinating about Metamorphoses, Sappho, and Phaedra – it reminds me that ancient people were still human.
It’s not only the literature I find fascinating about classics, but also languages. My school didn’t teach ancient languages, but my favourite is Latin, which I first studied at the 2021 Academus summer school (alongside Greek literature and Roman history). After my 2022 UCL Latin summer school, my tutor’s report said I had a natural linguistic ability and would be well-suited to continuing to university level. I also look forward to learning Ancient Greek, which I studied in the 2023 UCL summer school, especially considering the Homeric epics were written in Ancient Greek.
I’m interested in Roman history and have been researching Roman lead poisoning, the assassination of Caesar and the Second Punic War. I’ve run sessions for my school’s History Society on Hannibal’s invasion of Rome and I find the inconsistencies between accounts to be compelling as it’s difficult to know whether Hannibal truly had the wife and son claimed by Livy and Silius and how – or if – he killed himself; these were written centuries after his death. I have also run a session on Mount Vesuvius’ eruption and will run another on Caesar closer to the Ides of March. I have read Strauss’ ‘The Death of Caesar’, which overturns the usual narrative of Brutus’ betrayal and instead shows the power struggle between Octavian, Mark Anthony, and Decimus, explaining that Brutus was a rehabilitated enemy rather than a close friend. I was also surprised to find an influential woman – Servilia – at the centre of this male power struggle.
My life is not limited to classics – I have multiple LAMDA and IDTA qualifications, have been in the Scout association since I was six, and have had short stories and poems published – but classics is a central part of my life. I visit museums, ancient sites and attend talks such as a Natalie Haynes talk on Medusa which I found inciteful, especially in the discussion of Medusa throughout time which explored her depiction in myth, none included her killing with her gaze. I am doing a second EPQ on ‘Was Knossos a matriarchal society?’, which I started after visiting the Labyrinth exhibition at the Ashmolean, as it claimed historians theorise that there may have been a matriarchal society based on the many women in their art. I look forward to studying classics at university.

The first time I read Sappho poetry, I was consumed by emotion so fierce I had to set down ‘If Not, Winter’ in order to cry. When I read Oedipus the King, I was barely able to prevent myself from screaming at him to stop asking questions, and I have entertained the daydream of being a part of the dinner in Plato’s Symposium; “the father, a father no more” in Book 8 of Ovid’s Metamorphoses was a devastating use of language, leading me to do an OpenLearn course on Icarus. To me, the classical world is captivating, indulging my love of literature, poetry, and theatre, and I am attracted to the breadth of topics that can be studied in a classics degree, particularly ancient languages and history.
As an actor myself, I have an interest in Greek plays, the first I saw being modern interpretations of Medea and Antigone at the National Theatre, using original scripts. This was followed by Phaedra with a modern script, which followed no coherent plotline and lacked the moral messages found in Greek plays. This led me to read the original, curious to see if Roman theatre wasn’t as good as Greek theatre, and discovered that I enjoyed Seneca’s Phaedra; it gives her more autonomy than Euripides’ Hippolytus and casts her in the now well-known archetype of the wicked stepmother that’s prevalent in famous fairy tales like Cinderella. However, I also enjoy original versions of plays: Plato’s Symposium (UCL 2023) was interesting due to its depiction of love in the Greek world, my favourites being Aristophanes’ and Alcibiades’ monologues. The presentation of desire is what I find fascinating about Metamorphoses, Sappho, and Phaedra – it reminds me that ancient people were still human.
It’s not only the literature I find fascinating about classics, but also languages. My school didn’t teach ancient languages, but my favourite is Latin, which I first studied at the 2021 Academus summer school (alongside Greek literature and Roman history). After my 2022 UCL Latin summer school, my tutor’s report said I had a natural linguistic ability and would be well-suited to continuing to university level. I also look forward to learning Ancient Greek, which I studied in the 2023 UCL summer school, especially considering the Homeric epics were written in Ancient Greek.
I’m interested in Roman history and have been researching Roman lead poisoning, the assassination of Caesar and the Second Punic War. I’ve run sessions for my school’s History Society on Hannibal’s invasion of Rome and I find the inconsistencies between accounts to be compelling as it’s difficult to know whether Hannibal truly had the wife and son claimed by Livy and Silius and how – or if – he killed himself; these were written centuries after his death. I have also run a session on Mount Vesuvius’ eruption and will run another on Caesar closer to the Ides of March. I have read Strauss’ ‘The Death of Caesar’, which overturns the usual narrative of Brutus’ betrayal and instead shows the power struggle between Octavian, Mark Anthony, and Decimus, explaining that Brutus was a rehabilitated enemy rather than a close friend. I was also surprised to find an influential woman – Servilia – at the centre of this male power struggle.
My life is not limited to classics – I have multiple LAMDA and IDTA qualifications, have been in the Scout association since I was six, and have had short stories and poems published – but classics is a central part of my life. I visit museums, ancient sites and attend talks such as a Natalie Haynes talk on Medusa which I found inciteful, especially in the discussion of Medusa throughout time which explored her depiction in myth, none included her killing with her gaze. I am doing a second EPQ on ‘Was Knossos a matriarchal society?’, which I started after visiting the Labyrinth exhibition at the Ashmolean, as it claimed historians theorise that there may have been a matriarchal society based on the many women in their art. I look forward to studying classics at university.

additionally 2: i was also asked about moral messages in greek plays, so i’d suggest avoiding sweeping statements like that

The first time I read Sappho’s poetry, I was consumed by emotion so fierce I had to set down ‘If Not, Winter’ to cry. When I read Oedipus the King, I had to prevent myself from screaming at him to stop asking questions; I’ve daydreamed about attending the dinner in Plato’s Symposium; I found ‘the father, a father no more’ in Book 8 of Ovid’s Metamorphoses such a devastating use of language that I followed up with an OpenLearn course on Icarus. To me, classics is captivating as it allows me to indulge my love of literature, poetry, and theatre.
As an actor myself, I find classical plays a fascinating glimpse into the origins of theatre. The first plays I saw were modern interpretations of Medea and Antigone at the National Theatre, using original scripts in translation; this was where I later saw Phaedra with a frankly abysmal modern script, following no coherent plotline and lacking the moral messages of Greek plays. This led me to read the original, curious to see if Roman theatre simply wasn’t as good as Greek theatre. I enjoyed Seneca’s Phaedra; it gives her more autonomy than Euripides’ Hippolytus and casts her in the now well-known archetype of the wicked stepmother that’s prevalent in fairy tales like Cinderella. I don’t just enjoy tragedies: I found Plato’s Symposium (UCL 2023) interesting due to its depiction of love in the Greek world, my favourites being Aristophanes’ and Alcibiades’ monologues. The presentation of desire is what I find fascinating about Metamorphoses, Sappho, and Phaedra – it reminds me that ancient people were still human.
The ancient languages are some of what I find interesting about classics; my school didn’t teach any, but my favourite is Latin, which I was introduced to as part of the 2021 Academus summer school. In my 2022 UCL Latin summer school, my tutor’s report said I had a natural linguistic ability and would be well-suited to continuing to university level. I also look forward to learning Ancient Greek, which I studied at the 2023 UCL summer school, and reading the Homeric epics in the original language.
I’m interested in Roman history and have been researching Roman lead poisoning, the assassination of Caesar, and the Second Punic War. I ran sessions for my school’s History Society on Hannibal’s invasion of Rome and I find the inconsistencies between accounts to be compelling as it’s difficult to know whether Hannibal truly had the wife and son claimed by Livy and Silius and how – or if – he killed himself; likely because these were written centuries after his death. I also ran a session on Mount Vesuvius’ eruption and will run another on Caesar for the Ides of March. I’ve read Strauss’ ‘The Death of Caesar’, which overturns the usual narrative of Brutus’ betrayal and instead shows the power struggle between Octavian, Mark Anthony, and Decimus, explaining that Brutus was a rehabilitated enemy rather than a close friend. I also was surprised to find an influential woman – Servilia – at the centre of this male power struggle.
My life isn’t limited to classics – I have multiple LAMDA and IDTA qualifications, have been in the Scout association since I was six, and have published short stories – but it’s a central part of my life. I visit museums, ancient sites, read books about classics, and attend talks such as Natalie Haynes’ Medusa talk on the distortion of the original myth. I’m also doing a second EPQ on ‘Was Knossos a matriarchal society?’, which I started after visiting the Labyrinth exhibition at the Ashmolean, as it claimed historians theorise that there was a matriarchal society due to the many women in their art. I am keen to pursue my passion for the classics at university, hopefully being able to dive deeper into it than I could alone.

So cool! Currently in the planning stages but my epq title is gonna be about the mother goddess/possible matriarchal Minoan society- can I ask the conclusion you reached in your project? Any sources you recommend? (So sorry to pester!! It’s annoying I can’t seem to message privately)

So cool! Currently in the planning stages but my epq title is gonna be about the mother goddess/possible matriarchal Minoan society- can I ask the conclusion you reached in your project? Any sources you recommend? (So sorry to pester!! It’s annoying I can’t seem to message privately)

Bibliography
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Knossos, Oxford University Press
Bookidis, N., Pemberton, E. (2015) The sanctuary of Demeter and Kore, American School of
Classical Studies at Athens
Cambridge Dictionary, (2024) Matriarchy, available online at
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/matriarchy
Cameron, M. (1971) The lady in red: a complementary figure to the ladies in blue,
Archaeological Institute of America
Caskey, L. D. (1915) A chryselephantine statuette of the Cretan snake goddess, American
Journal of Archaeology
Chadwick, J. (1973) Documents In Mycenaean Greek, Digital Library of India
Chapin, A. (2011) Gender and coalitional power in the miniature frescoes of Crete and the
Cycladic islands, Cretological Congress
Chapin, A., Shaw, M. (2006) The frescoes from the House of the Frescoes at Knossos: a
reconsideration of their architectural context and a new reconstruction of the crocus panel,
British School at Athens
Coldstream, J., Eiring, L., Foster. G. (2001) Knossos Pottery Handbook: Greek and Roman,
British School at Athens Studies
Diepenbrock, G. (2017) Art, religious artifacts support idea of Minoan matriarchy on ancient
Crete, researcher says, available at https://news.ku.edu/news/article/2017/06/09/artreligious-artifacts-support-idea-minoan-matriarchy-ancient-crete-researchersays#:~:text=Right%2C%20photo%20from%20above%20of,a%20civilization%20on%20the
%20island.
Dietrich, D. C. (1969) Peak cults and their place in Minoan religion, Franz Steiner Verlag
Downing, M. (1985) Prehistoric goddesses: the Cretan challenge, Indiana University Press
Eiser, R. (1977) Some anomalies in the myth of Ariadne, The Johns Hopkins University
Press
Evans, A. (1901) The Palace of Knossos, British School at Athens
Gaignerot-Driessen, F. (2014) Goddesses refusing to appear? Reconsidering the Late
Minoan III figures with upraised arms, The University of Chicago Press
Galanakis, Y., Tsitsa, E., Günkel-Maschek, U. (2017) The power of images: re-examining
the wall paintings from the throne room at Knossos, British School at Athens
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Athens
Gesell, G. (2010) From Knossos to Kavousi: the popularizing of the Minoan palace goddess,
The American School of Classical Studies at Athens
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Lapatin, K. (2000) Boy gods, bull leapers, and mother goddesses, The University of Chicago
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Thank you!!!!!!

Hi, I'm studying Classics (IIA) at Oxford as we speak!
Here's what I put on my PS, if that inspires you -
Natalie Haynes - I went to see her a couple of her talks, but I also listened to her podcast (Natalie Haynes Stands Up For The Classics) and I've read a couple of her books
Sappho - Anne Carson's "If not, Winter" translation
Oedipus the King & Antigone - Robert Fagles' translation
Ovid's Metamophorses - I've read a couple of these books but I specifically referenced Book 8 on mine, mentioning a line from it & an OpenLearn course I did on Icarus (this is free and I did it specifically for my personal statement)
Medea, Antigone, and Phaedra at the National Theatre - you can see these recorded - I slandered Phaedra in my personal statement and went on to say I read Seneca's Phaedra (theoi translation; it's free online, I did this for my PS)
UCL's 2023 performance of Plato's Symposium
I mentioned some ancient language summer schools on mine because I was coming in with no ancient languages - you can either mention some extra Latin or some translations you did on your own (if there's a competition you can enter to provide solid proof, even better, but not necessary) or let your Latin A Level carry you
I mentioned some specific bits of Roman history also and that I did some presentations on this for my school's History Society - I will say that you can probably lie about this because they never once checked - I then mentioned Barry Strauss' The Death Of Caesar which is a v good book and I would recommend
I mentioned my EPQ (which was on Knossos) and visiting an exhibition at the Ashmolean also!
The content isn't everything - a lot of it I did v late for my PS and I hadn't necessarily read books cover to cover - it's about picking specific details out and analysing it - I had mine split introduction/plays/ancient languages/Roman history/conclusion - you want both breadth and depth
I can send my PS if anyone wants to read it, and if anyone wants more help, let me know!

Thanks for your advice! Am I right in thinking you should specialise/ focus on an area of Classics in your personal statement rather than describing your interest in the subject as a whole? What could be some examples of topics within Classics that you could focus on?