Are you a freshman or new major?
First-year students admitted to Georgetown through the Faculty of Languages and Linguistics (FLL) and transfer students declare a major immediately and are assigned a faculty advisor in Classics. Other students declare a major during the sophomore year.
Students interested in any one of our four major concentrations (Latin, Greek, Latin and Greek, and Classical Studies) should begin taking Latin, Greek, or both languages as soon as possible in their undergraduate careers. Students starting Latin or Greek at the Beginning level especially should plan to take Beginning Latin or Beginning Greek as early in their undergraduate careers as possible—don’t wait until junior or senior year!
The department's Latin Placement exam is given every year during New Student Orientation (NSO) and is intended to place incoming students who have already taken Latin into the correct level of Latin at Georgetown (Beginning, Intermediate, or Advanced). We have no placement exam in ancient Greek; students who have taken Greek before coming to Georgetown should consult with either the Chair or the faculty member teaching Greek at the level that seems correct, and we will help with placement.
Students planning to major in Classical Studies at Georgetown should take at least two 100-level courses in Classical Studies (Greek or Latin literature, ancient history, or Classical archaeology) during the freshman and sophomore year.
Students interested in ancient history should, if possible, take all three 100-level ancient history courses (History of Ancient Greece, Roman History: Republic, and Roman History: Empire).
Students interested in Classical archaeology should take both Introduction to Greek Archaeology and Introduction to Roman Archaeology.
Classical Studies courses at the 100-level offer chronologically-broad introductory overviews to their subjects. These 100-level surveys provide an excellent foundation for further study. Our 200-level courses are typically more specialized in their thematic focus than the 100-level surveys, and they require more in-depth reading and writing. Classical Studies majors should also plan to take at least one 300-level or 400-level seminar in the department, preferably during the junior year of the first semester of the senior year. Seminars typically meet once a week and include extensive reading, oral presentations, and a long research paper.