The Modern Languages Association has twice, since 2011, named UGA Classics as the largest Latin undergraduate program in the United. We are the home of Wheelocks’ Latin, the most commonly used Latin textbook in the United States, and a bastion of strength for rigorous Latin and Greek pedagogy, training our students to become high school teachers, and to pursue further graduate study at the PhD level. 

In addition to study of the Classical Languages and Literatures, faculty from the UGA Classics Department can also provide instruction in ancient history, Egyptology, Sanskrit and Indo-European Linguistics, Late Antique North Africa, the archaeology of Anatolia and the Eastern Mediterranean, environmental history, and a wide range of ancient Indo-European languages. For those wishing to contextualize their study within the Classics context, UGA Classics offers a course in the comparative grammar of Greek and Latin

Historically, all of our MA graduates who have wanted jobs teaching high school Latin, have found them. We have placed graduates at top public and private high schools across the United States. Many of the current Latin teachers at high schools in the southeast, in particular, are our former students. There are 300 high schools in the southeast United States alone, with some 20-30 jobs posted annually: this is a relatively small market, but it is a market that UGA has dominated. Our graduates have also found employment in publishing, law, and museums, among other fields.

We also place our best MA students in top PhD programs. Our MA graduates in recent years have been accepted to PhD programs at UCLA, Harvard, Cornell, Wisconsin, Indiana, and the University of Texas.

Some of our MA graduates have gone on to hold professorships at universities across the country or internationally, including at Oxford University, the Ohio State University, Emory, Bowdoin, William and Mary, the University of California at Davis, the University of South Carolina, Skidmore College, and the University of Georgia.

The deadline is 15 January, every year.

See here < https://www.classics.uga.edu/applicants> for a list of required materials. Applications are made via the UGA Graduate School here < https://grad.uga.edu/admissions/apply-now/> .

We require a minimum of two years undergraduate coursework in Latin and/or Greek to be accepted. Funded assistantships that cover tuition, and which provide a stipend to help with living expenses, are limited in number. Therefore, students with the best chances of receiving a funded offer will often have more than the required two years of study in Latin and/or Greek. We set this minimum background in the ancient languages because our MA students need to be ready for reading at the graduate level, and because MA students often teach their own sections of undergraduate Latin 1001 during their second year.

We would advise you to find ways to study and build further proficiency before applying again in another year. Online courses in Latin or Greek are inconsistent in quality: all too often, frankly, they may be happy to take your money and give you an A without building real skills in reading and translation. For that reason, please check with the Director of Graduate Studies and the Elementary Languages Program Coordinator if you would like online credits to be considered for your application to our program.

It is theoretically possible that you could apply and be accepted with only Greek, but this has not happened in recent memory. Far more common is a student applying with only Latin, and little Greek: this is acceptable, and it means that your area of emphasis would be Latin only. You would also have the opportunity to take introductory and perhaps advanced Greek, if you wished.

No, there is not a requirement for modern languages for admission to the graduate program in Classics at UGA for the MA. Demonstration of reading proficiency in at least one modern language is a requirement for graduating with the MA in Classics at UGA. Learning French, German, and Italian is important for PhD study in Classics, Mediterranean Archaeology or Ancient History, etc. and we will help you find ways to learn at least one of those languages while you are studying here, as needed. 

If you are an undergraduate reading this, and you are interested in studying Classics at the graduate level later, one of the best things you can do is to learn German, French, and Italian as soon as possible. This will significantly improve your research, and thereby increase your odds of success for graduate applications in the future.

Besides the standard stuff—educational and employment history, the title and advisor of your thesis if you wrote one, professional development activities, and so forth—we are especially interested to read a succinct list of relevant coursework that you’ve taken as an undergraduate [LATN 4080: Roman Historians, GREK 4010: Homer, or etc.], and a list of works you’ve read in the original language. This can include excerpts.

GRE scores are optional. Most applicants do not submit them.

We require three letters of recommendation: these should be from professors with whom you have studied closely in the languages, and in history or culture and archaeology etc., and for whom you have written research papers. Ask your recommenders at least one month before the application deadline, if not earlier. Ideally, provide your recommenders with a list of schools and programs to which you’d like to apply, their deadlines, and rationale for your choices.

No. The director of graduate studies is, however, happy to schedule a call and talk with you, if you have any outstanding questions about applying!

No. Applications and offers of acceptance or assistantship from UGA Classics are valid only for the year in which they are received.

Absolutely! We’d love it if you came to visit. Typically, we make arrangements for prospective MA students to stay for a night or two with current students. They can help guide you around campus, take you to join seminars with professors, introduce you to people, and so forth. This is the best way to give you a real sense of what our department is like: much better than staying in a hotel by yourself!

If you have been accepted with an assistantship, it can also sometimes be possible for us to help you with arrangements for a flight and a shuttle from the Atlanta airport, in addition to making arrangements for you to stay overnight with some current graduate students.

The primary means of financial support for the MA in Classics at UGA is called an assistantship. These are offered on a competitive basis to our top-ranked candidates, and they include coverage of tuition costs, and a stipend that helps with living expenses (in 2025 around ~$16,000 divided over nine months). The assistantship will not cover all of your expenses, so plan accordingly.

There are additional mechanisms for students to add income to their assistantship stipends: namely, our department typically needs graduate teaching assistants to serve as graders during the summer, and TAs for Study Abroad programs. Both are paid roles, assigned on a competitive basis. Further, our students may be nominated for an array of campus-wide fellowships, including the Graduate School Master’s Fellow Award <https://grad.uga.edu/scholarship-and-fellowship-awards/graduate-school-masters-fellow-awards/>.

Our deadline for applications is 15 January, every year. We then print out all the applications, circulate them among faculty, and meet as a group to make decisions about two things. First, we decide who should be accepted into the program, e.g. who meets the requirements for admission. Second, we rank all those who have been accepted, to determine who should receive an offer of an assistantship. Individuals who receive the offer of an assistantship have until 15 April to make their decision: this is a universal deadline for all graduate programs in the United States. It sometimes happens that the top-ranked candidates for the MA in Classics at UGA will also receive an offer for funded PhD study somewhere fantastic: in these cases, we will continue to make assistantship offers to qualified candidates in the order in which they appear on our ranked list. Sometimes this process can continue into May. The director of graduate studies for UGA Classics will be in communication with accepted candidates, and can usually offer some information about your relative chances of ultimately being offered an assistantship.

Unfortunately no, our department cannot independently support or assist with visas for international applicants: all such inquiries should be routed through UGA’s Office of Global Engagement < https://globalengagement.uga.edu/immigration/international-students/prospective-international-students/ > .  

The Director of Graduate Studies maintains a Google Doc that has helpful resources and suggestions for many questions related to this topic, here < https://docs.google.com/document/d/1h_OZNH_suQdbIwEgd3BSRWwraenhNNOL2ITvNsjhIAI/edit?tab=t.0 >.

“Being accepted” means your application for study has been approved by the graduate faculty: you meet the requirements for admission into our program. This is distinct and separate from “being offered an assistantship”: an assistantship is an agreement that you will work for the department as a grader and/or instructor in exchange for coverage of your tuition costs, and the provision of a stipend (in 2025 about $16,000) that helps to cover living expenses. The number of assistantships we have available fluctuates from year-to-year. Typically, we receive about forty applications every year, and can offer perhaps 5-7 assistantships.

If you have been accepted but not offered an assistantship for study towards the MA in Classics at UGA, you have the option of paying tuition. Tuition rates vary from year to year. On some exceptional occasions, the department may petition the college so that a student may pay at an in-state rate for tuition, regardless of their legal address.

Assistantships include a remission of tuition to $25 per term (meaning the entire value of tuition is covered by your assistantship, except for a nominal fee of $25). Assistantships also include a stipend, or monthly payments, that can help cover living expenses. As of 2025, the assistantship was $16,137.80: its value is set by the College of Arts and Sciences, not the Department of Classics. Some fees mandated by the University are not covered by the assistantship.

No. Health insurance is not provided by the University of Georgia. Graduate students must have coverage, however: whether provided by your parents’ plan, if you are 26 years of age or younger, or otherwise.

Stipends are paid at the end of each month between August and May. Note that August and May are lesser, pro-rated amounts, because you do not work the entirety of these months.

The standard annual stipend does not cover June or July. However, some summer funding is available on a competitive basis for students who are selected to work as Graduate Teaching Assistants as graders for our summer courses, or with our department’s study abroad programs. The number and monetary value of these assistantships changes from year-to-year.

Yes! The UGA Graduate School offers funding for graduate student travel every semester, and the Department of Classics can also help in some situations. Look carefully at the deadlines for funding opportunities, and talk to the Director of Graduate Studies: watch for related emails! Be prepared to submit a funding request that includes your reason for attending, the title and abstract of your paper with confirmation of its acceptance to whichever event, and anticipated expenses.

If you have moved to Athens and are funded by an assistantship to study at UGA for the MA, it is the Department of Classics’ position that your studies with us should come first. We also understand, realistically, that you may need to hold an outside job. It is your responsibility to balance these obligations, and to communicate with your professors. As noted elsewhere in this FAQ: assistantships are granted on a competitive basis, requiring “satisfactory progress” towards the degree and completion of your thesis, and will not be renewed beyond the normal two academic years required for the MA.

The MA in Classics at UGA consists of 36 hours of coursework. Because courses are typically three hours each, this means three seminars (equals nine credit hours) per semester. Four fall/spring semesters in two years, at nine credit hours each, equals the 36 hours required in total.

There are a few other departmental requirements that do not count towards the 36 hours: namely, a GradF1rst proseminar that discusses how to be a graduate student at Georgia and in our department, proseminars concerning Latin pedagogy (LATN 7770, during your first year), a research and writing workshop (CLAS 7010 also during your first year) that helps with progress on the MA thesis, and study of a modern foreign language (typically French, German, or Italian).

We offer concentrations in Classical Languages (Latin and Greek), Latin, and Greek. Each have slightly different requirements, totaling 36 hours of coursework. See links for each form. https://www.classics.uga.edu/graduate-student-forms

Before your first fall semester begins, you will meet with the Director of Graduate Studies and talk about your intentions for the MA in Classics – do you want to teach high school Latin? Pursue a PhD later? Something else? – and decide which courses to take. Typically, each semester students will take at least three seminars (equals nine credit hours) on whichever topics are of interest or available.

In addition to the three seminars each semester, students during their first year will take the GradF1rst proseminar (1 credit hour in fall), the CLAS 7010 Research and Writing for Classics (2 credits in spring), and LATN 7770 for Latin Pedagogy (3 credit hours total, 2 in fall and 1 in spring).

We strongly encourage students to take a fourth seminar in either or both the fall and spring term of their first year, and to consider taking courses over the summer as well (whose tuition cost is covered by your assistantship). Taking additional courses during the first year means you will have more time in your schedule during the second year, which will be busy with writing your MA thesis and teaching your own introductory Latin classes!

During the second year of your MA in Classics at UGA, you will again typically take three seminars (nine credit hours) each semester. You will teach your own section of introductory Latin (LATN 1001). And you will write and defend your MA thesis. The UGA Graduate School sets its own deadlines for completion of all requirements: you will need to pay careful attention to these deadlines, and communicate with your major professor / thesis advisor to make satisfactory progress.

It can be helpful to think backwards from the Graduate School deadlines. Note for instance that, according to the Graduate School deadlines from the 2026 Spring term, the Final Thesis Defense Approval Form and a corrected copy of the thesis itself must be submitted by 13 April. That means you need to defend your thesis no later than early April, in order to have time to make final changes and submit the final revised version of your thesis before 13 April. And that means you need to have turned in the last chapter of the thesis to your thesis advisor no later than the beginning of March, so that they have time to make edits and suggestions, and you have time to execute those suggested changes, before it can be defended with the committee, and submitted to the university.

Yes! Classics enthusiastically supports graduate students taking classes during the summer, especially after their first year. This frees up time to write your thesis and teach Latin during the second year of the MA, which is always quite busy, especially if you intend also to apply for PhD programs.

The director of graduate studies advises all graduate students on coursework and degree progress. They will meet with you every semester to help you decide courses to take, and to make plans for graduation. At the beginning of the spring term during your first year, you will also decide who your “major professor” is: the major professor advises you on your MA thesis, which is a requirement of the MA in Classics at Georgia. The major professor also advises you on professional development, job hunting, future PhD study, and so forth.

No: thesis topics in Classics (at Georgia or anywhere else for that matter) are not assigned by faculty. It is your responsibility to develop a topic: this requires extensive reading and time in the library, to identify a subject of significance or interest that you are willing to work on for the next 15 or so months. The GradF1rst proseminar and the CLAS 7010 Research and Writing proseminar will help you understand the expectations for the formation of a thesis proposal, or prospectus, the formation of your thesis committee, and the production of the thesis itself.

Beside the Director of Graduate Studies, who serves as an advisor to all graduate students for procedural questions, you also have a “major professor” or “thesis advisor”. This is a faculty member who teaches graduate classes in the Department of Classics at the University of Georgia.

The thesis committee is, then, composed of your “major professor” or “thesis advisor” and two more faculty members. The second also must be a professor in the Department of Classics at the University of Georgia. The third can potentially be a faculty member from another department, who has expertise on your thesis topic, or it can be a professor in the department who does not necessarily teach graduate level seminars.

The identity of all three individuals is a matter of your choice, and their willingness: you should pick faculty with whom you have studied and developed a relationship, and who you think have knowledge or expertise that will help you complete your thesis. It is critically important that you communicate effectively with your committee, throughout your program of study.

First-year M.A. students assist faculty with courses as part of their assistantships: working as a teaching assistant or grading is typical. You will also take LATN 7770 with the Elementary Languages Coordinator to learn methods in Latin pedagogy. The department works hard to make sure that responsibilities are appropriate for the first year in graduate school. Obligations are reasonable and not onerous. Some second-year M.A. students also assist faculty, but many of them have the chance to teach their own sections of Beginning Latin under the direction of the Elementary Languages Coordinator, depending on the needs of the department.

UGA’s Graduate School maintains a current list of all deadlines and forms that need to be submitted for graduation. You will note that these dates and forms are mostly related to the completion of your coursework and thesis, which are completed at the departmental level with our faculty in Classics, but which need to be documented and approved by the Graduate School in order to actually get your degree.

Twelve hours of the thirty-six required for the MA are “electives”: in consultation with the Director of Graduate Studies, you can take courses related to Ancient Mediterranean studies or your thesis from nearly any department on campus: Anthropology, History, Religious Studies, Linguistics, Art History, Philosophy, Comparative Literature, etc. often will offer courses that may relate to your studies, and which can contribute to your degree requirements.

If you are on an assistantship, you are free to take literally any course on campus without paying tuition, but if it is unrelated to your field of study then it may not contribute to your degree requirements. In the past, our students have taken courses on Bronze Casting for Sculpture, music, pedagogy, various languages, etc. that were of personal interest but did not necessarily contribute to hours for their MA.

Whether or not a course contributes to your degree requirements is at the discretion of the Director for Graduate Studies. In some cases, you may be asked to provide a written statement as to why a given elective should count towards your degree, along with that course’s syllabus, which can be forwarded to the graduate faculty of Classics for a vote.

Two academic years. The normal calendar is that students begin in August of year one, and finish in May of year two.

If you received an assistantship to support your studies, it will not be extended beyond the normal two academic years. As is typical nationally, the UGA Graduate School requires “continuous enrollment”: this means that if you take longer than the prescribed two academic years to complete an MA, you will pay tuition and fees every semester until it is completed. If you have completed all your coursework but the thesis has not been finished, as sometimes happens, then you will pay for three credit hours plus fees for every semester until you graduate.

“Satisfactory academic progress” means that you are completing coursework and major deadlines as expected, on time. Failure to make satisfactory progress – accumulating incompletes from coursework, failing to keep obligations and responsibilities, for instance – can lead to academic probation and dismissal from the program, and/or the termination of your assistantship.

All first year graduate students take a year-long Latin Teaching Methods which prepares them to teach in our Elementary Latin Program during their second.

Depending on the needs of the department, students who are selected to teach in our Latin program, will begin teaching their own sections of LATN 1001 during the fall semester of their second year.

MA students who teach Latin in their second year are supervised by the Elementary Language Program Coordinator. The LATN 7770 Pedagogy courses, which provide training for the teaching year, are taken during the first two semesters of the MA.

TA's are observed each semester by the Elementary Languages Program Coordinator.

The Elementary Latin Program uses Wheelock's Latin, 38 Latin Stories, and Ovid's Metamorphoses: A Reader for Students in Elementary College Latin.

MA students are contracted to work, by the terms of their assistantships, for 13 hours per week.

No. Our graduate students do not teach Greek to undergraduates.

Yes! You can find the UGA Classics MA Student handbook  here.

The Graduate School maintains an extensive library of relevant policies.

The University of Georgia has one of the best libraries for the study of the ancient Mediterranean in the southeast United States. See a list of resources maintained by our librarians here.