Dr Jacob Currie
Fellow
Welcome to Classics at Girton College. On this page, you will find key information about the Girton Classics students, Girton's resources for Classicists, guidance on admissions and super-curriculars, course information, career destinations and relevant Girton Fellows.
Why choose Classics at Girton?
The Students
The Girton Classics community usually consists of between 10 and 15 undergraduates across four years, plus graduates, and is notably strong in inter-year support, fostered by termly whole-cohort academic events. We welcome students for all strands of the Classics Tripos and MML with an ancient language. The student Classics society is named after Agnata Ramsay, the only candidate in 1887 to be placed in the first division of the First Class of the Classics Tripos examination, an achievement honoured with a cartoon in Punch. Girton Classicists are often leaders in wider College, Classics Faculty and University communities.
Resources
A donor-funded grant for relevant book purchases is available every year to all Girton Classicists. There are also bursaries for those eligible, competitive funds for travel to Classical lands, and help with pre-course tuition if your offer demands it. We are the only college to have an antiquities museum, the Lawrence Room, comprising material found on the College site and donations from across the ancient world. The star is Hermione Grammatikē, a Roman portrait mummy, excavated by William Flinders Petrie in the Fayum early in 1911. Students have the option to be trained as volunteer curators.
With active Fellows specialised in both Greek (Dr Helen Van Noorden, Director of Studies) and Latin (Dr Jacob Currie), much of the supervision in literature and language is currently covered in College. A distinctive feature of first year Girton classics supervisions is the variety of assignments, which build into the programme the development of presentation skills, collaboration and critical research skills. The Director of Studies aims to tailor supervisions for each student, drawing in experts across Cambridge.
- No. of students admitted per year: 4
- Entry requirements: All entry requirements are A-Level standard or equivalent, unless otherwise stated. For the three-year course, Latin or Classical Greek to A-Level is required; some experience of Classical Greek is desirable, but the Intensive Greek programme caters for those beginning from scratch. Highly desirable are essay-based subjects and, particularly for those without experience of ancient languages, modern languages.
- Typical offer: A*AA
- Assessment arrangements: If invited to interview, applicants will have one of two assessments. Applicants for the three-year course will have a Latin or Greek skills assessment which takes place during one of the interviews. Applicants for the four-year course will have a separate language aptitude assessment interview run by the Faculty.
- Interview arrangements: Two interviews. If invited to interview, applicants will be asked to submit two pieces of recent, marked schoolwork (in any subject). The submitted work will be discussed in at least one of the interviews. At least one of the interviews will be focused on linguistic ability or aptitude, tailored to candidates’ experience.
The best advice we can give to prospective applicants is to read widely and absorb as much as you can about the ancient world. Note down for yourself everything that you read and what you get out of it. Follow up what you enjoy. Be curious, look up terms, events and names you encounter. Here are some further resources which many Oxford and Cambridge colleges agree are valuable:
Omnibus (archive of sixth-form magazines)
In Our Time (Radio 4), History and Culture archives
The three-year Classics Course takes account of whether you have two ancient language A-Levels or one. The four-year version of the course, whose first year focuses on Latin and then Greek, is for those who have never studied either ancient language, or who have less than A-level experience in Latin. This course is unique in the UK in enabling students to take both Latin and Classical Greek from scratch to a high level. Moreover, the Faculty and College aim to ensure that at some point in the Classics degree, whatever strand of the course students follow, they receive support to explore Classical lands first-hand.
In an eight-week term at 1A, up to four assignments will be set on topics in ancient literature and four on students’ two chosen options (two of Philosophy, Ancient History, Art and Archaeology, and Linguistics and Philology; students on the four-year course have the chance to study three or four of these options over two years). In the 1B year, students in consultation with their Director of Studies form their own programme of text-based and other modules. Assessment is through a mix of exams and coursework in every year. Until completion of Part 1B, students also have at least one learning assignment in Latin and Greek every week. At Part II, students build their own profile from a great range of more specialist modules, including papers borrowed from other Triposes. Many students choose to write a dissertation as one of their four options. Recent 1st-class scoring topics include: the philosophy of Parmenides; object-description in Hellenistic epigrams, Classical dog names, and Piranesi’s relationship with Antiquity.
Classics students go on to follow a fascinatingly diverse range of career paths. International relations, law, management, the media, the civil service, accountancy and teaching are all popular tracks. Some graduates do continue in research, both in Classics and in other disciplines, or apply their skills to work in archives, libraries and museums. Recent interviews with major employers have confirmed that they have a high opinion of Classicists as potential employees.
