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14/05/2012 pinion: Majoring in the classics gives students an edge | USA TODAY College

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Opinion: Majoring in the classics gives students an edge | USATODAY College

By Meghan DeMaria

When college-targeted publications feature arcles on topics like the highest-paying colleg

majors or the college majors that are most like

to land you a job, things do not always look to

good for people studying the humanities.

Humanities departments face budget cuts no

more than ever, and for small subdivisions

humanities, like classics, the future is evegrimmer. Even at top departments like the on

at the University of North Carolina at Chap

Hill, budget decreases affect the number

courses that can be offered each semester an

the number of faculty the department hires.

Sometimes, when I tell someone Im a classics major, they dont even understand wh

the department is. Classics as in classical music? Classics as in 18th century British literture? (No and no.) Classics as in Greek and Roman history? Oh, so you want to be

teacher.

People who hear someone is a classics major usually assume that person wants to be

high school Latin teacher or a college professor. While many classics majors choose

earn graduate degrees in classics and become teachers and professors, there are man

other fields that undergraduates can enter with a classics degree. But more importantl

theres a lot to be learned from classics, regardless of your profession.

Classics is a popular undergraduate major for law school students, because it teach

you to think critically and formulate arguments. Theres nothing like the speeches of th

fifth century logographer Lysias to get the legal mindset started! Many students wh

major in classics also choose to work in libraries or museums.

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