GRADUATE PROGRAMS IN DETAIL
The Department of Classics admits students into two graduate degree-granting graduate programs:
M.A.
Ph.D.
The M.A. is a terminal master’s program whose students do not continue on to the Ph.D. Students participate in this program on a part-time or full-time basis.
Students in the Ph.D. program have been admitted to a six-year fellowship during which, subject to their satisfactory completion of the requirements at each stage, they will attain an M.A. and an M.Phil., before receiving the Ph.D. after the completion and successful oral defense of an extended research dissertation.
M.A.
The M.A. degree is earned by graduate-level work in ancient Greek, Latin, or both. Superior reading knowledge in the language(s) in question is required for admission. If only one of the languages is used for the degree, students are still expected to have completed at least one year of advanced work in the other language; transcripts of undergraduate course work are accepted as evidence that this requirement has been met.
Highly motivated and prepared students will be able to complete the degree in two semesters, but most students will do so in three; no full-time student may take longer than four semesters. Students may also enroll as part-time students. Part-time students may complete the degree in up to eight consecutive semesters. Leaves of absence that extend the time limit will only be granted in cases in which a student’s other obligations conflict unavoidably with attendance at the University. The time limit may be extended by petition in special circumstances. For more information, see the GSAS website.
Limited financial aid may be available to qualifying candidates. See the GSAS website for more information on financing the M.A.
Course Requirements
• 30 credits comprised of nine or ten courses, seven of which must be taken for graded credit
• All courses must be at the 4000-level or above
• Of these courses, students are required either to attend two semesters of the Graduate Proseminar (CLCV GR5011; 2 credits each semester) or to write a M.A. thesis under the rubric of CLPH GR5000 (4 credits). The written product of CLPH GR5000, the M.A. Thesis, is designed to supplement the work done to complete the requirements for one of the primary courses. The trajectory of the assignment for CLPH GR5000, and the details of how it will be supervised, must be approved by the DGS.
• Of the remaining courses, all except two must be in Greek (GREK) and/or Latin (LATN). The other two may be civilization courses offered by the Department or courses on the ancient world in other departments.
• The Graduate Proseminar is taken for P/F credit. Students intending to receive a grade should notify the faculty organizer in the first week of classes to discuss the grading criteria.
• Students must maintain at least a B+ average.
• Students should meet with the DGS at the beginning of each semester to review their program. In addition, a mentor who is more closely related to their academic interests will be assigned to each M.A. student.
• Two Residence Units (RU) are required for the degree. For more information about Residence Units click here.
• Although there is no modern language requirement as such, students who intend to pursue a doctoral degree in the future are advised to begin acquiring a reading knowledge of German and either French or Italian.
The Department also offers a B.A./M.A. option, which allows Columbia undergraduates to extend their B.A. into an M.A. Please contact Classics Director of Undergraduate Studies Nikolas Kakkoufa (nk2776@columbia.edu) for information and see further https://www.gsas.columbia.edu/content/bama-option.
Ph.D.
The following requirements are valid for students entering the program from Fall 2024 onward.
The Ph.D. is a degree program comprised of three stages. At the successful completion of each stage, students will be awarded the corresponding degree. The M.A. must be completed by the end of the second year. The M.Phil. must no later than the beginning of the fourth year of study. The Ph.D. must be completed no later than the end of the sixth year.
STAGE ONE: M.A.
As above, but omitting M.A. Thesis (CLPH 5000), and requiring two semesters of the Graduate Proseminar (CLCV 5011) taken for P/F credit and a passing grade on one modern language exam. In choosing courses during the M.A. students should consult the course requirements listed below for the M.Phil.
STAGE TWO: M.PHIL.
Continuation of study beyond the M.A. degree is authorized by the DGS. The M.Phil. degree is always in Classics, both Greek and Latin. Thus, coursework and examinations are related to the study of both classical languages and their literatures (including their cultural and political backgrounds). Programs of study are individually arranged in consultation with the DGS.
General Course Requirements
Four 2-credit introductory courses taken P/F during the student’s first year as follows:
FALL: Latin Reading + Greek Reading + CLCV 5100 SPRING: CLCV 5100
Another twelve courses taken for a letter grade. These must include
Greek and Latin 4100 (Survey of Greek/Latin Literature)
Greek and Latin 5139 (Greek/Latin Prose Composition)
four or more courses at 8000 level
one or more courses at 6000 level
While students may be required, or choose, to take Greek or Latin Reading Courses beyond the first two (see above), these cannot be applied toward the overall course count for the M.Phil.
NB: The M.A. (30 credits needed) needs to be fulfilled by the end of the second year and needs to include: the four introductory courses, both Surveys and Prose Comps., five further courses, and one modern language exam.
The Courses taken for the M.A. count toward the total of sixteen. (Students advancing from the M.A. to the Ph.D. do not take CLPH 5000.)
Students must maintain at least a B+ average in their graded courses.
History Requirement
Students are required to demonstrate an adequate knowledge of ancient history. This history requirement must be fulfilled in both Greek and Roman history.
To complete the requirement, students can opt to
take a course in the field OR
take an exam in the field OR
(if this option is available) act as a TA for a history class in the field.
The History Examination Committee sets the exam or determines which classes taken or TA’d for fulfill the requirement.
Students must complete this requirement by the end of their sixth semester, but ideally by the end of their fourth semester. It is recommended they satisfy half the requirement by the end of their first year.
Should students come with demonstrable background in one or both of Greek and Roman history, substitutions may, at the discretion of the History Examination Committee, be allowed from related ancient cultures or periods.
Modern Language Requirement
A reading knowledge of German and either French or Italian, to be demonstrated by written tests as early as possible in the student’s graduate career, and in no case later than the certification examination. This requirement includes competence in one language demonstrated as part of the work for the M.A. degree. It may be satisfied by the passing of an exam administered through the Classics Department or by the relevant language department. Students may also fulfill this requirement by getting a passing grade on an approved reading course in the relevant department.
Students who would like to take a modern language course in the summer to prepare for the fulfillment of the modern language requirement, may do so free of tuition by submitting the Application for Summer Tuition Credit | Columbia GSAS.
Qualification Examination (“M.Phil. Exams” or “Reading List Exams”)
The qualification examination will be held three times a year: on the Friday of the first week of classes in the fall and spring semesters; and on the first Friday of the exam period in the spring semester. It consists of two three-hour examinations, usually taken in different semesters, in the translation of Greek and Latin texts chosen from the common reading list (http://classics.columbia.edu/common-reading-list). The examination in at least one language must be first attempted no later than the end of the student’s second semester of residence, and at least one examination must be attempted at the beginning of every following semester. Students who fail a language exam at the summer or fall date are required to take the Reading Class in that language in the fall. Both exams must be passed by May of the third year. Students who do not pass both examinations by the required deadline will not be permitted to continue as candidates for the degree.
Each examination consists of six passages (three prose, three poetry) of about 100-150 words, of which the student must translate four (two prose, two poetry). The examination is designed less to test the student’s ability to translate Greek and Latin (which is assumed) than his or her knowledge of the texts on the reading list. The passages on the examination are chosen so as to be representative both of the breadth of the list (expect passages from different genres and different periods) and of the works in question (expect passages that are typical for the content and style of a work and/or particularly significant for its interpretation). Students may use a dictionary but are advised to factor in the extra time it will take them to look up words. Non-native speakers may also use an English dictionary.
Exams are graded anonymously. The identity of each candidate is known only to the Departmental administrator who administers the exam and is uncovered to the DGS and chair of the exam committee only once the result has been reported.
Each examination is administered by a three-person standing committee that is newly constituted each academic year; for the sake of continuity, chairs should ideally serve for two consecutive years. Each of those members will read the completed examination independently and assess each of the four completed passages on a percentage scale (see below). The total for each of the four passages will be calculated by each examiner, and then the scores of each examiner will be gathered by the committee chair and combined into a final score. A final score of 70 or above will constitute a Pass, of 59 or below a Fail. If the overall score falls in the 60-69 range, the committee will meet and discuss the result. A final decision will be taken by majority vote.
The committee chair will report the results to the DGS and Departmental Adminstrator. In the case of a fail, the committee chair will make themselves available to the student to offer feedback on the examination, drawing on the evaluations of all three examiners. Individual examiners’ scores will be held in confidence by the examiners and committee chair.
Certification Examination (“M.Phil. Paper”)
Students are required to complete one written examination or extended research paper on a special author or field under the supervision of an adviser of their choice, who determines the appropriate format. The topic of the examination or paper may, but need not, be related to the proposed field of the student’s dissertation. The student is expected to work closely with the adviser, having regular meetings on the model of a directed reading. The M.Phil. Paper will be double-marked by the adviser and another faculty member. The requirements of the Certification Examination ought to be completed by the end of the student’s sixth, but no later than the start of their seventh semester.
Dissertation proposal defense
Within one semester of the completion of all other requirements for the M.Phil. degree, and no later than the first month of the fourth year of residence, a candidate for the Ph.D. must submit and successfully defend a proposal for the planned dissertation, to consist of a statement of the topic and a rough outline of the expected structure, of approximately 20 pages with a short bibliography (approximately 30 titles) of relevant scholarship.
Before working on the proposal, a candidate chooses as a dissertation sponsor a faculty member who is an approved Classics dissertation sponsor. The candidate works closely with the sponsor in preparing the proposal; since this process can take a considerable amount of time, students are advised to begin thinking about their dissertation topics no later than the beginning of their third year. Candidate and sponsor jointly choose two other faculty members to make up the committee. Ideally, these two additional committee members will remain the same throughout the candidate’s work on the dissertation and will ultimately become members of the dissertation defense committee as well. However, this process is not fixed, and occasionally committees change over time as the dissertation develops and faculty become (or are no longer) available.
The proposal defense consists of an informal oral examination of the candidate by the three-person committee (typically 30-40 minutes). If successful, the committee certifies the candidate’s passing of the proposal defense in writing.
STAGE THREE: PH.D.
To receive the Ph.D., the student must write and successfully defend a dissertation, normally on the subject approved by the original proposal committee, no later than the end of the sixth year. Candidature beyond year six can be extended only by exceptional petition. Throughout, the sponsor is the candidate’s primary academic adviser.
GSAS requires a meeting every semester with the dissertation sponsor and at least one other faculty member, in order to receive timely feedback on the dissertation work and regular support throughout the dissertation-writing process. While GSAS monitors the meeting process, in consultation with the DGS, students are themselves responsible for scheduling the meetings.
The dissertation defense is a formal oral examination of two hours of the Ph.D. candidate by the dissertation committee, which in the final stage includes the sponsor and four additional readers, of whom two are most likely the members of the original proposal committee, one is an additional Barnard or Columbia faculty member, and one must be a faculty member from another department or institution. The committee is chosen by the dissertation sponsor in consultation with the candidate. The committee votes on the outcome immediately after the defense and informs the candidate. For the process, see https://www.gsas.columbia.edu/content/defense-and-evaluation.
The defense is preceded by the distribution of the dissertation to all members of the committee at a point arranged with the sponsor (usually four to five weeks before the defense) and followed by the deposit of the final, revised version of the dissertation to GSAS at a time depending on the outcome of the defense (usually one month after the defense). The DAAF assists the candidate in the process of distributing, defending, and depositing. More information about the distribution, defense, and deposit process can be found here.
Deadlines and Ideal Schedule
Milestone Expected Deadline
M.A. May Yr. 2 May Yr. 2
Exam 1 May Yr. 1 May Yr. 3
Exam 2 May Yr. 2 May Yr. 3
M.Phil. Paper January Yr. 3 May Yr. 3
Proposal May Yr. 3 September Yr. 4
Ph.D. defense May Yr. 6 May Yr. 6 (can be extended beyond Yr. 6 only by exceptional petition)
Year 1
FALL: GRC, 2 reading classes, prose comp in one language, two other classes
SPRING: GRC, prose comp in the other language, Survey, two other classes, attempt first qualification exam
*one modern language
Year 2
FALL: 3 more courses
SPRING: Survey on offer, 1 more course, attempt second qualification exam
*second modern language, both history requirements; all M.A. requirements MUST be passed
Year 3
FALL: M.Phil. paper
SPRING: proposal
*all M.Phil. requirements (incl. history, modern languages) except for proposal MUST be fulfilled.
Years 4
September: last date to defend dissertation proposal
Years 4-6
dissertation
GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES POLICY ON ACADEMIC PROGRESS
To comply with guidelines governing the disbursement of federal financial aid, GSAS has updated its policy regarding satisfactory academic progress. Students must now maintain a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0 to be considered as making satisfactory academic progress and to remain in good academic standing with the Graduate School. This policy applies to all GSAS students regardless of their receipt of federal aid.