GRADUATE PROGRAMS IN DETAIL
The Department of Classics admits students into two graduate degree-granting programs and one certificate program:
M.A. (full-time or part-time)
Ph.D.
Post-baccalaureate (certificate)
The M.A. is a terminal master’s program whose students do not continue to the Ph.D. They may apply to do so if they wish. Students participate in this program part-time or full-time (see below).
Students in the Ph.D. program have been admitted to a five-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.
The Post-baccalaureate Certificate Program in Classics is designed for those students who wish to improve their proficiency in reading Greek and Latin, and particularly those interested in pursuing a graduate degree in Classics or Classical Studies at Columbia or another institution who might not yet have the requisite background in Greek and Latin to be successful with those applications. This program, which is not a degree-granting program, provides intensive training in ancient classical languages and can be completed in two semesters of full-time study (four courses per semester). Please click here for more information about our Post-baccalaureate program.
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 coursework 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 Research Colloquium (CLCV GR5010; 2 credits each semester) or to write an M.A. thesis under the rubric of CLPH GR 5000 (4 credits). The written product of CLPH GR 5000, 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.
• Graduate Research Colloquium may be taken for P/F or graded 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.
***These requirements are valid for students who entered the program in Fall 2023 or earlier. New requirements will apply to students entering from Fall 2024 onward. See Here***
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. is generally completed by the end of the second and no later than the fourth semester of coursework. The M.Phil. should be completed in the third year of study after completion of coursework, exams, and written work, and no later than the end of the fourth year of study. The Ph.D. dissertation prospectus should be defended by the beginning of the eighth semester, but not later than the end of the eighth semester. The Ph.D. is completed after a successful defense of a doctoral dissertation.
STAGE ONE: M.A.
As above, but omitting M.A. Thesis (CLPH 5000), and requiring two semesters of the Graduate Research Colloquium (CLCV 5010) 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 Director of Graduate Studies. 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 works of literature (including their cultural and political backgrounds). Programs of study are individually arranged in consultation with the Director of Graduate Studies.
General Course Requirements
Fourteen courses made up of twelve courses plus two semesters of the Graduate Research Colloquium (CLCV 5010) taken for P/F credit during the student's first year.
These fourteen courses must include:
Greek and Latin 4105 and 4106 History of Greek Literature I & II, History of Latin Literature I & II) and both Greek and Latin 5139 (Greek Prose Composition, Latin Prose Composition)
Six further courses comprised of:
three or more courses at 8000 level;
one or more courses at 6000 level;
no more than two courses at 4000 level;
Two semesters of the Graduate Research Colloquium (CLCV 5010) during the student's first year.
The Courses taken for the M.A. count toward a total of fourteen. (Students advancing from the M.A. to the Ph.D. do not take CLPH 5000.)
Of the fourteen courses, only the Graduate Research Colloquium may be taken P/F, and none of the remaining twelve courses may be taken for R credit. Only courses above and beyond the twelve can be taken for R credit.
Students are expected to maintain at least a B+ average in their graded courses.
History Requirement
Students are required to demonstrate 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 were taken or TA’d to 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 a demonstrable background in one or both 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 is 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 two-and-a-half-hour examinations, usually taken in different semesters, in the translation of Greek and Latin texts chosen from the common reading list. The examination in at least one language must be first attempted no later than the beginning of the student’s fourth semester of residence, and at least one must be attempted at the beginning of every following semester. Both must be passed no later than the end of the sixth semester. 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 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 work and/or particularly significant for its interpretation).
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 a majority vote.
The committee chair will report the results to the DGS and DAAF. 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.
Percentage scale
90+: An impressive translation that very accurately conveys the meaning of every sentence, and is idiomatic and stylized in its wording.
80-89: A good translation that is generally very accurate, and shows a clear understanding of how complex syntactical structures fit together even if vocabulary is not completely known.
70-79: An acceptable translation showing a generally high degree of accuracy in translating a wide range of grammatical and syntactical structures, even if not all vocabulary is known and there are rare misunderstandings of major grammatical or syntactical phenomena.
60-69: A problematic translation that conveys the sense of the passage reasonably accurately but with several errors of grammatical and syntactical understanding, and also problems with vocabulary.
50-59: A mediocre translation that only partially captures the meaning of the passage and is inconsistent in its handling of complex linguistic combinations and vocabulary.
40-49: A poor rendering of the grammar and syntax of the original, with significant omissions, inaccuracies, and misunderstandings that indicate that the student does not have a grasp of the passage in question.
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 M.Phil. paper will be double-marked by the adviser and another faculty member.
Dissertation proposal defense
Within one semester of the completion of all other requirements for the M.Phil. degree, and no later than the end 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 fourth year. The 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.
All dissertation (i.e. non-teaching) fellowship awards are contingent upon the completion of all M.Phil. requirements, including the proposal defense, by the end of the fourth year.
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 seventh year. 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, 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 and registering meeting dates with GSAS.
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 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.
Overview: Timeline of the Ph.D. Program
What follows is the ideal progress through the Ph.D. program. Individual students' careers may vary, though deadlines and rules in bold apply to everyone. Students who fail to fulfill any degree requirement by the deadlines set out here may not be permitted to continue as candidates for the degree.
Year 1
Fulfillment of all M.A. requirements (courses and first foreign language exam)
Year 2
Work on Qualification Exams
Fulfillment of remaining course requirements for M.Phil. and second foreign language exam
Teaching as TF assisting a professor in a class
Starting at the beginning of the fourth semester, at least one of the Qualification Exams must be attempted every semester until both have been passed.
By the end of the second year, all M.A. requirements must be fulfilled.
Year 3
Work on Qualification Exams.
Work on Certification Exam (M.Phil. paper)
Teaching as the instructor of record
By the end of the third year, both Qualification Exams must be passed.
Year 4
Completion of the Certification Exam
Dissertation proposal defense
Teaching as the instructor of record
By the end of the fourth year, all M.Phil. requirements must be fulfilled.
Year 5
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.