Wondering what kind of career you can have as a graduate with a College of Liberal Arts Greek and Roman Classics degree? Your options are many, and you can read recent alumni news about our grads to see where some of them have landed. When you’re ready to make your declaration, come visit us on campus in North Philly. If you need more info, take a look at your transfer options and our application deadlines. We’ll be waiting for your application!

What Do Classics Majors Do After Graduation?

What careers have alumni from your undergraduate degrees or programs of study gone on to pursue?

Greek and Roman Classics offers the kind of broadly based, rigorous training that can help graduates succeed in a number of different careers. Classics majors have recently served as Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense, run the CIA, founded cable television networks and software companies and worked as senior correspondents for ABC News. Recent Temple Classics majors have gone on to law school, veterinary school, graduate school, business careers and teaching. One of them finished Penn Law School and is now working for Senator Toomey.

By drawing upon the varied aspects of their undergraduate experience in Classics, students develop skills with language that help their written and oral expression, and acquire an ability to pick up the skills needed for a particular task – a breadth of understanding that goes beyond narrow specializing – and a curiosity that suggests the questions which critique basic assumptions.

The Princeton Review has recently stressed that Classics is an ideal major for students with a wide range of career aspirations, including law and medicine. View the article “The best prospective law students read Homer?” which has hard data showing that Classics majors have the highest GPAs and LSAT scores of any group.

For a list of important and distinguished people who have studied Classics as undergraduates and then gone on to careers in completely different areas, check out this article on the Rogue Classicism website! Classics is an entire liberal arts education rolled into a single department and as a recent study has proved, “Liberal Arts Grads Win Long-Term.”

Alumni News

2014

• Nikki Love has enrolled in the Post-Baccalaureate program in Classics at the University of Pennsylvania.
• Lauren Faralli, a recent Temple Classics graduate, has just accepted a position as Middle School Latin Teacher at the Haverford School.
• Colin Smith will be starting a PhD program in Philosophy at the University of Kentucky in the Fall.

2013

• Eamonn Connor entered the doctoral program in ancient history at the University of Pennsylvania with a Benjamin Franklin Fellowship.
• Alex Turock is teaching Latin at the Wyndcroft School in Pottstown.
• Joseph Zehner entered the doctoral program in Classics at the University of Virginia.
• Matt Watton entered the MA program in ancient philosophy at the University of Western Ontario.
• Jonathan Panofsky finished up his Masters Degree in Holocaust and Genocide Studies from Gratz College. In August he will be beginning law school at the University of Richmond, which named him one of their John Marshall Scholars. This honor includes a large scholarship and a weekly seminar led by a member of the Virginia Supreme Court. He is also giving a presentation at the Richmond Holocaust Museum in August.

Other alumni career updates

• While continuing his studies in Greek philosophy in a MA program at Boston College, Colin Smith is screening the documentary movie he wrote and produced, Resurrect Dead.
• Lyndy Danvers continues to teach at Seton Hall University. She is now officially ABD at Rutgers, and will deliver a paper on a pseudoepigraphic text from Spain at the October CAAS.
• Krystal McGinnis continues to work for the IRS. She is taking business courses at a local college and studying for the GRE. She expects to enter a Master’s in Historic Preservation program at Delaware State in the spring.
• Joseph Zehner is in his second year of the master’s program at Texas Tech. He went on his first archaeological dig this summer at Binchester near Durham, England–a Roman fort. This fall he will be teaching Greek 1 and Classical Mythology while taking Greek Lyric Poetry, Plato on Poetry, and Latin composition.
• Gabby Country finished her library degree at Drexel and obtained a very good job in Virginia.
• Lizzie Szylejko has landed a job teaching Latin at Central High School.
• Libby Torreson continues her advanced degree work in Classics at the University of Minnesota.
• Shannon Baxter has finished her nursing degree and is employed at Paoli Hospital in oncology and telemetry.
• Nicole De Jessa is enrolled in the Classics Post-Baccalaureate Program at Penn.
• Tom Goodman is studying at Temple Law School.

Deadlines

• February 1: Freshman Application Deadline for Fall Semester
• February 1: FAFSA Financial Aid Application Deadline
• November 1: Transfer Deadline for Spring Semester
• June 1: Transfer Deadline for Fall Semester