Concentrators in Classics learn how to handle complex evidence across different media and how to form persuasive and sophisticated arguments. Our students go on to excel in fields as varied as law, tech, medicine, business, journalism, divinity, the arts, and more! Take a look at testimonials from our alumni below.
Video Testimonials
Lydia Cawley graduated in 2020 with a joint concentration in Classical Languages & Literatures and Near Eastern Languages & Cultures. Watch her video testimonal to learn more about her time in the Classics department and her work as a Director of Product for Gen+.
Nick Ackert graduated in 2017 with a concentration in Classics, a secondary in Government, and a citation in Mandarian Chinese. In the video below, he speaks about how his training in the Classics department prepared him find his current role with a strategic advisory firm focusing on political risk in the Indo-Pacific.
Alumni Testimonials
Schuyler Daum ('08)
Assistant Attorney General, Massachusetts Attorney General's Office
People are always concerned about job prospects. Don't be. I was far more successful academically because of the size and resources of the Classics department. This enabled me to be a more attractive candidate in a bunch of fields. I ended up doing a JD/MBA and no one has ever batted an eyelash at the Classics concentration. To me, a liberal arts education should teach you how to break down intellectual problems (and being able to break down a Latin sentence is extremely similar to parsing the law, by the way). How to organize broad inquiries into big questions. How to appreciate the depth of humanity. And how to enjoy learning for learning's sake. A Classics education hits all those goals.
Nikhil Mulani ('14)
AI Policy Fellow at the Horizon Institute for Public Service
Classics is a unique field because it allows you to develop a discerning framework for understanding how and why societies function and develop in specific ways. In our era of rapid global change, there may be no more helpful skill set than this one. The attention to detail and analytical way of thinking that I acquired through language, literature, and history classes I took in the Classics department are skills that I use every day. The flexibility of how Classics degrees are structured also allows you to fill the rest of your schedule with whichever STEM or more pre-professional classes you might feel will be useful for a given career path that interests you.
Anne Steptoe ('09)
Director of Pediatrics, Dayspring Health
My day job has nothing to do with the Classics, but I feel so fortunate to have studied this. My fellow premeds sat in large, generic classes where they barely knew the professors teaching them. I knew my professors—my goodness, they invited students for end-of-term receptions in their homes. I studied Classics and English, and I learned something about humanity in the process. The science is the vehicle of my work, but I'm successful as a physician because of that humanistic knowledge. On a personal level, one of my favorite aspects of Harvard was being surrounded by a happy cohort of likeminded people who loved to learn. Nowhere was that more obvious than in the Classics Department. I loved the field and what I learned; equally importantly, I loved the people.
Madeleine Schwartz ('12)
Journalist; Founder and Editor of The Dial
As a journalist, much of my day involves reading texts carefully to uncover facts or polishing my own sentences for clarity and style. Four philological years made me a better, more attentive reader and writer. Crucially, Classics taught me the many ways a single text can be understood and dissected. It also showed me how rewarding curiosity can be. I wrote my undergraduate thesis on Aulus Gellius—no doubt one of the most curious men of antiquity!—and today find that the best ideas come from an openness to the new and unexpected.