The purpose of a graduate certificate program in classics, known in our wider discipline as a post-baccalaureate certificate—or “post-bac” for short—is to prepare students who started “late” with Greek and Latin (i.e., after  high school) for graduate work in classics and related fields such as philosophy, art history and medieval studies. As a rule, such students need to solidify their language skills and gain experience in reading large quantities of Greek and/or Latin at an advanced speed.  Students planning graduate study will have a way to prepare themselves without impossible pressures and time constraints. It takes many years of patient study to master Greek and Latin; one must devote hours to the project every single day. Few people are able to progress satisfactorily in ancient languages on their own, without instruction and without peers.

Our one-year program provides a bridge to full-fledged graduate study, although some individuals may choose to pursue our certificate simply as a means of enriching their lives.

We give post-bac students training in Greek and Latin, and the guidance they need to gain admittance into MA and PhD programs in classics and other humanities disciplines. Here at CWRU, our post-bac students regularly interact with not only our advanced undergraduate classics majors but also with graduate students in history, English and art history, among other fields. This mingling furnishes them with useful perspectives on the realities of doctoral studies in the humanities.