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Classics and English

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Emma, 3rd year

'The tutors really put me at my ease during my interview. My experience is definitely that they would rather have someone who is passionate about a subject they don’t know very much about, than someone who knows a lot but isn’t interested in discussing and learning.

I had applied for Latin, but after I compared Aristophanes to Blackadder in the interview they persuaded me that I really wanted to study Greek. They were definitely right! Now I’m studying literature that I love, in the original language.

I was able to learn Ancient Greek from scratch here. It didn’t come naturally to me, but with an hour-long class every day for a year I was doing prose composition by my third term.

Doing a joint honours course allows you to bring different perspectives to all of your subjects. Thinking about Renaissance literature with knowledge of the Classics means you have a very different perspective from someone studying straight English, for example. It’s a unique kind of literary criticism.

If you think idiosyncratically and are interested in everything, then this is definitely the course to do.

As a state school student from a small village who’d never studied Classics before, I feel it’s important that I do a lot of Access work. I’ve also been involved in my Junior Common Room Committee, the college choir (non-auditioning, thank God!), the college netball team, OUSU women’s campaign … This term, I’m also fashion editing The Cherwell (student newspaper), which involves recruiting photographers, models, locations, clothes, and the graphic design of the page. I also have plans for a blog about ethical, affordable fashion.

I’d really recommend that anyone comes and spends some time in Oxford to get a feel for the place. The pay-off for all this hard work is getting to play about with some fantastic traditions, but you don’t have to buy into them or take them seriously if you don’t want to. I like being part of traditions, but I don’t let them define me. My tutor always says ‘Oxford doesn’t make you – you make Oxford what it is’.

Philip, who graduated in 2000, is now a writer. He says:

‘Since graduating I have embarked on a career in writing and journalism. I have published two novels, and write for a wide range of magazines and papers, and am a Contributing Editor to Literary Review, the Periscope Post and Port. My degree helped me develop the analytical, presentational and linguistic skills that are paramount in the media world.’