Arts at UoM - steer clear?

[jejak]

So I've been hearing conflicting reports about Arts at UoM. I've been advised by my careers counsellor that the Arts faculty has undergone a lot of "pruning", and that this has affected undergraduate instruction, and more importantly, graduate research opportunities; a few past students from my high school have been enjoying their experiences at the Melbourne residential colleges, but say that their Arts courses are dismal. Then again, a few others are clearly loving their Latin and Ancient Greek classes, and I appreciate UoM still retains a lot of prestige, so I don't know what to think. The fact that I can't do BA/LLB at UoM, only a potentially full-fee JD, complicates matters...but anyway. I'm mainly concerned with getting a thorough enough grounding to pursue graduate research in the humanities.

More specifically, would anyone be able to comment on how UoM Arts fares in any of the following areas? Particularly if you can compare with Monash or ANU.

• Linguistics
• Foreign languages
• Classics - have heard dimly that Monash is the go-to guy here?
• Philosophy - apparently down the gurgler at UoM? http://tinyurl.com/nxbh2e

I know I should have done all of this investigation myself, not post it on a forum with the close of VTAC prefs looming, but I'm lazy and time is short.

Thanks for any help.

[*ryan777*]

just to add in another quick question (somewhat related), if i dont have the math methods prerequisite to study commerce at UoM can i do arts and take a math subject as part of breadth studies that the uni deems "equivelent" to math methods 3/4 then attempt to transfer a bit later on?

[humph]

ANU is excellent for classics - ask Rietie on the board here for info. I've only done one linguistics course (the intro one) and one philosophy course (the mathsy one) at ANU and they were both pretty decent, but I have no idea about later years. One thing I'd suggest is looking through the subject list at each university - e.g. the ANU one is here: http://studyat.anu.edu.au/acad_orgs/586/courses/undergrad.html
Have a look at what particular subjects are offered and how many are offered - if there aren't many, then it usually means that the department isn't very big.

[EvangelionZeta]

Is ANU really excellent for Classics?  I heard from a friend that whilst the language courses are great, the actual "Classics" subjects themselves aren't that varied.

[humph]

Hmmmm not sure exactly. I had a friend graduate this year though with first class honours in classics and he certainly found it interesting and varied enough. Plus the new Bachelor of Classics degree means that they're focussing more on it, organising trips to Europe and stuff, so it must be pretty decent.

[Rietie]

Is ANU really excellent for Classics?  I heard from a friend that whilst the language courses are great, the actual "Classics" subjects themselves aren't that varied.

I'm doing Classics at ANU. I'm actually transferring to the Bachelor of Classical Studies at ANU next year.
I'm doing both Ancient Greek and Latin. They are taught by brilliant amazing teachers. Traditional Grammar is what everyone starts with in first semester first year. It's an introductory course to both languages, and it it taught by Elizabeth Minchin, who from my experience, would be the best educator I have ever met. I am not exaggerating. She actually cares about you (and this is uni), she is always available outside of class, and she just teaches so well.

Usually one ancient history course is offered per semester, one for first years, and one for second and third years. While I don't think this is enough choice, they can't teach any more courses (there are only four lecturers in the classics department), and while they are looking in to getting another lecturer, at the moment they can't afford it (hence the classics fund was set up to hopefully in the future, afford another classics lecturer and to give money to classics students taking classics courses overseas - on a summer course).

Classics courses are also offered. It is usually a classics or an ancient history course that is offered each semester. Classics courses are apparently (according to older classics students) better as they are taught by Jessica (the Classics and the Latin lecturer).

So, I would say, particularly with this new Classics degree (the first in Australia), ANU is pretty good for Classics, especially for languages. I'm not so sure about ancient history/classics. I can give you an idea of the courses offered in that area.
For example, last semester (2nd semester 2009), the classics course was about myths and legends, so students basically learned all the gods and goddesses in roman and greek mythology, and the myths tied to them, and learnt to compare the gods between the two civilisations. I think they also analysed the texts through which they learnt about the gods. An ancient history course was also offered that semester (very unusual), which I did. You basically read heaps of ancient greek law court speeches, and through this learnt about society, how law courts worked, etc, etc.

Next year they are offering a course on how ancient history is presented in film - that should be kinda cool. I think we're gonna watch films like 300, and then diss how Hollywood stuffed everything up
The next semester is all about war in the ancient world - like battle formations, armies, tactics, etc. That should be really, really, really awesome. The ancient history lecturer is hoping to bring in some recreated Spartan armour

There's a bit of an insight into Classics at ANU.

[EvangelionZeta]

Sounds awesome.    Is it manageable to do both Latin and Ancient Greek?  I'm thinking of making Classics one of majors in a few years time. 

[Rietie]

Sounds awesome.    Is it manageable to do both Latin and Ancient Greek?  I'm thinking of making Classics one of majors in a few years time. 

Well, I did both Greek and Latin in second semester. There were only about 3-5 other people doing that combination. I wouldn't say it is very difficult, but I got stressed a bit because there is a big and constant workload. And both lecturers did say that taking both languages would be a big workload (just doing one of the languages is a big workload...or maybe I just did no work in VCE so the work came as a small shock.)

Sometimes doing both languages would help one language out (grammar correlates from one language to the other), and sometimes I would get confused and get mixed up with the grammar in both languages, coz they are kinda similar. And sometimes I would start to write a Latin word in Greek letters

But I wouldn't change doing both languages. And I would say if you are intending to do a Classics major, definitely do at least one ancient language, and I would strongly suggest taking both languages into second year, and maybe decide to major in one by 3rd year (what I'm thinking of doing).