Graduate Application FAQ

If you submit all your materials by the deadline to be considered for funding, then you can expect to be notified by late February about your status. A small number of PHD applicants may be notified in advance of this date in order to allow them to apply for additional university-wide fellowship competitions. However, the majority of notifications go out in February. After February, status for funding and for admissions is updated on a day to day basis as we hear back from students about their decision to enroll at FSU or elsewhere. While the committee works as efficiently as possible, the timeline for decisions is largely a function of university budget processes and so we are typically unable to finalize admissions decisions before mid-February.

We are happy to help students interested in coming to campus and meeting with current students and faculty. To coordinate your visit with the department, please email the Director of Graduate Admissions.

Please direct all questions to the Director of Graduate Admissions.

No, but you do need to have sufficient background in Classics in order to be able to complete the coursework necessary for your proposed degree. For most students this means you need basic knowledge of Greek and/or Latin as demonstrated by previous coursework.

Yes. In particular, if you suspect that one of your letter writers may not be able to provide a letter in time, you are encouraged to solicit an additional letter so as to ensure that the committee will have sufficient basis upon which to judge your application.

The university is closed for the holiday break from shortly before Christmas to shortly after New Year's. Please make all inquiries, if possible, before Dec. 23rd. While the online system is ready and accessible during the break, staff in the department will likely not respond to email or phone messages until the new term begins in January. If you run into technical difficulties in submitting application over the winter break, then staff will be available to address the relevant issue at the start of the new term. Please be assured that applications delayed due to technical problems with the online submission system will be read once the technical problems are resolved. If you are in doubt and there is no one responding to your request for technical assistance, then you can send a message and your materials (as a short term solution) directly to the Director of Graduate Admissions.

On the graduate admissions page for the university, there are 3 separate admissions deadlines. These are university deadlines and not department deadlines. The department deadline is considerably earlier, on Dec. 15 of each year. While other departments and units of the university may admit students who begin their studies at various points during the year (e.g. applying in Fall for admission starting in Spring), the Classics department only admits students who begin their studies in the Fall semester of each year. The department has only a single admissions deadline, Dec. 15.

Most of the materials you submit will be online. But GRE scores and transcripts may need to be sent to the university via regular mail. Information and mailing address for these university-required materials can be found on the graduate admissions page for the university. 

Yes. You can find more specific information on the FSU International Students page. They can answer your specific questions about immigration documents, financial information, and the like. Also, note especially their table which directs you to the relevant office to answer questions about different aspects of the application process.

Yes. We will consider for funding any complete application postmarked or submitted online before the posted deadline. This deadline gives us sufficient time to verify that applications are complete and read all the dossiers. Any applications postmarked or uploaded after this date cannot be guaranteed consideration for funding. As it is in your interests to be considered for all available university and departmental funding, it is imperative that you get your application completed by this deadline so that the committee can meet all internal university deadlines. If you miss this deadline, then you can still be considered for admission (without funding) and we will, if possible, consider your application for funding at a later date. In addition, it is not uncommon for committee members to begin reading files as soon as they are available so as to have adequate time to give each full consideration. Having your file complete earlier rather than later will help greatly in this process.

The online application system can be difficult in this regard, as it asks you to select the specialization and the degree but does not explain how they relate. If you are applying for the Ph.D. program, regardless of specialization (e.g. classics, history, philosophy, archaeology), there is one selection (Ph.D. in Classics). The MA program, by contrast, has the various specializations listed in the online application system (e.g. Greek and Latin, Greek, Latin, Archaeology). Therefore, if you are applying for the Ph.D. program and you cannot get the Ph.D. option to show up, check to make sure that you are also selecting the area of "Classics". For Ph.D. applicants specializing in archaeology, your interests will be clear from your application materials and there is no need to identify your intended program further beyond what you would normally include in your statement of purpose.

Please do not submit more than the requested 20 page writing sample. This limit helps ensure that the committee can read applications and come to a decision in a timely fashion.

Please submit only the materials requested. The admissions committee bases decisions on the materials requested.

Yes. The University requires that you submit transcripts for all college or university coursework and will not consider your application complete until official transcripts from all institutions have been submitted.