The Department attracts people with all sorts of interests, who go on to follow a wide variety of paths in life. Some go on to graduate school to study the classics or related fields. Some go to professional school for law, medicine, business or library services. Others become farmers, city planners, or headhunters; even a cabaret singer counts herself among the alumnae of Bryn Mawr's Classics Department.
In collaboration with the Department of Classics at Haverford College, the department offers four major programs of study: Greek, Latin, Classical Languages, and Classical Culture and Society. In addition to the sequence of courses specified for each major, all majors are expected to have read through the Classics Reading List before they participate in the Senior Seminar, a required full-year course. In the first term, students refine their ability to read, discuss, and critique classical texts through engagement with scholarship from various fields of Classics while in the second term, they conduct independent research, culminating in a substantial thesis paper and a presentation to the department. Senior essays of exceptionally high quality may be awarded departmental honors at commencement.