will a lack of Latin prejudice ds's chances?

[fircone]

ds is very academic.

he will be attending the local comprehensive next year. The school has an excellent reputation, but does not teach Latin. Assuming (rather early!) that ds might wish to study English at a (top) university, would his lack of Latin prejudice his chances of success?

I regret not studying Latin: we were encouraged at school to take 'living' languages, and I can't say I have ever felt a German A Level has been of any use in my life whatsoever.

Should I look to try to teach him at home, or find a tutor? And do Russell Group universities realise that state school pupils may not have had the opportunity to study classics?

I don't think many Comps do Latin - I can't imagine it will be a problem for him.

I can't believe that they do..Classics are (sadly) dieing out as a discipline so it would be very limiting to insist on it.

Also can think of a fair few people where I went to uni who hadn't done latin at either a/o leve l and were on english courses.

can ask my mother if you like -she is expert on this kind of uni applicaton info

I did theology at a Russell Group and was held back by not doing latin. My course was mainly made up of students from a public school background who had all done latin and many had done biblical greek. I almost got a first and my tutor told me that if I had been better educated that first would have been mine, Having said that it has not held me back in my life generally to my knowledge.

My tutors were surprised at the rather pathetic education I got from my very average state school, but that was about 15 years ago.

You can do the Cambridge Latin course online.

here

When I was choosing my options I thought I wouldn't get into uni without Latin so picked it as an option. In my opinion not having a Latin background will not be irrelevant.

I did medicine (at the university which at the time was 1st in the league tables, like anyone really cares now!)- which until relatively recently required Latin. No longer. Not even Oxbridge ask for it - and I think the seperate Arts disciplines, Law and Medicine stopped asking at the same time.

Having said that, it was actually quite useful and I loved both that and classical Greek. Ok, I'm a bit sad. I am sure your DS will not be prejudiced against. Universities have admissions tutors - why not e-mail one for more than hearsay?

I did English Language and Literature at Manchester, having gone to a comp and was not held back by not having done Latin. There was a lot of linguistics in the course which was great and also compulsory Old English (Anglo Saxon) in the first year which I also really enjoyed and took all the way through to 3rd year. German would have helped more with that than Latin anyway.

Ah, I love this title. Oh if only I could go and live in this parallel universe!

Perhaps I should mention that I am a university Latin tutor. And that I very rarely see any students who have previous Latin; we're having to teach from scratch these days.

Any university who demanded Latin would have to admit that they are so hopelessly blinkered as only to accept students from private schools and from those limited parts of the country that offer grammar schools. It's just not going to happen.

Of course Latin is a great subject, and if wisely used can help with all sorts of things. But it is not the only great subject out there. And certainly not the only one that will help your ds in his university studies. Even if he decides to study Classics, there will be beginners' courses at uni. I teach a lot of medieval historians etc who need it for their dissertations. Not a problem.

Hey - I did English at a top uni (cambridge) - went to local comprehensive, which did offer Latin, studied it to A level ... and got a D . So I don't think my studying it had anything to do with their accepting me. And in my college, there were seven English students and only one plus me had done Latin. So, in conclusion - I really don't think they're fussed at all. And for what it's worth, while I did genuinely enjoying learning Latin, I cannot remember a single word of it now. Literally, not a word. Fun but useless, is my opinion

Ah, cory, just seen your post. Should qualify - Latin was useless to me . And I did love it. Esp Catullus (poem 101 killed me).

hm, considreing choosing private sec school for dc, one of main reasons is that they will at least have the choise of Latin. I did A levels and thought it was generally useful for whatever language you would learn.

Message withdrawn

thanks for that link LLS - ds is doing Latin at school and loves it - it's the only subject he doesn't complain about doing homework for and he'd love being able to do stuff on the computer as well

You really don't need Latin at all for English. I did English language first degree, MA and PhD at a Russell Group uni- needed to do a bit of Latin for PhD, but that's because I chose a medieval topic. If you were going to study English linguistics, it would help as much to know German (cognate) as Latin, to which English is only more distantly related.

I did English at St Andrews and very few of us had studied latin. It is totally unnecessary, though if I'd had the chance I would have done it at school - interest in linguistics/entymology and snob value.
We did have to do Anglo-Saxon though... and DH at Aberdeen had to do Old Scots .
FWIW, I know no medics who had knowledge of latin.

It would n't be considered unusual even for a top university, even some private shcools donlt offer it as part of their curriculum these days. Have to add I'm not sure it really helped me study English ,as Middle English has more Germanic roots.

I studied Latin at A level, and although it helped me with my other A levels at the time (modern languages), and occasionally proved useful during my Italian degree- it has not improved my life one iota!! I have all but forgotten my Latin now, except for 'Quintus puer est'! I found it a very complex language to study and quite hard to relate to. So if my dc are offered it at school, I would recommend they try it, if only for the great literature which they will be introduced to. However, I wouldn't worry if equally they never open a Latin textbook.

Thanks for all the comments, particularly Cory, who makes the very salient point that yes, if Latin were demanded by a university that would be tantamount to a sign outside the door saying "private school kids only".

I must add that I thought I would look online for a local Latin course. I found myself a Latin American pole-dancing evening class. Perhaps I'll go...

You definitely do not need Latin to apply for any subject at any top university (unless applying for Classics)these days. Having said that, I would imagine having done Latin would help with certain subjects. But as Cory says, it would be definite discrimination against those children attending schools which do not offer the subject.

I don't agree that Latin automatically screams private school. I did Latin A level and it is offered at my boys' state secondary.

Its not just a case of what wil be useful in the future - what about learning for the sheer fun of it? On eof the reasons we are going indepdendent for the DC is precisdly so they can have a wider range of interesting subjects. DS1 has just started lating and loves it (in large part because 'the teacher is the most fun and her lessons are the best') but also becuase at this stage it is easy to get it all right if you learn a lillte bit every day! It has already helped him with spelling, and with French, so even tho' the getting inot the right univeristy is completely irrrelevant, he would have missed out NOE by not doing it. (FWIW, MY Latin teacher was also the most fun when I was at school - is that a gereal feature of latin teachers?)

Yes, Freckle, but that is rare. Not a single state school in this (fairly large) town that offers it, and most of my students from other state schools have never had the chance. I could never get a full class depending on students who had had the opportunity.

And Bags, it's not even a prerequisite for Classics these days. They do beginners' courses. And Ancient Civilisation, reading the classics in translation. We offer a beginners' course as a unit that can be taken by students from any subject as one of their options. So historians etc can brush up on their Latin while doing their BA or even postgraduate course.

I had two Latin teachers at A level. One was very young, just out of training. She'd come up with salacious details about, say, what the Romans used for contraception and then blush to high heaven and change the subject . The other was a sleazy male teacher, who had a history of affairs with 6th formers (all girls' school) but came a bit unstuck with the 4 of us who were doing A level that particular year as we just weren't interested in him. So he kept making us translate Ovid's Ars Amatoria, which is a pretty graphic text. We kept pretending we couldn't translate it because none of us wanted to be the one to read it out loud!

Actually they do do Latin at my DCs state grammar school. They can do it as an extra GCSE and some do it as an extra AS level. Quite a lot of the pupils take it up, but it does involve giving up 'free' time so of course my remaining DC at the school doesn't want to do it!!!!