S. Worthen | Weblog

There are many medievalists at Toronto who aren't at the Centre for Medieval Studies. I'm one of them. I came here with two degrees in medieval studies from other places and the knowledge that I wanted to do more in life than study Latin. Latin is very much the focus at CMS, particularly for any student who doesn't already have a very strong background in it. All that really means for me now is that I'm taking Latin voluntarily, not as a requirement, and that everyone else in my class is in a much earlier phase of their PhD program.

It's funny - I came and visited for much the same reasons you want to. I applied to Toronto for the MA and then decided to go to York instead. However, the material Toronto sent me said that if I'd been accepted into the MA program, I could come do the summer Latin class, and so I did, never realizing that I'd be back on campus a few years later. Thanks to CMS, there's a fabulous community of medievalists on campus. High levels of Latin, however, are only formally required if you're at CMS or in the History department.

I wish I had any idea what to advise you for the summer Latin program application but, as you see, I sort of fell into it without having to worry about specifically applying for it.

I have to say, Latin composition really isn't my strong point as I've spent maybe a total of a few weeks of my Latin-learning life trying to translate to Latin. The classes here are all about translating into English. The Perseus project is invaluable for quickly looking up English words in Latin.