All official Transcripts. A bachelor's degree or its foreign equivalent from an accredited college or university. Official transcripts of your grades. Three letters of recommendation. Applicants are required to upload a transcript (may be unofficial at this time) including the key from all attended colleges or universities.The transcript must show the name of the student, name of the issuing institution, name of courses taken, and the grades received in those courses. The Graduate School does not have a minimum TOEFL or IELTS score requirement. If you are offered admission and accept our offer and have scored below a 27 on the Speaking sub-section of the TOEFL iBT or below an 8.0 on the Speaking sub-section of the IELTS you will be required to take an English placement test at the start of the fall term. Students who do not pass the test will be required to enroll in English Language Program classes.
General Test optional
Sample of written work.
The process of selection is complex, and no single factor outweighs any other. Letters, writing sample, personal statement, transcripts, and GRE (optional) are all considered. All applications are read carefully by a departmental committee, and other faculty members are asked to read those relevant to their own interests. There is no particular profile for which we are looking, nor do some areas of Classics dominate: we simply want students who promise to be disciplined and original scholars and lively, effective, and sympathetic teachers.

Good language preparation is essential. Everyone admitted must show proficiency in Greek and Latin on arrival. Evidence of ability in German, French, or Italian is very helpful since every student must show a reading knowledge of one of these languages by the end of the first year here and of a second by the end of the second year.

Letters of recommendation from your teachers or others qualified to judge your academic work are essential: three at a minimum, but there is no maximum.

Transcripts are required, but the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) is optional. If you elect to take the GRE, be sure that your scores reach the department no later than January.

A sample of scholarly writing is required and may be the deciding factor. Choose something you think best represents your talent and will bear up under scrutiny by experts. We are especially interested in knowledge, judgment, originality, and style. If you indicate an area of specialization on your application, such as history or philosophy, try to submit a relevant sample. Papers should be no more than 20 pages, please.

In your personal statement avoid both exaggeration and false modesty. Simply tell us who you are, what you are interested in, and what you hope to achieve.
You are also asked to produce a statement describing the contributions you hope to make to diversifying the field of classics, at Princeton and beyond. Since we are aware that such statements can place unequal burdens on students from different backgrounds, let us make clear that this requirement is not a prompt for those who have suffered directly from racism and other forms of social injustice to share such suffering as a prerequisite for admission (although it does give scope for those whose interests and professional commitments have been shaped by their personal experiences to bring that to our attention). Rather, it requires all applicants to be thoughtful about how their own intellectual and career ambitions relate to the collective goal of inclusivity.