u/Ojo55

For context, I graduated in 2025 with a BA in History and Classics, with 7 semesters of Latin and Greek each. I don't have a frame of reference for how "language-heavy" of a degree mine was.

1. What does the "life of the mind" look like outside of grad school? I am interested in how other classics graduates sustained this outside of full-time study.

How do classics graduates sustain it? I understand that grad school is both reading and language heavy, but I would be lying if I said that I didn't envy grad students because they have the opportunity for mastery of classics with their language work and their reading.

I envy grad students for their ability to deepen their Latin and Greek. I think that in my approximately 3.5 years of serious study I got good enough to understand how much more there was to do in the languages.

I am passionate about languages but I am sincerely not sure how many people have continued their serious study alone.

I just think that, passionate as I am about this topic, I won't be able to match someone working full time as a student in the field. Maybe I have to come to grips with that.

2. What are the realistic job outcomes for MAs and PhDs in classics?

The job market in classics is bleak. But I found conflicting data on what percentage of Classics PhDs secure tenure track jobs.

Nowadays, is there any consensus realistic outcome for those who earn a PhD? If someone "strikes out" in the academic job market, is there a stigma for having left academia? I know academics in my own life who did this and seem to have struggled with it mentally.

So what do the majority of PhDs who fail to secure tenure track positions actually do?

3. Conclusion

These are my two primary questions.

Outside of grad school and career questions, one of my biggest goals is to become a traditionally published author of genre fiction. To that end I have already completed on approximately 80k word manuscript as an apprenticeship piece. My skill and understanding have improved massively, and I plan on outlining and writing another through the end of 2026 and 2027.

One thing that gives me pause is that if the path of tenure track professor and successful, widely-known fiction author were open to me (both slim odds IRL, but this is a hypothetical,) I would readily pick the path of a fiction writer. As I've entered adult life, I realize that having the time to write is very, very valuable, so I try to protect that and take advantage of it as much as possible.

For context, I graduated in 2025 with a BA in History and Classics, with 7 semesters of Latin and Greek each. I don't have a frame of reference for how "language-heavy" of a degree mine was.

1. What does the "life of the mind" look like outside of grad school? I am interested in how other classics graduates sustained this outside of full-time study.

How do classics graduates sustain it? I understand that grad school is both reading and language heavy, but I would be lying if I said that I didn't envy grad students because they have the opportunity for mastery of classics with their language work and their reading.

I envy grad students for their ability to deepen their Latin and Greek. I think that in my approximately 3.5 years of serious study I got good enough to understand how much more there was to do in the languages.

I am passionate about languages but I am sincerely not sure how many people have continued their serious study alone. I want to be able to fluently read all of Roma Aeterna by Hans Orberg and continue reading Latin from there.

I just think that, passionate as I am about this topic, I won't be able to match someone working full time as a student in the field. Maybe I have to come to grips with that.

2. What are the realistic job outcomes for MAs and PhDs in classics?

The job market in classics is bleak. But I found conflicting data on what percentage of Classics PhDs secure tenure track jobs.

Nowadays, is there any consensus realistic outcome for those who earn a PhD? If someone "strikes out" in the academic job market, is there a stigma for having left academia? I know academics in my own life who did this and seem to have struggled with it mentally.

So what do the majority of PhDs who fail to secure tenure track positions actually do?

3. Conclusion

These are my two primary questions.

Outside of grad school and career questions, one of my biggest goals is to become a traditionally published author of genre fiction. To that end I have already completed on approximately 80k word manuscript as an apprenticeship piece. My skill and understanding have improved massively, and I plan on outlining and writing another through the end of 2026 and 2027.

One thing that gives me pause is that if the path of tenure track professor and successful, widely-known fiction author were open to me (both slim odds IRL, but this is a hypothetical,) I would readily pick the path of a fiction writer. As I've entered adult life, I realize that having the time to write is very, very valuable, so I try to protect that and take advantage of it as much as possible.

I graduated college in the spring of 2025. I have yet to take the LSAT but my LSAC GPA is 3.86.

When I graduated, I hiked the Pacific Crest Trail and when I got home, I started filling out an application to Navy OCS.

However, there are certain medical issues that resurfaced that very well might block me off from that path.

I was considering law school in undergrad, but decided to put if off to consider and apply to other career paths.

I need to take an LSAT diagnostic soon, but I am considering applying to other things as well. I studied history and classics in undergrad, and I am considering applying to a Fulbright scholarship as well for a project that I am passionate about.

However, my concern is that my GPA will essentially become lower and lower over the years relative to other applicatnts, and the LSAT medians will rise as well. Is that the direction it appears to be going in? I remember median GPAS from when I was looking at them as undergrad in 2022 were lower than they are now.

So it looks strongly likely that the buildings that we see in the trailer are the jettisoned Gemini Exoplanet Solutions Labs, and that the xeno very well might be the one we faced in first part of the first game.

The interesting thing is that it was all but certain that the labs and the xeno inside burned up upon entry into KG348s atmosphere.

But more than that, the place where it crashed is habitable. It's a forest!

If there was a habitable colony even remotely nearby, I think the survivors on Sevastopol would have tried contacting it, or maybe even fleeing there on whatever crafts they could find even if they were unsuited to the journey.

So I'm curious how they will explain that and how they will explain the relation of this moon/planet colony to Sevastopol.

I would love to see survivors from Sevastopol like Lingard pop up. I think Ransome would make a great villain/antihero for the next game, but I know it's unlikely because of the lack of most means of escape from Sevastopol and because "only one person survives" seems to be a storytelling motif in the Alien franchise.

I saw human NPCs in the trailer, so maybe we'll see another society flung into anarchy by the aliens.

There are some parts of the game where when I hide in vents from hostile survivors (like in the Maintenance android part of the game)

Sometimes they'll chide you for hiding there. I heard them yell "cramped in there?" After I went into the vents, where they won't chase you.

I was surprised they had dialogue for something so specific.

Honestly there is so much interesting survivor dialogue and rare lines that you can get them to say depending on what you do and use against them. I've thought about trying to compile the dialogue into a youtube video the same way people have with workig joes.

I graduated from a small college in the spring of 2025 with a degree in history and classics. After graduation, I opted to hike the 2650 mile Pacific Crest Trail because I saw it as my best opportunity to do so. I succeeded and completed it after 5.5 months. After that, I moved back in with my parents.

I was rejected this April from an academic fellowship in Rome after making it to the finalist stage. It stings, but I am looking to make my next step.

Currently, I am studying for the ASTB, a flight aptitude test, with the hopes of applying to Navy OCS as an aviator. Other than that I am working a job at my gym to make some cash and to maintain a free membership.

I have contemplated taking the LSAT, but I am not sure whether I want to become an attorney, and I certainly do not want to give up three years of salary and go into debt to enter a profession I am not passionate about.

I am also interested in aviation, but I am worried that if I were to commit to that path I could potentially become disillusioned and regretful. Some say that becoming a pilot is almost like being a glorified bus driver. I am not sure about that but it is a concern of mine.

In any event, I have multiple interests that are all pulling at me, and I'm concerned about "picking the wrong one" and being regretful at, say, 40. Has anyone else been in this position? Part of me is keenly interested in a career as a military aviator, whether as a pilot or a navigator, but I am worried about sacrificing other opportunities, even if that has its own benefits. For example, that path would probably keep me out of moving to a major city in my 20s. Is that worth it? I also want to "get moving" and find more permanent employment so that I can build up savings and such.