Gabriel Carnwath .....

.....took A levels in Latin, History and English Literature at Loreto Grammar School, a state grammar school at Altrincham near Manchester. She started Latin at age 13, and taught herself Greek to GCSE whilst a sixth-former, continuing it once at Oxford as a Classics IB candidate. She was originally inclined towards a career in medicine:

"I always wanted to do either Medicine or Classics. However, my school wasn't prepared to let me study Latin A level together with Physics and Chemistry; I wasn't prepared to give up Latin, so I turned to the Arts. From studying English Literature and History at A level I became aware that one really couldn't study any literature or period in history (but particularly the medieval and renaissance periods I studied at A level) without a thorough grounding in the Classics, so Classics it was. What impressed me about Classics at Oxford and Cambridge, in particular, was the enthusiasm of the Classics tutors I encountered from there. I applied to Oxford because the four-year course and the emphasis on linguistic fluency promised a deeper access to the ancient world. But it also has excellent facilities; the language teaching (through which I could get my Greek up to the same standard as my Latin), the Bodleian and Sackler libraries, the Ashmoleum Museum: Classics is everywhere in Oxford. This is incredibly important as Classics at school can often make you feel a bit like a hermit. I was the only one who completed Latin A level in my year at school. It was wonderful to come to Oxford and realize that I was not an odd bod and that there is a whole community of people fascinated by the classical world."

Gabriel now has no regrets about the choice she made at sixteen:

"Classics is the best arts degree because it comprises everything. It is the original joint degree. I don't understand people who choose the tedium of a vocational degree when they can study something they genuinely enjoy and also get the training they need. Studying Classics cannot fail to improve your mind. It is such a multidisciplinary subject that it requires you to engage on many different levels: history, literature, languages and philosophy all require different skills, and employers recognize and value this. It could in fact be argued that it is studying a vocational degree which limits your options: your career path post-university in three years' time is already decided. This is a shame as people change so much during their time at university. Much better to study a subject like Classics which opens up many different career paths. I want to apply for the fast-track scheme in the civil service, though I'm also toying with the idea of going into journalism. I think journalism is quite like Classics. You can find yourself writing about anything: politics, health, mushrooms, the Hindu Kush. Variety is the spice of life, they say, and you find it in equal measure in journalism and Classics."

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