hollyb

I'm very interested in writing and hope to make a career of it in the future, however majoring in English or something similar isn't particularly promising. I was wondering what majors require writing and writing skills for advancement and also have more distinct career paths or higher salaries.

marylandmike09

Classics- learn Latin (will boost your writing) and is a statistically supported good path for becoming a lawyer.

hollyb

Alright, what schools have the best classics programs?

hj0519

Pretty much any major that's in the humanities or social sciences will involve writing and help you further develop your writing skills.
You may want to check out these threads for some more ideas on specific majors/careers or what majors to avoid:
Most writing and reading intensive majors?
What to be? (Careers in writing)
Major Requiring the Least Writing

tigerbound09

This is very helpful. Bump.

drudkh

Law is probably the most stable field that involves a lot of writing.

URichmond2010

What sort of writing do you want to do?

hollyb

Thanks, this has been helpful. I think Classics looks most promising and interesting to me so far since it gives me so many options after college. But, of course I'm not sure yet.
I'd eventually like to write novels, but I understand that it isn't an easy field to break into. Also, I would like a major that would give me things to write about in the future as well as provide a safety plan if writing doesn't work out.

Gil

Wait a second! I'm all for the classics, but I don't think you should choose to study it just because someone here tells you it's good for your writing skills. It's a very specialized field and learning Latin and/or Greek can be a real pain if you don't enjoy them. If you want to write novels, ideally the best way is to not go to college at all and just take four years off to read and write full-time. But that's not feasible of course.

URichmond2010

Wait. If you want to write novels, I don't quite understand why you're so quickly writing off English...

hollyb

Oh haha, I'm not choosing classics for sure or anything, I just appreciate the idea. I'd rather major in something other than English to deversify my knowledge. I would love to just take time off to travel instead of going to college, but it's simply not plausible.

moshiz08

Philosophy's a great major to consider. definitely teaches strong writing and analytical skills. Also great for becoming a lawyer.

liek0806

Very surprised no one mentioned Philosophy until the previous post.

jakeanton

Not to hijack this thread from the OP but I have a related question. How much reading and writing is required in social sciences such as anthropology, sociology, pyschology, economics, linguistics, ect?