Life of an English Major

College Life
1

<p>I’m copying the “Life of a Biology Major” thread</p>

<p>What is the life of an English major?</p>

2

<p>Expect to constantly wonder what the hell you’re going to do with your English degree, always contemplating switching to Journalism, and declaring yourself pre-law. You’ll write a lot but your workload won’t be terribly heavy.</p>

3

<p>What can you do with an English degree besides teach and write?</p>

4

<p>Go to LA and screenwrite [famous examples: David Milch (Yale), Greg Daniels (Harvard)] but that falls under the broad catergory of ‘write’ anyway.</p>

5

<p>Anything, seriously. I’ve considered law school and journalism. Neither of them was “me”. I’m going to grad school and then use my degrees in the international health field.</p>

6

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<p>Wow. This is absolutely correct.</p>

7

<p>advertising, editing, etc. if you can write, you should be fine.</p>

8

<p>what do you do in terms of coursework and stuff?</p>

9

<p>read novels/poetry/short stories, read briefly about their history or context or about the author, read some criticism, read some theory, etc. Then, write about the things you’ve read–the way they’re written, the messages they convey, the devices they use, their intertextual or historical impact, and so on. Be prepared to write a lot and to read even more. It’s a good life. Really, though.</p>

10

<p>For specific coursework requirements, maybe check your school’s English department website. Where I attend, I need to take a course in lit before 1700, a course in lit after 1700, an American Lit class, and a course that focuses solely on a single author (Shakespeare and Austen being the two most popular, in terms of coursework, as far as I can tell).</p>

11

<p>umm u can do pretty much anything with an english major… your major doesnt exclude you from any job… you could go into finance if you wanted to</p>

<p>there are so many cases of people who majored in something but did something or went to grad school for somethign COMPLETELY different – my northwestern interviewer majored in journalism, ended up in law school… youre not really restricted by your major whatsoever</p>

12

<p>You can do everything and nothing with an English major. My suggestion would be improving your quantitative skills (minor in math or economics) and becoming fluent in a foreign language. Becoming computer savvy doesn’t hurt either.</p>

<p>And of course, internships, internships, internships!</p>

13

<p>My quantitative skills suck.</p>