<p>Hey CC, I’m currently a first year undergraduate at UCLA in Letters and Sciences. I’m currently torn between majoring in English and/or Comparative Lit. I’ve already decided that I am interested in this realm of the humanities, and I am dead set on going to law school after college. I have also taken comparable courses in each area and enjoyed doing the work for both. </p>
<p>The trouble is that at UCLA, the major requirements for my desired focus in each of these areas are almost exactly the same. Specifically as it relates to foreign language—so studying texts in their native language is going to be unavoidable. I don’t consider it <em>too</em> much of a problem, as I’m fluent in Spanish, but I don’t know whether two languages will cut it for Comparative Lit, especially as most major foreign texts are French/German. If it so happens that I am able to handle either area with the same proficiency and GPA, what would be the better choice, especially as it pertains to standing out among Law School applicants? I would normally consider double majoring, but it seems pointless in this case, as it adds more work and threatens my GPA.</p>
<p>To clarify, I am also minoring in Philosophy, but I’m sticking with it regardless. Again, the differences between the two majors doesn’t faze me, as I am equally interested in both. I just don’t want to pass up the opportunity for one only to realize later that I made the wrong choice. Sorry for my verbosity, I’m a n00b to CC</p>
<p>On the undergraduate level, the transferable skills you are going to acquire in either major are going to be pretty similar, so I think you can go with your own interests and your sense of which faculty you most like at UCLA. At many schools, there isn’t really a separate “comp. lit.” department, but a major that draws faculty from different departments. In some cases that can mean fewer opportunities for undergraduates, because there isn’t really a “department home” for clubs, social events, an honors program, and so on. But I have no idea whether this is the case with UCLA.</p>
<p>In the past, “comp lit.” basically meant “English, French, and German,” and the leading scholars were mostly European immigrants–many of them refugees from central Europe who arrived in this country after WWII. The canonical texts for them were European texts written from the Renaissance through the mid-twentieth century. With the retirement of this generation of scholars, comp. lit. as a discipline is changing. If you are fluent in Spanish, you might be interested in new work in New World literatures; “American studies” used to be exclusively focused on the USA (and even just on New England) but now there is a lot of interest in border areas and in the interaction between Anglo and Hispanic culture in many parts of North America. But these kinds of courses are as likely to be taught in English or in American Studies Departments as in Comparative Literature departments. Once again, it really depends on the university because different schools cut up the field in different ways.</p>
<p>I’m actually at UCLA, majoring(going to be majoring) in Comp. Lit, with a Philosophy minor.
My advise to you is to look at the major requirements for Comp. Lit and English and the course offerings in each of the departments. You’ll notice that Comp. Lit is more flexible and less structured as a major than English. That can either be a plus or a negative. What turns me off/turned me off about English as a major are the requirements. I feel if their major requirements weren’t so extensive and/or more open(as in not being so concentrated on historical works), I probably would have chosen English. The only negative to Comp. Lit, if you’re doing English as one of the literatures for the major, is that some upper division classes in the English department require you to have taken the English major lower division requirements(3 classes). Some professors will give you a PTE if you ask to enroll in them and forego those requirements, while others won’t allow you to enroll. Also, assuming you do Spanish as the literature in the original foreign language, also take a look at the course offerings of past quarters, to see if you’ll “like” what they have to offer in Spanish literatures. I know that if I read/spoke french or german fluently I probably would complete my major requirements with french or german texts as one of my literature requirements. </p>
<p>Don’t think of historical distribution requirements as merely pointless burdens. When I was an undergraduate literature major, I benefitted most from the courses in stuff I never would have read on my own (or if I had read it, I would not have been able to see what was interesting about it). It is far harder to understand, e.g., medieval literature without a teacher than nineteenth or twentieth century lit. On the other hand, a good teacher can make culturally and historically alien material come alive, and college may be your last chance to experience this. My advice is to range far and wide historically–many students are much too timid this way–but talk to advisors and other students about teaching quality so that you get effective professors.</p>