<p>Is English a popular major at UChicago? Is the department strong? I'm not sure if that is what I want to major in, but I love the subject and will definitely take many courses.</p>
<p>Also, do you recommending pursuing both a major in minor (ie, in English and Psychology) or will it be too hard to manage?</p>
<p>Current college student and English major here!</p>
<p><em>waves hand frantically</em></p>
<p>Be warned that most of the supergeniuses I've met here are not English majors, but rather math, econ, physics, and classics majors. The English major is not only doable, but it is thesis-optional. I think it tends to attract students who don't want to have to come to terms with a BA, like they do in other majors that the college offers.</p>
<p>That said, I LOVE Chicago for English. First of all, I like that it's a smaller program than some of the others-- I don't necessarily want to be surrounded by English majors when I'm up to my neck in Shakespeare and Milton. The profs I've had so far have been terrific, and my English major friends only have the best things to say about the professors that they have had. Even though you may not find students who have chosen to major in English, you'll find a lot of students who are dynamite in an English class-- visit a Core humanities class and you'll see what I mean.</p>
<p>I generally don't recommend majoring and minoring, but both the English and psych programs here are pretty manageable and I could imagine one major-minoring that way. You'll also find that the school has a lot of Freudians as well as English profs who use psychoanalytic theory, so if that intersection of psych and English interests you, this is a great place.</p>
<p>thanks for the info! the program sounds great.</p>
<p>im just a little confused by this comment, though: "I think it tends to attract students who don't want to have to come to terms with a BA"</p>
<p>Does this mean that most English students don't earn BA's or masters?</p>
<p>Ah, no. This is UChicago terminology. :)</p>
<p>We call your senior thesis a "BA" at Chicago. If someone says they're writing their BA, they're writing their senior thesis. A thesis is a long, independent, and culminating work of some sort in the field of your major. The length depends a lot on the subject, but is often in the 25-45 page range. Some colleges require theses in order to get "honors"; other schools make them strictly optional; and some schools do not have them much at all. The vast majority of majors at Chicago require a BA (or thesis). English and econ don't, so they tend to attract students who don't want to write a BA.</p>
<p>I'm not a student at UChicago (yet), but last spring I did visit a class for English majors, critical perspectives, and I thought it was spectacular. It was kind of a large class (I think I counted a little over 20), but every single perosn in the class was engaged. No one dominated the discussion, and everyone participated. The prof was friendly and excited about the material. He was good at letting the students go off on interesting tangents, but then relating back on what they were supposed to be discussing. It was really all I could ask for in an english course.</p>
<p>oh! thanks for the clarification! The option of writing it sounds very relieving</p>
<p>Critical Perspectives is actually the only single class required for all English majors. (And 20 isn't large! Oh my goodness we need to get you guys into a large state school for a while.)</p>
<p>Yeah, 18-20 is a solid size for discussion and most of your core classes will be that size.</p>
<p>When I visited the school, I sat in on a four-person English class. It wasn't the best class ever, nor were the students the best students ever, but considering that I was literally jumping out of my seat trying to restrain myself from joining the conversation (on a book I hadn't even read), I realized that I had to come here.</p>
<p>I'm an English major at Penn, and I can vouch for Chicago's English Department as one of the best departments in the country, with professors whose work I read all the time in my classes. It's a great department.</p>
<p>Ah, Veeder.</p>
<p>Everything is a phallic symbol!</p>
<p>Taking a class with Veeder this fall :-)</p>
<p>Bevington is a cool guy for many reasons (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Bevington%5B/url%5D">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Bevington</a> is just the beginning), but I hear he has a quiet voice and doesn't lecture that well unless you're sitting way up front.</p>