What does one do with an English/Creative Writing/Literature degree?

Parent Cafe
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<p>So my HS senior casually said today that maybe he should throw some schools in his app pile with English/Creative Writing (including script writing)/Literature in case he gets rejected by his other schools.</p>

<p>We've always felt he was actually strongest in language, as his achievement test scores always indicated that, but he struggled with intense perfectionism for years regarding writing, and is only now really moving in a positive direction.</p>

<p>His favorite class this semester is his college English Literature class where he's doing very well, and he'll probably get another LOR from his professor.</p>

<p>So, what does one do with a degree like this? Go to grad school? Combine it with another interest? </p>

<p>He's already applied to a number of schools including his Cal State schools (but maybe he can change major choice?), but still has his Common App schools to apply to, including reach and super reach schools. As well, he hasn't submitted his UC apps yet, though all the schools on the list at this point are Mech Engr. for majors, but that could be changed.</p>

<p>I know one super reach school has a creative writing certificate that includes some script writing classes, so that will definitely be his area of interest there (along with music) rather than Engr.</p>

<p>I guess we're looking for other ideas for possible schools, be they safety, reach or match schools.</p>

<p>His biggest weakness is that he has no AP exams, though will take some this year. He has 27.5 college credits (40.5 by end of year), a 2230 SAT and 3.95/4.48 GPA, though it will drop a bit, as he expects one B this semester. He still has yet to take his SAT IIs. Will take Math II and Lit in Nov., and Physics and Italian in December. Honestly have no clue if he'll break 700 on them, though I am assuming he will on Math and Lit.</p>

<p>We qualify for Cal Grant A and a small amount of Pell Grant. He does not want debt if possible, particularly for this major.</p>

<p>This is a kid who is still <em>totally</em> exploring majors and careers. He's applied/will apply to the following majors:</p>

<p>Mech Engr
Game Design
Metallurgic Engr.
Arts & Technology
CS Game Design
Digital Media Design
Product Design
Music</p>

<p>So, any suggestions for schools that meet 100% need or schools that might have good scholarships or even UCs known to have good programs in this area are welcome.</p>

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<p>Most of the people I know with degrees in English, including graduate degrees, are: teachers, administrative assistants, and homemakers/SAHMs. Some in marketing or technical/business writing.
Good idea to combine with another major, especially tech majors.</p>

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<p>I would drive up to USC and meet with someone about a scholarship. Likely CS/Game Design or Mech E. would be more fundable, with awesome script writing, entrepreneurship (i.e. product & digital media design), and Music. </p>

<p>Pasadena City College has a great program in Arts & Technology, design, and entrepreneurship; but would not have the total depth your son will need- he may have outgrown it- but the director is ambitious, skillful, and visionary and the students are really learning great things! What they are doing in the STEAM area is inspirational and practical.</p>

<p>USC does have some great scholarships- few and far between- but your son could easily have one of the “few”. I would suggest looking into Viterbi (USC).</p>

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<p>I work in the marketing group of a major corporation and we’ve hired several English and Journalism majors.</p>

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<p>The answer to your original question, based on people I know, is: teaching, law, journalism, writing, technical writing, public relations, magazine editing, management, finance, State Dept…you name it. I don’t know any administrative assistants.</p>

<p>I think that the quality and prestige of the undergraduate school tends to make more of a difference in humanities majors in general. </p>

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<p>USC has been off and on the list because of cost and extensive application, but yesterday, we found his external USB thingy that has all his animation projects on it, so he was able to upload some art supplement items for two other schools. I just thought there’s no way he could get one of their scholarships since he’s not a top student. We’ll look at the application again. I don’t want him stressed out over yet one more long app, but it might be fun for him and there is Thanksgiving vacation for doing apps.</p>

<p>Pasadena College sounds great, but we’re in the San Diego area.</p>

<p>atomom, what schools have combo majors? How do we look for that? I know he could not handle a double major, at least not the way he is now. His health management takes just enough time to limit his capacity. I don’t think he’d want to teach. He just loves to create, though he is really enjoying analysis. He’s entering a few small writing competitions this fall, too. </p>

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<p>Consolation, what would I do to find a list of good schools in these fields? US News rankings? This is very out of my realm of knowledge. STEM schools are so much easier to identify, ha!</p>

<p>And re. USC-so many majors look interesting. Not sure which would be the right choice (since you have to choose one). Guess we’ll look at them all.</p>

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<p>Steven Sample really tried to increase the prestige of USC in its engineering department (think University of Alabama today) over the last couple of decades. They have always been strong in Music, Screenwriting, entrepreneurship. Their great program in animation/game design is relatively new, but Zynga and the rest of that aspect of “Silicon Beach” (Santa Monica) has not been doing stellar lately. The trick is to find out where USC is trying to shore up its reputation and have your son apply there. I think it may be Viterbi, which has a great graduate reputation, but the UG had been lagging behind. I think Max Nikias (former Dean of Engineering) still wants to increase the stature of Viterbi, and continue supporting the animation/game design group. That is where I would look, at first blush, for scholarship $$.</p>

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<p>Let’s see: of my peers who were English majors in college, there are several lawyers, professors, high school teachers; marketing, advertising, and retail management executives; corporate communications folks; technical writers; HR managers; commodities traders. English does not track into any one job so the English major needs to do internships and take care to market oneself more consciously than might be required in a more overtly preprofessional major. It’s a major, like so many, that prepares one for “nothing and everything.”</p>

<p>If your son is seriously interested in majoring in English, don’t go to a preprofessionally oriented school with lots of vocational degrees, because the English department in these kinds of institutions is essentially a service department catering to gen ed requirements, and it won’t have great upper-level offerings or a strong cohort in the major. I do think the more nationally prestigious schools and state flagships offer better humanities programs across the board (remnants from the old days and investment in a culture of liberal arts education, which is not common in many places). USC would be fine, but Pasadena City College, I’d have my doubts.</p>

<p>It sounds as if your son doesn’t really know what he wants to do and he has a lot of talents, so sending him to an overall strong school with room for intellectual change and growth would be the best thing.</p>

<p>PS: it doesn’t necessarily take more energy or time to double major, or pick up a minor. The overall number of credits required to graduate is the same. You just have to plan and make sure the classes you are taking for, say, your minor will help you fulfill gen ed or distribution requirements or free elective requirements. </p>

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<p>So one sil has done the following: driven a school bus, been a children’s librarian, written for a local paper, had a cooking column and self published cookbook, taught high school, taught nursery school, worked the EMS order lines, run an upholstery business very part time and tried to develop a small piece of property for small affordable houses.</p>

<p>Other sil has done thing with music production and lately has been involved in the PTA and getting people elected to her town government.</p>

<p>A would be English major who switched to music, had two children’s books published while she was in college, became an Episcopalean priest, and teaches music and tests recorders, and runs a cutting flower garden.</p>

<p>You know, at many schools your son can just apply undecided. My younger son did that even though he had a pretty good idea about what his major would be, his high school activities did not point that way at all.</p>

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<p>I have read articles about the demand for English and writing majors and wish I could cite them. Writing is highly valued in so many fields, as is the ability to read and analyze.</p>

<p>I feel sad when every major possibility has to be justified in terms of career, but the reality is that loans need to be repaid, so I will repeat that English and writing have practical applications when the student interns or applies for jobs later on.</p>

<p>If your son is so undecided about what he wants to study, he can apply as an undecided and take some time freshman year to try some things out. That is not true with engineering of course, or other preprofessional programs that have a foundational sequence of courses that begin early.</p>

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<p>Perhaps a look at the catalogs and schedules of the various colleges can show what kind of English (both literature and writing emphasis) courses are available.</p>

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<p>Pasadena City College is a community college, so it would not be a school where one intends to graduate with an bachelor’s degree in English (or other subject); it can be an option for some students to start their college work and transfer to a four year school to complete a bachelor’s degree in English (or other subject).</p>

<p>Writing skills are certainly valuable everywhere, but someone looking in to a writing career may find it quite important to get good breadth of subject matter knowledge from out-of-major course work, in order to have some knowledge of the things that s/he writes about. Given his varied interests, he may end up taking a broad selection of out-of-major course work anyway.</p>

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<p>I am a corporate lawyer who majored in Comparative Literature. The managing partner (and most successful lawyer) at my firm majored in Spanish Literature. My sister also majored in Spanish Literature, and she has had a very successful career managing international equity investment funds; she has no advanced degree beyond her BA. One of my Comp Lit friends with whom I am still in touch became a trend-setting chef with her own restaurant in the late 1980s, and now runs a very successful high-end catering company with her husband. Another is a fairly well-known poet with a faculty position at a top-ranked LAC. Another is a professor at a university in New England.</p>

<p>My best English major college friend is a right-wing public intellectual (with a law degree). Another English major friend is an agent for authors. Another has had a fabulous career as a network television news producer. Another is a former magazine editor who now works for Amazon.com in a senior position. Graduate students I knew became (a) an English professor and department chair (x 3), (b) a law professor, and (c) a successful TV showrunner/writer.</p>

<p>My daughter was an English major. She taught high school English with Teach For America after college, and now works on education reform issues at a famous foundation. Her English major college BFF and roommate is a PhD student in English.</p>

<p>In other words, there is a lot of ground the major can cover. It’s not like getting an engineering degree or a nursing degree in terms of immediate employability in a defined set of jobs, but those are exceptions, not the rule.</p>

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<p>Since you are in Southern California, might want to check out University of Redlands creative writing program. They had great merit scholarships at the University while son was there. He might also look at Johnson. No engineering majors. </p>

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<p>I don’t know about creative writing undergrad degree, but English Lit undergrad degree people I know: Technical writer, pediatrician, Several Partners in Law Firms, Editor: both TV news and publishing. Marketing Director, PR owner, Campaign Manager of many national campaigns (originally a speech writer)… Journalist, both TV and print. Entrepreneur, Restaurateur, Professor, Comedy Writer. These are some things. I’m sure there are others. </p>

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<p>I wanted to add that my father was a successful lawyer, who majored in English Lit. Even Mitt Romney was an English major. Given your son’s eclectic interests, have you considered the College of Creative Studies at UCSB? It might be perfect for him.</p>

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<p>Thanks for all the suggestions and ideas-great lists of careers for people who majored in English. My son is more introverted, so I don’t see certain careers like lawyer, merketer etc. in his future. Truly, the theme that runs through his interests is creativity and design, but he has really enjoyed analyzing literature. I could see a “dream” job (or hobby) for him would be movie reviewer, tv/film writer, and maybe something that uses creativity and analysis. He has some good reasoning skills.</p>

<p>I do think it would be nice if my son were able to attend a school where he could explore various majors (though he’d love a school without a foreign language requirement!) including creative writing/lit. Not sure it’s possible, but he does have a few of those schools on the list where you can apply undeclared. We’ll look a little closer at the schools still left on the list.</p>

<p>Good grief-my oldest only applied to 10 schools, and this one is rapidly approaching 20 schools! It really makes sense, though, to cast a wider net when you a) don’t know what you want to study, b) aren’t a top student, and c) are looking for financial aid/scholarships.</p>

<p>Re. UCSB’s CCS program-looks like the lit program isn’t admitting students currently. I’ll look at Redlands. What’s Johnson?</p>

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<p>All this English major talk reminds me of Garrison Keillor. He is getting up there in age and may need to retire someday…</p>

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<p>My English major D works in book publishing. Not high paying, but she loves her job.</p>

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<p>You can be very introverted and do fine as a lawyer, most of the work is analytical, not the histrionics they show on TV.</p>