<p>I'm interested in becoming a writer one day. However, I'm not sure whether a Yale English major would help me to reach this goal. I believe in the "read intensively, write intensively" rule for aspiring writers.</p>
<p>I've heard that English majors are usually focused on analysis though. The essays are interpretations and analysis of the texts read in class. This doesn't interest me, as I mostly enjoy writing stories. I am aware of the writing concentration, which seems focused on creative writing, but I'm not willing to major in English just for the writing concentration.</p>
<p>I'm also good at math/science. Do you guys think an English major is worth pursuing, or should I choose an engineering or math major?</p>
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<p>You don’t have to major in English to taking writing workshops or Daily Themes.</p>
<p>D1 majored in English w/writing concentration. She has some of the same feelings you do about analysis and close readings, but for her it was a good compliment to taking premed course work. I wanted both of my relatively strong math/science kids to consider Engineering, but neither did :(.</p>
<p>Just talked to D1. She says that everyone gets into Daily Themes as it’s a large class. The small CW workshops:</p>
<p>[Creative</a> Writing | English](<a href=“Creative Writing]Creative Courses | English”>Creative Writing | English)</p>
<p>are open to anyone and there is no preference given to English majors. The only courses that give preference to English majors are Seminars, but these are analytical, not CW.</p>
<p>Great, thanks for the response. I’ll probably major in environmental engineering then and write on the side.</p>
<p>Forgot to say, CW workshops are based solely on submitted writing samples, not major. Good luck, sounds like a good way to go!</p>
<p>I met a Princeton CW professor who did her UG at Yale and said that, yes, it was very analysis-focused–not great prep for a writing career. I do think your best bet is to major in something else while taking workshops. </p>
<p>Yay writers :).</p>
<p>^Thanks for the additional input.</p>
<p>I’m an English major (hopefully with the creative writing concentration) and I just wanted to echo everyone else’s comments and say that you should probably major in something other than English. The English majors is one of the most elaborately structured majors I’ve seen at Yale, and there’s no way to escape analysis and close reading.</p>
<p>That being said, some things to keep in mind:
- College English vs. high school English: I know it’s annoying when people say things like “college is different” but bear with me. Most high schools don’t require their students to do the type of analysis required in literature courses at Yale. A very simple example of this is the fact that most people I know at Yale had never done close reading before setting foot on campus. I would encourage you to give a Yale English class a shot, because you might genuinely like it… </p>
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<li><p>Creative writing seminars are fairly difficult to get into. They all require a writing sample, and are typically extremely oversubscribed. If you write enough on your own, this shouldn’t be too much of a problem, but I personally found it difficult to build a writing portfolio I could use for writing samples, etc., especially because I switched majors (and life goals…) in the span of a month.</p></li>
<li><p>I think you might be restricting yourself a little by thinking of this situation as “should I major in X or Y?” I was absolutely certain I would major in anything but English before coming to Yale, and now I can’t imagine majoring in anything else. And this is coming from someone who wasn’t particularly inclined toward the type of “academic exploration” you hear about nonstop for the first month of school. You might surprise yourself and end up a religious studies major…</p></li>
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<p>Either way, I wish you the best of luck with freshman year, especially freshman fall. Yale can get a little rough at the beginning but you get the hang of it quickly, and I’m sure you’ll have a great time. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions about picking classes or about life at Yale in general. (As an aside, I too was contemplating a science major, specifically chemistry, pre-Yale. I’ll tell you how that went if you’re curious…)</p>
<p>Oh, also: in response to what glassesarechic wrote, the creative writing concentration is relatively new at Yale. I think it’s like 10 or 15 years old.</p>
<p>As well, you might be interested in reading this: [Dream</a> deferred | Yale Daily News](<a href=“http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/2011/feb/04/dream-deferred/]Dream”>http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/2011/feb/04/dream-deferred/)</p>
<p>Thanks for the in depth advice. </p>
<p>The article was a good read. I’ve realized that I should probably not major in English because of the nature of the major and my family’s financial situation.</p>
<p>I’m surprised by the abundant references to finance and consulting in the “Dreams Deferred” article. I had thought that most Yalies were not interested in finance.</p>
<p>Yahhh for writers. I’m a writer tooo and I was considering Yale and Columbia but I have a feeling that none of them will do me good except for being able to put on my resume I went o an ivy. I think I’m leaning more towards NYU Tisch now.</p>
<p>That’s a good point —*if I had seen the references to finance/consulting before coming here, I would’ve thought the same thing…</p>
<p>I wouldn’t say that Yalies are particularly interested in finance. I think that as graduation approaches and many seniors feel unsure of what they want to do when their time at Yale comes to an end, Wall Street just seems like an easy option. Tons of Wall St. banks and consulting firms recruit directly from Yale, so it’s pretty easy to get a job at, say, Goldman Sachs as an investment banker, regardless of your major (I mean, my friend’s an art history major and she’s going to be an i-banker at Goldman next year…). I hope that explains the Wall Street references…</p>
<p>^That’s interesting. Thanks for the reply.</p>