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Majoring in English for Fun and Profit
The study of literature is not only civilized and civilizing — encompassing, as it does, philosophy, religion, the history of events and the history of ideas — but popular and practical. One-sixth of all those who receive bachelor’s degrees from the College of Arts and Sciences are English majors. These graduates qualify for a surprising range of jobs. Their experience puts the lie to the popular superstition that English majors must choose between journalism and teaching: in fact, English majors also receive excellent preparation for future careers in law, medicine, business, and government service.
Undergraduates looking forward to law school or medical school are often advised to follow a strict regimen of courses considered directly relevant to their career choices. Future law-school students are advised to take courses in political science, history, accounting, business administration — even human anatomy, and marriage and family life. Future medical school students are steered into multiple science courses — actually far more science courses than they need for entrance into medical school. Surprisingly, many law schools and medical schools indicate that such specialized preparation is not only unnecessary, but undesirable. There are no "pre-law" courses: the best preparation for law school — and for the practice of law — is that preparation which makes a student capable of critical thinking; of clear, logical self-expression; of sensitive analysis of the motives, the actions, and the thoughts of other human beings. These are skills which the study of English is designed to teach.
Entrance into law school, moreover, generally requires a bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution, a minimum grade point average, and an acceptable score on the Law School Admission Test (L.S.A.T.). This test has three parts. The first evaluates skills in reading comprehension, in figure classification, and in the evaluation of written material. The second part of the test evaluates control of English grammar and usage, ability to organize written materials, and competence to edit. The third part evaluates the student’s general knowledge of literature, art, music, and the natural and social sciences. Clearly an undergraduate major in English is strong preparation for the L.S.A.T.
As for medical schools, the main requirement for admission is only thirty-two hours of science courses. This requirement is certainly no impediment to a major in English. Moreover many medical schools require a minimum score on the Medical College Admissions Test, another test which offers an advantage to the well-rounded liberal arts student. The M.C.A.T. evaluates four areas of competence: skill with synonyms, antonyms, and word association; knowledge of basic mathematics from fractions through solid geometry; general knowledge of literature, philosophy, psychology, music, art, and the social sciences; and familiarity with those fundamentals of biology, chemistry, and physics taught in high school and in introductory college courses. The English major with a solid, basic grounding in science is well prepared for this test and for medical school, where his or her skills in reading, analysis, interpretation, and precise communication will equip him or her to excel. The study and practice of medicine can only benefit from the insights into human behavior provided by the study of literature.
Such insights are obviously also valuable to the student who plans a career in commerce. Such students should consider the advantages of an English major with an emphasis in business: this program is designed to provide a liberal education, as well as to direct preparation for a business career. The need for such a program is clear: graduates with merely technical qualifications are finding jobs in business, but often failing to hold them. Both the Wall Street Journal and the Journal of College Placement have reported that increasing numbers of graduates from reputable business schools find themselves drifting from one job or firm to another, unable to hold a position for longer than twelve months. Employers complain that these apparently promising young men and women are simply not competent communicators: because they are not sufficiently literate, they cannot absorb managerial training; they cannot make effective oral presentations; they cannot report progress or problems in their writing; they cannot direct other workers. Skill in analysis and communication is the essence of management.
Consequently the English major with an emphasis in business is particularly well prepared for a future in business administration. Nearly four hundred companies in fields ranging from banking and insurance to communications to manufacturing were asked whether they hired college graduates with degrees in English, even when those graduates lacked special training in the industry: Eighty-five percent of the companies said that they did. College graduates with degrees in English are working successfully in marketing, in systems engineering, in personnel management, in sales, in programming, in project design, and in labor relations.
English majors are also at work in the thousand occupations provided by government at all levels. Consider, for example, the federal government—by a very wide margin, America’s biggest employer. In organizations ranging from the Marine Corps to the Bureau of Mines, from the Commerce Department to the National Park Service, the federal government employs a work force of nearly three million men and women. English majors may qualify for many of these jobs. Recently, 51 federal agencies were asked the same question: whether they hired college graduates with English degrees but without special job training, 88 percent of these federal employers said yes. The list of federal positions for which English majors may qualify ranges from Claims Examiner to Foreign Service Officer to Highway Safety Management Specialist. Again, those who seek positions of high reward and responsibility may be asked to take a test — the federal government uses the Professional and Administrative Career Examination, or P.A.C.E., to evaluate applicants for about 10,000 jobs each year — and again, the test focuses on language skills: comprehension, analysis, interpretation, the ability to see logical relationships between ideas, and the ability to solve problems expressed in words. Not surprisingly, competent English majors often receive very high scores on the P.A.C.E.
In short, a major in English is neither restricting nor impractical: the study of English is excellent preparation for professional life.
The study of literature is not only civilized and civilizing — encompassing, as it does, philosophy, religion, the history of events and the history of ideas — but popular and practical. One-sixth of all those who receive bachelor’s degrees from the College of Arts and Sciences are English majors. These graduates qualify for a surprising range of jobs. Their experience puts the lie to the popular superstition that English majors must choose between journalism and teaching: in fact, English majors also receive excellent preparation for future careers in law, medicine, business, and government service.
Undergraduates looking forward to law school or medical school are often advised to follow a strict regimen of courses considered directly relevant to their career choices. Future law-school students are advised to take courses in political science, history, accounting, business administration — even human anatomy, and marriage and family life. Future medical school students are steered into multiple science courses — actually far more science courses than they need for entrance into medical school. Surprisingly, many law schools and medical schools indicate that such specialized preparation is not only unnecessary, but undesirable. There are no "pre-law" courses: the best preparation for law school — and for the practice of law — is that preparation which makes a student capable of critical thinking; of clear, logical self-expression; of sensitive analysis of the motives, the actions, and the thoughts of other human beings. These are skills which the study of English is designed to teach.
Entrance into law school, moreover, generally requires a bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution, a minimum grade point average, and an acceptable score on the Law School Admission Test (L.S.A.T.). This test has three parts. The first evaluates skills in reading comprehension, in figure classification, and in the evaluation of written material. The second part of the test evaluates control of English grammar and usage, ability to organize written materials, and competence to edit. The third part evaluates the student’s general knowledge of literature, art, music, and the natural and social sciences. Clearly an undergraduate major in English is strong preparation for the L.S.A.T.
As for medical schools, the main requirement for admission is only thirty-two hours of science courses. This requirement is certainly no impediment to a major in English. Moreover many medical schools require a minimum score on the Medical College Admissions Test, another test which offers an advantage to the well-rounded liberal arts student. The M.C.A.T. evaluates four areas of competence: skill with synonyms, antonyms, and word association; knowledge of basic mathematics from fractions through solid geometry; general knowledge of literature, philosophy, psychology, music, art, and the social sciences; and familiarity with those fundamentals of biology, chemistry, and physics taught in high school and in introductory college courses. The English major with a solid, basic grounding in science is well prepared for this test and for medical school, where his or her skills in reading, analysis, interpretation, and precise communication will equip him or her to excel. The study and practice of medicine can only benefit from the insights into human behavior provided by the study of literature.
Such insights are obviously also valuable to the student who plans a career in commerce. Such students should consider the advantages of an English major with an emphasis in business: this program is designed to provide a liberal education, as well as to direct preparation for a business career. The need for such a program is clear: graduates with merely technical qualifications are finding jobs in business, but often failing to hold them. Both the Wall Street Journal and the Journal of College Placement have reported that increasing numbers of graduates from reputable business schools find themselves drifting from one job or firm to another, unable to hold a position for longer than twelve months. Employers complain that these apparently promising young men and women are simply not competent communicators: because they are not sufficiently literate, they cannot absorb managerial training; they cannot make effective oral presentations; they cannot report progress or problems in their writing; they cannot direct other workers. Skill in analysis and communication is the essence of management.
Consequently the English major with an emphasis in business is particularly well prepared for a future in business administration. Nearly four hundred companies in fields ranging from banking and insurance to communications to manufacturing were asked whether they hired college graduates with degrees in English, even when those graduates lacked special training in the industry: Eighty-five percent of the companies said that they did. College graduates with degrees in English are working successfully in marketing, in systems engineering, in personnel management, in sales, in programming, in project design, and in labor relations.
English majors are also at work in the thousand occupations provided by government at all levels. Consider, for example, the federal government—by a very wide margin, America’s biggest employer. In organizations ranging from the Marine Corps to the Bureau of Mines, from the Commerce Department to the National Park Service, the federal government employs a work force of nearly three million men and women. English majors may qualify for many of these jobs. Recently, 51 federal agencies were asked the same question: whether they hired college graduates with English degrees but without special job training, 88 percent of these federal employers said yes. The list of federal positions for which English majors may qualify ranges from Claims Examiner to Foreign Service Officer to Highway Safety Management Specialist. Again, those who seek positions of high reward and responsibility may be asked to take a test — the federal government uses the Professional and Administrative Career Examination, or P.A.C.E., to evaluate applicants for about 10,000 jobs each year — and again, the test focuses on language skills: comprehension, analysis, interpretation, the ability to see logical relationships between ideas, and the ability to solve problems expressed in words. Not surprisingly, competent English majors often receive very high scores on the P.A.C.E.
In short, a major in English is neither restricting nor impractical: the study of English is excellent preparation for professional life.
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