Majoring in English—why so much disrespect?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Current English major and although I do get bored with Victorian novels I can’t imagine studying anything else. I have a plan of what I want to do and I’m happy. My major has set me back pre-professionally (no good internships), but I love writing and that’s what I want to work on. I also want to work on my critical thinking skills. I’m going into debt, but at least I’ve learned things I never thought I’d learn. Would I prefer a major that was better suited to my career? Maybe! But, I won’t have this level of learning and exploring again so I’ll use college for that.

How do you expect to pay your debts off? Hoping for another D potus who will have taxpayers pay off your debt?

Also, there are many many majors you can study that teach critical thinking skills, and where you will be able to get a decent paying job and not expect taxpayers to foot your bill.

I completely disagree with your assessment; English majors are absolutely employable. In fact, among the degrees that develop critical thinking and writing skills, I’d argue English is the strongest.

In my own career, I actively hire for those exact abilities: critical thinking, reading comprehension, and clear writing. English majors consistently excel in these areas and make excellent employees. The same goes for history majors and lawyers, even though my field has nothing to do with history. While many majors encourage analytical thinking, strong reading and writing skills are surprisingly rare.

DH is an engineer and it's a skill most of his employees are sorely lacking.

Personally, I’ve never once been unemployed as an English major. I earn a strong salary (currently $170k) and enjoy an excellent work/life balance

Most English majors go on to graduate school to be employable.

Most majors teach critical thinking skills. Do you think a CS/Eng major doesn't learn critical thinking skills?

It's the reading and writing skills that engineers don't have. Ask me how I know.

maybe, but Engineers are more employable without a graduate degree than English majors are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Current English major and although I do get bored with Victorian novels I can’t imagine studying anything else. I have a plan of what I want to do and I’m happy. My major has set me back pre-professionally (no good internships), but I love writing and that’s what I want to work on. I also want to work on my critical thinking skills. I’m going into debt, but at least I’ve learned things I never thought I’d learn. Would I prefer a major that was better suited to my career? Maybe! But, I won’t have this level of learning and exploring again so I’ll use college for that.

How do you expect to pay your debts off? Hoping for another D potus who will have taxpayers pay off your debt?

Also, there are many many majors you can study that teach critical thinking skills, and where you will be able to get a decent paying job and not expect taxpayers to foot your bill.

I completely disagree with your assessment; English majors are absolutely employable. In fact, among the degrees that develop critical thinking and writing skills, I’d argue English is the strongest.

In my own career, I actively hire for those exact abilities: critical thinking, reading comprehension, and clear writing. English majors consistently excel in these areas and make excellent employees. The same goes for history majors and lawyers, even though my field has nothing to do with history. While many majors encourage analytical thinking, strong reading and writing skills are surprisingly rare.

DH is an engineer and it's a skill most of his employees are sorely lacking.

Personally, I’ve never once been unemployed as an English major. I earn a strong salary (currently $170k) and enjoy an excellent work/life balance

Most English majors go on to graduate school to be employable.

Most majors teach critical thinking skills. Do you think a CS/Eng major doesn't learn critical thinking skills?

Not most, that’s just not true, but that is how liberal arts degrees work. Physics is just as unemployable without grad school or a ton of coursework outside your subject. Same with Chemistry. Same with Philosophy. Same with History.

Humanities: Literature, history, philosophy, languages, religion.
Social Sciences: Psychology, sociology, political science, economics, anthropology.
Natural Sciences: Biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics.

Most of those require a graduate degree to get a decent paying job.

My brother was a physics major at a public ivy. He had to get a graduate degree in EE to get a job.

I got a BBA and was able to get a good paying job just out of college at a no name state u. I then took some programming courses, and we both ended up in the tech field, with me making 2x more than him because I also had a business background that I combined with my programming skills. That was more marketable than his generic coding skills. This was in the heyday of the dotcom boom in the 90s in silicon valley when I started earning six figures.

Now, part of this is personality. I'm much more of a go getter than he is, but part is also background knowledge. After 20 years, I still make about 2x more than he does.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many people think its easy - I speak English, how difficult can it be? They don't understand (or don't want to understand) what the major entails. The breadth and type of literature that is read is not easy. Just try reading Chaucer's work in its original Middle English with a deep understanding followed by critical analysis and writing. I understand it's difficult to get a high paying job like in finance which is why many English majors do go on to grad school.

l

GMU English grad here again. No, it was really really easy. They even had movie classes, movies! And I skipped the hard books. Just pay attention in class and take some notes, I never read a single Faulkner book.

Well, that's GMU for you.

GMU major- you don't speak for all of us. My course load was high in college as an English major. I too never read a Faulkner book, but obviously read a lot of other complicated tomes. I took 3 English courses a semester and there was no way i could take more. Most of those required a book a week, so 3 books a week took a lot of time and effort before I even started on analyzing them and writing papers. Very few of my classmates made A's. It wasn't considered an easy major.

I was an English major, too. I remember reading 3-4 novels a week. I also wrote several 10-12 page papers each semester, as well as many shorter papers. I learned how to present and defend an argument.

English wasn’t an easy major, but I would pick it again. I’ve never had a problem finding employment and I’m paid well.

[Anonymous]

I'm in a wholly unrelated field to English but I am an English major. Went on to get another grad degree and that's what I do now.

Another colleague is in the exact same boat.

Guess which two of us (out of 10) have the best communication and leadership skills?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It must be resentment. There are some weirdly angry people here. And yes, obviously a bunch are just trolling to get a rise out of people, but some of these people mean what they write.

Yes, I'm angry that we taxpayers had to foot your bill. So were millions of others.

The loans that taxpayers had to pay were business loans during covid and bail outs of banks and airlines. I'm not familiar with mass student loan payments by taxpayers.

(Yes, there's forgiveness for public servants, but we all benefit from that.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm in a wholly unrelated field to English but I am an English major. Went on to get another grad degree and that's what I do now.

Another colleague is in the exact same boat.

Guess which two of us (out of 10) have the best communication and leadership skills?

that's great, but you also needed a graduate degree to get a job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It must be resentment. There are some weirdly angry people here. And yes, obviously a bunch are just trolling to get a rise out of people, but some of these people mean what they write.

Yes, I'm angry that we taxpayers had to foot your bill. So were millions of others.

The loans that taxpayers had to pay were business loans during covid and bail outs of banks and airlines. I'm not familiar with mass student loan payments by taxpayers.

(Yes, there's forgiveness for public servants, but we all benefit from that.)

only govt workers with loans benefited from that. The taxpayers didn't benefit from that.

I didn't agree with business loans, either, but at the least, it was done so that people wouldn't lose their jobs. You getting a degree in something not marketable and then not being able to get a job that pays enough to pay off your loan was your choice.

My niece worked 3 jobs to pay off her loan. She picked a field that she could get a good paying job in to pay off that loan.

You underestimate how much regular taxpayers, the majority of whom don't have degrees, feel about taxpayers paying off your loans because of your choices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It must be resentment. There are some weirdly angry people here. And yes, obviously a bunch are just trolling to get a rise out of people, but some of these people mean what they write.

Yes, I'm angry that we taxpayers had to foot your bill. So were millions of others.

Weird take. We're full pay, thank you, and probably subsidizing your child. Thanks to my high-earning English major spouse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It must be resentment. There are some weirdly angry people here. And yes, obviously a bunch are just trolling to get a rise out of people, but some of these people mean what they write.

Yes, I'm angry that we taxpayers had to foot your bill. So were millions of others.

The loans that taxpayers had to pay were business loans during covid and bail outs of banks and airlines. I'm not familiar with mass student loan payments by taxpayers.

(Yes, there's forgiveness for public servants, but we all benefit from that.)

only govt workers with loans benefited from that. The taxpayers didn't benefit from that.

I didn't agree with business loans, either, but at the least, it was done so that people wouldn't lose their jobs. You getting a degree in something not marketable and then not being able to get a job that pays enough to pay off your loan was your choice.

My niece worked 3 jobs to pay off her loan. She picked a field that she could get a good paying job in to pay off that loan.

You underestimate how much regular taxpayers, the majority of whom don't have degrees, feel about taxpayers paying off your loans because of your choices.

Everyone working in public interest is eligible for public interest loan forgiveness -- teachers, nurses, social workers, legal aid lawyers, public defenders, etc. Even if that doesn't include you because you chose a higher paying job, we all benefit from people doing those jobs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:History and English were considered respectable majors in the past. I know many who went on to law school or medical school. They’re generally thought to have good writing and analytical skills. Now, people scoff when you saying you’re majoring in English or history. I know there’s AI to worry about, but isn’t that true for CS and accounting too?

I don’t know a single English major that went on to medical school.

No way you know many.

Plenty of non STEMs go into medicine.

+1

Two good friends majored in Classics and went on to medical school.

[Anonymous]

I was a barista for nearly three decades barely making minimum wage. I'm a millionaire now. Once I wrote down what got me out of poverty.
The list of things, qualities, skills, knowledge, temperament, and whatever else, was very long. Combined, they were powerful. Most people only have a few and they don't even recognize them as assets. They are betting on their major.
I cannot string two sentences together. Never needed writing outside of school or DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:History and English were considered respectable majors in the past. I know many who went on to law school or medical school. They’re generally thought to have good writing and analytical skills. Now, people scoff when you saying you’re majoring in English or history. I know there’s AI to worry about, but isn’t that true for CS and accounting too?

I have two kids. My son is majoring in history. My daughter starts college next year and would major in English if she knew what to do with an English degree; so she'll likely minor in English. I love telling people my kids' majors precisely because they are NOT the same old "engineering" that everyone else around here seems to be pursuing. Also, given what's going on in this country and the world these days, HISTORY is more important than ever. And English - so people can read, understand, and analyze it and write coherently about it relative to what is happening in the present and may happen in the future.

And I believe history and English are still important knowledge and skills development for other areas such as law, governance, teaching, even marketing and the arts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was a barista for nearly three decades barely making minimum wage. I'm a millionaire now. Once I wrote down what got me out of poverty.
The list of things, qualities, skills, knowledge, temperament, and whatever else, was very long. Combined, they were powerful. Most people only have a few and they don't even recognize them as assets. They are betting on their major.
I cannot string two sentences together. Never needed writing outside of school or DCUM.

right? where people nitpick your grammar. I guess the English degree was at least good for that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The wealthiest person I know (a multi-millionaire) majored in English, went on later to get an MBA, and successfully started two companies. He encouraged his own children to get a solid liberal arts education before picking a career.

YES!!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It must be resentment. There are some weirdly angry people here. And yes, obviously a bunch are just trolling to get a rise out of people, but some of these people mean what they write.

Yes, I'm angry that we taxpayers had to foot your bill. So were millions of others.

The loans that taxpayers had to pay were business loans during covid and bail outs of banks and airlines. I'm not familiar with mass student loan payments by taxpayers.

(Yes, there's forgiveness for public servants, but we all benefit from that.)

only govt workers with loans benefited from that. The taxpayers didn't benefit from that.

I didn't agree with business loans, either, but at the least, it was done so that people wouldn't lose their jobs. You getting a degree in something not marketable and then not being able to get a job that pays enough to pay off your loan was your choice.

My niece worked 3 jobs to pay off her loan. She picked a field that she could get a good paying job in to pay off that loan.

You underestimate how much regular taxpayers, the majority of whom don't have degrees, feel about taxpayers paying off your loans because of your choices.

Everyone working in public interest is eligible for public interest loan forgiveness -- teachers, nurses, social workers, legal aid lawyers, public defenders, etc. Even if that doesn't include you because you chose a higher paying job, we all benefit from people doing those jobs.

I don't think the loan forgiveness made any distinction between a teacher and a G13 fed paper pusher. So, no, most taxpayers didn't agree with it.

Unsurprisingly, the majority of loan holders approved of the program, which is a minority. So, the rest of the country (the vast majority) did not agree with it.

https://apnews.com/article/student-loan-cancellation-forgiveness-college-debt-e5ad2748058cfd037e0323321f532836

I despise Trump with every fiber of my being, but Biden's loan forgiveness program did not help the Dems.