How to spot an English major at RU

Being an English major at Rutgers involves hard work and lots of time and effort dedicated solely to reading classic novels and writing eight-page papers. Now inevitably there are going to be classes that you love, like Creative Writing, and classes that you hate and think are absolutely pointless, like Lit Theory. But regardless, you will find that being not only an English major, but an English major at Rutgers is one of the most rewarding experiences of your undergraduate career. So, whether you are already an English major at Rutgers, or you want to be, here are some things you can be reminded of, and some things to get prepared for:

Where you will be spending most of your time

Every major at Rutgers has its own home base – where you can meet, pass, and commiserate with people who know exactly what your semesters look, and feel like. For us English majors, that’s the College Ave campus. And believe me when I say, you’ll be spending an overwhelming amount of your four years shuffling between Scott Hall and Murray Hall. Be prepared to live in these two buildings more than you do your own bedroom because they will undoubtedly become like a second home while you’re obtaining your English degree. By the end of your Undergraduate career you are going to know every inch of these buildings. 

Misconceptions to watch out for

The second you tell someone that you are majoring in English, they automatically ask, “Oh, so you want to be a teacher?” Try it. It’s like clock work. And most of the time, the answer is no. People assume that English and Education majors are synonymous. But, they are not. You can do so much more with an English degree, than just teach. Being an English major, means that you are majoring in a category of communications, which opens you up to hundreds of opportunities in several different career departments. Now, teaching is an extremely reputable job, and teachers should have the utmost respect, but you should know that you have more options. With an English degree you can go into publishing, advertising, writing, public relations, journalism, marketing, copywriting, news reporting, blogging and media, researching – the list goes on forever. So, whether you know exactly what you want to do with your English degree and where you are going to go after Rutgers, or you are not sure what you want to use your degree for, be prepared for the ‘teacher’ question. It is going to happen, and it is going to happen a lot.

“There are no jobs for English majors.” This is something else that you are going to be told a lot, so it’s probably best for you to get used to it now. It’s true that the economy and job market are not quite what they used to be, and that advancing technology has made things more difficult for us, but it does not mean that the use and need for English majors has gone extinct. English majors do know how to communicate, analyze, conduct research, and think outside the box in order to create. And, there is a great set of skills that one achieves from majoring in English, other than the fact that we know Austen, Dickens and Bronte like the backs of our hands. It is what we do with these novels and the analysis and interpretation that we assemble through reading them that makes our success. We have honed skills that are vastly used and needed in the work world and we will be able to communicate these skills to future employers in order to find a steady and productive job that we love. So do not let anyone scare you into thinking you are never going to find a job in the major that you have spent four years working on, because it is beyond possible to spend the rest of your life doing what you love.

Creative Writing

Part of the English major curriculum at Rutgers is to have at least five  English electives, which of course, can consist of any combination of English classes. However, most English majors end up taking classes in Creative Writing. And a little word of advice: TAKE THESE CLASSES. You will honestly have the time of your life while taking them. We have some of the best Creative Writing professors here at Rutgers, so if you love to write and you love to create, this is the place for you to shine. Plus, if you do all the work and you put in a good effort, it’s also an easy A. In this class you will learn so much about writing and about perfecting your own individual craft, that you will be able to apply everything you’ve learned here in all of your future courses as well. Having no restrictions on what you can and cannot write about, you are able to share your unique work with your peers and have them review, edit, and give you really helpful feedback. So again, if you love to write these are great classes to help you improve and grow, and even if you don’t like to write but want fun electives, these are amazing classes. Rutgers has so many different categories of electives in Creative Writing from the intro courses, to fiction and non-fiction, to poetry and documentary filmmaking for writers, there are so many to choose from.

You can not minor in creative writing if you are an english major

This might seem really strange to you, because it did to me when I first heard it, but now that Rutgers finally made Creative Writing a minor, you unfortunately cannot make it your minor if you are already majoring in English. For those of you who have been waiting for this moment since you came to Rutgers, I feel you, I wanted to do it too, but we can’t. If you are an English Major the only thing you can do in Creative Writing, is get the Creative Writing Certificate, which includes the same amount of work and courses as the minor, but it only counts as a certificate. I know how dumb that sounds, but it’s the truth. It’s a bit of a drawback, but all in all, if you love Creative Writing and you want to do something in that field after Rutgers, I’d definitely go for the certificate. Like I said, the classes are great so you won’t regret taking them, but just be forewarned if you see that the minor is now available, you cannot minor in Creative Writing if you are majoring in English.

Our happy place

Whether you love Austen, Bronte, Shakespeare, Chaucer, Poe, Hughes, Marx, or Wells, or whether you love fiction, non-fiction, poetry, plays, or whatever else your passion is, the Rutgers English Department has the best classes for all of us who have soft spots for the arts. No matter how overwhelmed you might be by all the time it takes to read and analyze, or with how long your required papers have to be, and how much you have to read in one week for five different classes, at the end of the day, our English classes are our happy place. Being English majors, reading hundreds of pages, and writing dozens of papers is our passion, and the Rutgers English Department, and its incredible staff, have given us the opportunity to explore that passion, and have it grow even more over our four years here. No matter what area of expertise we end up embarking into after we graduate from Rutgers, we were given the chance to learn and love English here, at Rutgers. For us Rutgers English majors, there is no place we’d rather be, than at the best university, with the best staff, and with the best variety of English courses there can possibly be.