Note: Whether you’re still deciding between two majors or you’ve already picked and want to know how wrong your choice was, you’ll undoubtedly find our new Guide To NYU Majors useful. We’ll be asking students in specific majors their thoughts on various aspects of their chosen field. You can see all posts in this series here.

Major: English and American Literature

School: CAS

Concentrations: None

Possible Joint Majors: None

Required Number of Classes: 10

Minor?: Yes

The English and American Literature major, usually termed simply “English,” is a reading-heavy, paper-heavy but very lively major that allows for a lot of discussion (once you’re past large survey classes) and interaction with professors. English majors, like myself, have mostly positive things to say (as you’ll see) and are a very passionate bunch. (Maybe just a product of excess energy unexpended as we read hundreds of pages each week.)

Those students who list “I don’t read” on Facebook next to their favorite books are weeded out early during preliminary courses, and each class is an enlightening experience. (I seriously mean that!) My experience has been close to perfect, except the infamous British Literature I course that you’ll see is so often mentioned. And as evidenced by our pithiest source, you can get awesome internships!

WHAT THE UNIVERSITY SAYS

The undergraduate English program at NYU offers a full and varied curriculum in literary history, critical theory, dramatic literature, theater history, and literary culture. The program offers a major or minor in English and American literature.

Qualified students in the English major are encouraged to apply for the honors program, which culminates in the writing of an honors thesis during the senior year under a faculty member’s supervision.

The Department also offers its majors and minors elective credit for internships in publishing, at literary agencies, and at other professional offices.

WHAT THE STUDENTS SAY

Quality of Professors:

• “Most of the professors I’ve had from the English Department have been pretty good. A few were a little out there, or a little bit past retirement age, but my favorites have definitely been Bryan Waterman and Cyrus Patell.”
• “Most of the grad professors trickle down to us: we get Guillory, Hoover, Nicholls. If that’s not hardcore I don’t know what is. Also most of the professors are pedigreed, if we can be superficial for a second (shiny degrees, published work, etc.).”
• “Great for the most part.”

Best Classes

• “I haven’t had the chance to take any crazy specialized classes, but of the surveys I’ve taken so far, American Lit I has definitely been the best.”
• “Ecocriticism. I think this is NYU’s first section ever. Una is fantastic and the collision of ecological thought and literary theory is new, exciting, and so today.”
• “All classes abroad at NYU in London; Am. Lit. I with Augst; Herman Melville with Nicholls.”

Worst Requirement

• “Definitely British Literature I.”
• “British Literature II (I hate British modernists). On a more general level, Literary Interpretation is embarrassing.”
• “British Literature I with Donoghue.”

Work Load

• “It’s a lot of reading. But of course you kind of sign up for that when you declare an English major… When I give the reading the time it requires, I usually find I’m reading pretty cool stuff. Though that rarely happens…”
• “Shitload of reading (if you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing), intense, hardcore, but intellectually stimulating papers (again, if you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing). I personally believe, however, that it’s possible to bullshit your way through the major and get a B if that’s enough for you. But the A requires a little more: that you be better than everyone else.”
• “Pretty serious.”

Class Size

• “Literary Interpretations is the size of your average high school English class, while the survey American Lit and Brit Lit courses are in bigger lecture halls, though there are never usually more than 100 students.”
• “Even the lectures aren’t that big. My Chaucer Colloquium has only 5 other kids! It’s incredible.”
• “Large lectures with recitation normally about 50; all others about 8-12.”

(Editorial Comment: Note the differences here in the English Majors’ class size estimations. Ha! We don’t get around to many math problems.)

Reputation

• “That we love reading and writing, enjoy papers and Chaucer, and are somehow going to be ill equipped for the rest of our lives (‘What are you going to do with a degree in English?’) That is, of course, entirely untrue, since if you know how to read, write, and think, you can do pretty much anything.”
• “Solid.”

What The Students Are Like

• “I have taken enough English courses now that I start to see the same kids in all of my classes. I always feel like everyone is a better English major than me; they all look prepared, or maybe they are just better at bullshitting the symbolism in the ending of that novel than me. Personally, I have found that most English majors are intimidatingly smart.”
• “Just…nice. I love English majors. They’re weak, innocent, soft-spoken (except for the stupid ones who raise their hands in large lectures) — but totally hardcore. The quiet ones in class are the beasts on paper, or vice versa. I love the major.”
• “They’re great, no but really they are.”

Internships and Post-Grad Opportunities

• “I have an internship at a literary magazine called Open City, though I didn’t get it through NYU, and don’t really know much about post-grad opportunities.”
• “Currently interning at a publishing house. “English major” means immediate relevance when interviewing for publishing positions, but it’s still open-ended. Future can include: English (MA, PhD), MFA, law, music, stripping, gardening.”
• “Lots of magazines (I’ve been at Wired, Country Living, and now Vogue); BA/MA program; Phd., Law school, journalism, TFA, etc.”

Reasons To Pick This Major

• “Because Walt Whitman still blows my mind every time, as does Hemingway, and T.S Eliot, and even Shakespeare. When else are you going to have to spend an entire afternoon tucked into an armchair reading Moby-Dick? Plus, I haven’t memorized formulas or dates in two years. It’s awesome.”
• “Shanna Williams. Please say something about her! She’s absolutely incredible and made the entire experience for me extra special since the day my scrawny freshman ass called for registration help: Brit Lit I. A more serious answer: Explicating literature is absolutely the best drug in the entire world. I get a high from writing a paper about one tiny word in a Dreiser novel or a Jeffersonian text. Unveiling the centuries of culture that ‘light’ or ‘garden’ or ‘culture’ hold is better than stripping your significant other of his or her clothing. I fell in love with the major when I realized in Brit Lit I how complicated, concrete, and sure it can be. Here’s a common misconception: You can bullshit an English essay right, because it’s your opinion? No, dumbass, you can’t. There’s a right and wrong answer and a good and bad way to do it. Be the good way.”
• “Shanna Williams is great. And the department and program and really about just getting into literature and figuring out why its useful and what it does; it’s magical.”

Reasons Not To Choose This Major

• “Why would you put yourself through the torture of having to read a book a week, then write two papers on it and read sixty pages of the Canterbury tales, in olde middle English?”
• “I don’t have any. If you don’t like reading, and hate Moby-Dick, maybe reconsider.”

Other Comments

• “English majors are cool. We work just as hard as everybody else… except maybe pre-med kids. But we get to read stories. Everyday. How awesome is that?”