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Is English really a useless major?
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I keep hearing about how useless English is as a major... which really bums me out considering how much I've been struggling to find out exactly what kind of major I should consider.

Is English really that useless of a major? Or is just underrated?
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Comments (19)
dappled
11 months, 1 week ago | pl
I have two friends with English degrees and both are now English teachers. It was useful for them. It's not a bad one to have even if you're not going to use it as the primary focus of your job, because the English language impacts in nearly every job (in English-speaking countries) apart from, well, mime artists.

It's a better option in general than, say, getting a degree in criminology and then working in a sausage factory. Although, to be fair, what they put in sausages actually is pretty criminal.
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NotFloydzie
11 months, 1 week ago | pl
No major is useless.
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Anonymous Poll Creator
11 months, 1 week ago | pl
@: NotFloydzie
What about philosophy? What on earth are you suppose to do with that?
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mtg710
10 months, 4 weeks ago | pl
@: Anonymous
I'm not sure - Maybe you should ponder on it awhile. ;)
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Darkoil
11 months, 1 week ago | pl
My cousin got a degree in english, then she is doing a masters in speech therapy.
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ItDuz
11 months, 1 week ago | pl
Doesn't high rated jobs require very good English skills?
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Cheshir3cat
11 months, 1 week ago | pl
I guess it doesn't really matter which subjects you choose or what career, the best thing to do (in my opinion) is to take whatever you have chosen and aim to be at the top of it? :)
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Anonymous Poll Creator
11 months, 1 week ago | pl
@: Cheshir3cat
Well, that doesn't really help if I have no idea what I want to "chose" to do.
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Cheshir3cat
10 months, 4 weeks ago | pl
@: Anonymous
Hmm, seeing as I don't know you, the best answer I can give is to choose something you enjoy doing. As for english, I think it IS useful depending on the right career choice... Maybe a lecturer? I hear they get paid a decent amount and there isn't too much stress.

If you really like language, you can choose something like linguistics or interpretation if you learn a foreign language as well... I hope this helps somewhat. :/
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Finding_Peace_In_A_Mad_World
11 months, 1 week ago | pl
It could be more useful depending on hat career you would like, but regardless, I still think it would be useful.
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misca
11 months, 1 week ago | pl
Of course it depends on the job you want. If you want to become a game programmer for example, English as a major would be completely useless.

If you, however, wanted to teach English, then... Big surprise! English as a major would be useful!
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mehwhatever
11 months, 1 week ago | pl
No degree is useless, but it does depend on what you want to get out of it. I know two people who have both English degrees and jobs. One is my uncle, who ended up as head of his department in a fairly large corporation and did very well for himself. The other is my best friend, who is working herself to the bone making next to nothing as a retail manager. Neither of them work in their field, but my uncle got an opportunity and took it, and my friend is waiting for such an opportunity to appear.
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djpatties
11 months, 1 week ago | pl
Plenty of majors are useless, english being one of them, let me list some others that are useless just to help you.

Communication
Psychology
History
Liberal Arts
Anything in art in general
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Anonymous Poll Creator
11 months, 1 week ago | pl
@: djpatties
Well, that sucks for me, because my major interest is in the arts.

I might as well just NOT go to college at all :/
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djpatties
11 months, 1 week ago | pl
@: Anonymous
Its useless in terms of real world applications, but if its what you enjoy then go for it...just dont wana give you bad or incorrect advice. Especially with how competitive the job market is and will continue to be.
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bigtoy
11 months, 1 week ago | pl
If you like it then do it. There's nothing worse than studying something you don't like, apart from being in a carrer you don't like. Do it and see where it takes you. However you ought to speak to a careers adviser to try to discover something that would appeal to you so you have a goal to work towards.
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SMALLS
11 months ago | pl
even though most people don't care about proper English, i know that there are jobs proofreading for the internet to make sure they make sense and that the newspapers could use a couple more people who know english
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blackalica
10 months, 2 weeks ago | pl
El stupido
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pinkfuzzychicken
10 months ago | pl
I have a BA in English, and my biggest pet peeve is when people always ask, "Oh, so you want to teach?" Um, no...I've been trying to get into something within editing, publishing, copy/tech writing, etc...but all of those job postings require 2-3 years of experience working in said fields...errg...ok so where do you expect me to get this experience from?? lol..
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