The English major features small classes of students working closely with highly accomplished faculty to develop analytical and writing skills. Students can expect to be challenged, stretched, trained, and informed (as well as amused, moved, amazed, maybe even transformed). The English major allows flexible plans of study appropriate for different career aspirations.
Degree Outcomes
- Enter professions including teaching, writing and editing, journalism, law, social work, business, communications, advertising, the ministry, and library science.
- Pursue graduate study in law at institutions including Elon University and The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and in literature at institutions including The University of Texas and The University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
The Student Experience
- Classes taught almost exclusively by permanent, tenure-track faculty members.
- Study with faculty that have published more than 30 academic studies, novels, and books of poetry since 2010.
- Gain academic credit and professional experience as an intern.
- Perform undergraduate research and present findings in conference format.
- Classes of no more than 36 students, typically capped at even fewer.
- An impressive range of critical and creative speakers visit campus.
Accolades & Accomplishments
- Ranked 45th out of more than 200 research-intensive English departments in overall faculty scholarly productivity in 2014 by Academic Analytics.
- One of the oldest and most prestigious MFA creative writing programs in the U.S., with graduates publishing more than 200 works of poetry and fiction since 2008.
- MFA alumna Kelly Link was a 2016 Pulitzer Prize finalist in fiction.
