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Which college major... English or Communications?


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I don't want to make this a long post so I'll get right to the point. My daughter has a full scholarship and has been accepted into honors college next fall. She has a real gift with words and so she wants to go to college for that. At first she was going to major in English because that was the first program we found that focused on writing but it has a lot of literature classes and creative writing focus. She is not a story teller, she is more of a factual reporter. She enjoys history, politics, social issues, speech writing and speaking.

 

Then we found the communications degree and found the classes to be more in line with her journalistic tendencies. Well the other day a family member said to her that she had gotten a degree in communications and it is a worthless degree that is over saturated with students. Now we are worried that it is a bad choice for her to major in it but it really is where she is gifted.

 

She is actually going to dual major as a visual arts major also. Anyhow I need so e thoughts and opinions on this. Any advice? Should she change back to English and forget Communications?

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FWIW, English is typically perceived as a more rigorous major and the friends I know who were English majors are doing much better in their careers than those who were Comm. majors. Poli Sci or Intl. Relations are also generally seen as more rigorous majors than Comm.

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Alternately, see if they have a professional writing or technical writing *minor* that she could do along with whatever major. The writing you're talking about is technical writing. See if they have classes in it. My dd is talking a history major, and I'm suggesting to her that if she does that she goes for the professional writing/technical writing minor. At some schools it's called writing and editing, but whatever, check to see what your college offers.

 

Also, she might think about getting some career testing. I've known people who've gotten suggestions there they wouldn't have fathomed at all that turned out to be spot on.

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I agree with OhElizabeth, if it is something your daughter is open to. I have science degrees but I effectively write technical reports for a living. IMO It is easiest to become employed for this type of work if you have a major degree in whatever interesting subject with a minor in a writing-heavy social science or English/communications (my minor was history, and I went to a liberal arts college that focused on writing across the board, so that served me well.)

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I agree with OhElizabeth, if it is something your daughter is open to. I have science degrees but I effectively write technical reports for a living. IMO It is easiest to become employed for this type of work if you have a major degree in whatever interesting subject with a minor in a writing-heavy social science or English/communications (my minor was history, and I went to a liberal arts college that focused on writing across the board, so that served me well.)

 

 

Thanks for confirming that! It's something I caught onto after a comment from a friend and in some correspondence with HistoryJunkie here on the boards. If she doesn't see this thread, the op could bug her. It at least seems really logical to me. I think you have content and skills in college. Content is (or can be) what you're interested in, but you have to come out with a SKILL, something to DO with it.

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Where I live Communications is a worthless degree. It's what the kids who don't know what to do or can't get into the rigorous majors go with. It's considered a non-challenging degree that doesn't attract the best and brightest. If your daughter is in the honors program, I'd have her investigate a degree that is more highly regarded academically. She can talk to an advisor at her school. She might wish to look at Anthropology or Poli-Sci or Journalism or International Studies.

 

FWIW, a communications degree doesn't really qualify you to do anything other than get a job that requires you to have a college degree but what it's in doesn't matter.

 

Tara

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FWIW, English is typically perceived as a more rigorous major and the friends I know who were English majors are doing much better in their careers than those who were Comm. majors. Poli Sci or Intl. Relations are also generally seen as more rigorous majors than Comm.

Where I live Communications is a worthless degree. It's what the kids who don't know what to do or can't get into the rigorous majors go with. It's considered a non-challenging degree that doesn't attract the best and brightest. If your daughter is in the honors program, I'd have her investigate a degree that is more highly regarded academically. She can talk to an advisor at her school. She might wish to look at Anthropology or Poli-Sci or Journalism or International Studies.

 

FWIW, a communications degree doesn't really qualify you to do anything other than get a job that requires you to have a college degree but what it's in doesn't matter.

 

Tara

 

This was my experience in college a decade ago. It also may be the hierarchy those doing hiring today expect, even if the aptitude of students pursuing the degrees has changed. English would be preferable to Communications, although Journalism sounds preferable to either if it's available.

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Alternately, see if they have a professional writing or technical writing *minor* that she could do along with whatever major. The writing you're talking about is technical writing...

 

Also, she might think about getting some career testing. I've known people who've gotten suggestions there they wouldn't have fathomed at all that turned out to be spot on.

 

 

Technical writing is definitely a worthwhile field to look at!

 

Of the various occupations listed in the media and communication field, it is one of the best paying jobs, and has a better outlook (growing field) than others. Here's a list of career opportunities with a communication degree. Here is a list of what you can do with an English major. Sadly, both the pay and the outlook for journalism are not very sunny.

 

 

And I second the career testing! VERY helpful. :) BEST of luck! Warmly, Lori D.

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Thanks for confirming that! It's something I caught onto after a comment from a friend and in some correspondence with HistoryJunkie here on the boards. If she doesn't see this thread, the op could bug her. It at least seems really logical to me. I think you have content and skills in college. Content is (or can be) what you're interested in, but you have to come out with a SKILL, something to DO with it.

 

Well, I'm going to disagree.

 

This may be field specific or regional, but I know loads of technical writers at engineering firms who are being laid off or have been laid off multiple times. When times get tough, companies can make engineers and scientists do their own technical writing even though it may not be ideal. I'd seriously look into the employment projections for technical writing before encouraging anyone in that direction. It may make sense for a science major, because writing skills will make them more employable, but I have my doubts that a technical writing focus will do anything for a social sciences major. When I graduated Microsoft was hiring English majors in my sorority as technical writers, and that is definitely not the case now.

 

I guess I also don't see the distinction between skills and content here. Anyone in a writing major like history is already qualified to be a technical writer. The major by definition includes both skills and content. The issue is whether technical writing independent of a science degree is currently a marketable skill, and based on the anecdotal experiences of friends, it is not. :(

 

I know a lot more people employed in international studies or public policy, and I agree with Crimson Wife, look at social sciences over a communications major.

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Thanks for confirming that! It's something I caught onto after a comment from a friend and in some correspondence with HistoryJunkie here on the boards. If she doesn't see this thread, the op could bug her. It at least seems really logical to me. I think you have content and skills in college. Content is (or can be) what you're interested in, but you have to come out with a SKILL, something to DO with it.

 

Well, I'm going to disagree.

 

This may be field specific or regional, but I know loads of technical writers at engineering firms who are being laid off or have been laid off multiple times. When times get tough, companies can make engineers and scientists do their own technical writing even though it may not be ideal. I'd seriously look into the employment projections for technical writing before encouraging anyone in that direction. It may make sense for a science major, because writing skills will make them more employable, but I have my doubts that a technical writing focus will do anything for a social sciences major. When I graduated Microsoft was hiring English majors in my sorority as technical writers, and that is definitely not the case now.

 

I guess I also don't see the distinction between skills and content here. Anyone in a writing major like history is already qualified to be a technical writer. The major by definition includes both skills and content. The issue is whether technical writing independent of a science degree is currently a marketable skill, and based on the anecdotal experiences of friends, it is not. :(

 

I know a lot more people employed in international studies or public policy, and I agree with Crimson Wife, look at social sciences over a communications major.

 

 

Re: content and skills...IMO, right now, I agree with FairProspects here. It is very very hard to be employed as a technical writer if that is the only skill. It is best to have that combined with another thing, the skills gained in the science fields as a prominent example. For a personal anecdote, my BIL, an English and Linguistics major, was employed as a technical writer for many years. Unfortunately, when he was laid off, the writing was on the wall that those jobs were now few and far between, and he had to switch fields and get more education...he joined the Army and gained new skills, and has now combined those with his writing skills into a new career niche. In my case, I write technical reports about one very specific niche thing in my science field, and I have a fair amount of job security because it is so specialized--but I certainly did not enter college with the aim of doing what it is I do now, I had no idea it was even a thing back then and I started college intending a different major entirely. It is so hard to tell an incoming college freshman what to do, though, since you don't know what the world is going to look like in the future, and where a given person's life will lead. Personally, I would advise her to start out by taking a lot of classes in different subjects, find something she is passionate about from which hard work and dedication can flow, and then find a way to have an edge and make that marketable.

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It is very very hard to be employed as a technical writer if that is the only skill. It is best to have that combined with another thing, the skills gained in the science fields as a prominent example.... I would advise her to start out by taking a lot of classes in different subjects, find something she is passionate about from which hard work and dedication can flow, and then find a way to make that marketable.

 

 

I do think the dual major with visual arts is a great idea; there is a demand for those with flexibility in being able to write, edit, create newsletters, do basic graphic design and/or produce minor video projects for an in-house media department for a larger company.

 

Obviously, the medical field continues to grow and will have great need of in-house media as well as technical writing and explanation of medical processes and health information communicated to the public.

 

Or, iif the communications means skills in a foreign language, that opens up potential in international businesses or those with overseas connections.

 

Definitely look into some career counseling to help get some clarity and some career ideas! ;)

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I guess I also don't see the distinction between skills and content here. Anyone in a writing major like history is already qualified to be a technical writer. The major by definition includes both skills and content. The issue is whether technical writing independent of a science degree is currently a marketable skill, and based on the anecdotal experiences of friends, it is not. :(

 

I know a lot more people employed in international studies or public policy, and I agree with Crimson Wife, look at social sciences over a communications major.

 

 

 

The experiences I gained in my History degree and my Editing & Publishing minor were vastly different. History taught me to think and research, while technical writing taught me how to correct errors and "write pretty." Long winded History majors often have a hard time with clarity, while clarity and succinctness are the mantra of technical writers.

 

I agree with others who have said that Communications is a worthless degree. I switched from English to History because I wasn't interested in figuring out what the feminists thought about literature written before their time. I cared about what the author meant, so history was a natural choice for me. I actually took many poli sci courses and enjoyed those as much or more that the history courses. Internships are invaluable in these fields, and can set your student apart from the rest. Many of my fellow graduates have pursued employment or further schooling as a direct result of their undergraduate internship.

 

All of these majors are looking at an M.A if one wants to stay in the field. I ended up teaching Rhetoric this year, which utilized both my major and my minor, but I will primarily use my education in teaching homeschoolers.

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I don't want to make this a long post so I'll get right to the point. My daughter has a full scholarship and has been accepted into honors college next fall. She has a real gift with words and so she wants to go to college for that. At first she was going to major in English because that was the first program we found that focused on writing but it has a lot of literature classes and creative writing focus. She is not a story teller, she is more of a factual reporter. She enjoys history, politics, social issues, speech writing and speaking.

 

Then we found the communications degree and found the classes to be more in line with her journalistic tendencies. Well the other day a family member said to her that she had gotten a degree in communications and it is a worthless degree that is over saturated with students. Now we are worried that it is a bad choice for her to major in it but it really is where she is gifted.

 

She is actually going to dual major as a visual arts major also. Anyhow I need so e thoughts and opinions on this. Any advice? Should she change back to English and forget Communications?

 

English will drive her crazy if she is not into lit. I was the same way, so I changed. FWIW, I do love lit, I just preferred the historical, factual aspect of it. I second my suggestion to look into History or Political Science.

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I'm going to go with what everyone else has said, look at a content-focused major and consider a minor geared toward technical writing. Forget English unless there's a technical writing focus within the major, and forget Communications.

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The experiences I gained in my History degree and my Editing & Publishing minor were vastly different. History taught me to think and research, while technical writing taught me how to correct errors and "write pretty." Long winded History majors often have a hard time with clarity, while clarity and succinctness are the mantra of technical writers.

 

This just shows the variance within different university departments and is a good reason to check it out at OP's university. History was classified as a writing degree at my university, and the focus WAS on form as much as content. I even had classes on writing succinctly. An editing and publishing minor would have been redundant in many ways other than perhaps getting some inside industry info or contacts. SWB at one point even had a blog post arguing something similar. She recommended if you wanted to study writing you should not major in English but in social sciences like history, so my experience is not completely unique in this regard.

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This just shows the variance within different university departments and is a good reason to check it out at OP's university. History was classified as a writing degree at my university, and the focus WAS on form as much as content. I even had classes on writing succinctly. An editing and publishing minor would have been redundant in many ways other than perhaps getting some inside industry info or contacts. SWB at one point even had a blog post arguing something similar. She recommended if you wanted to study writing you should not major in English but in social sciences like history, so my experience is not completely unique in this regard.

 

OP, I guess you just need to investigate the specific department :001_rolleyes:

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Communications major here and I wouldnt change my choice. Despite people telling me it was a major for "those who didn't know what they wanted to do" I knew it was exactly in line with my interests and I loved every minute of it. Luckily I happened to go to a school where the program was very rigorous and included a lot of linguistic, English, anthropology, and journalism requirements. I ended up with a Public Relations focus, because that was the field I was aiming for after graduation. I ended up getting offered a job as an Account Executive at a Fortune 500 company. I did that for a couple of years and then went back to school to become a teacher. In both career choices I used what I learnd in college on a daily basis. With that said, it sounds like I had slightly different interests then your daughter. I just wanted to be one who mentioned that not everyone who goes into communications is confused, unsure or ends up regretting it.

 

On a side note, my husband is a creative director at an ad agency. They would love to see someone with a Comm/Visual Arts degree. In fact that's what he has. He then went on to get his MBA in Marketing. He's definitely biased, but he thinks it's served him well :laugh: They tend to get applicants with degrees heavy in the arts, but lacking on the business side. They've hired copywriters, account executives, and strategic planners with Marketing, English, and Communications degrees.

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