Undergraduate
Welcome to the Undergraduate Program of the Penn State Department of English where small classes and award winning teachers await you. We are pleased to offer an exciting and challenging English major at Penn State, one dedicated to the love of reading and writing that grants students the opportunity to parlay their passions into professions. Students have long chosen English as a major for the immersion in good books and big ideas that somehow makes us feel that experiences beyond our more limited range "belong" to us in vital ways. What students may not realize, however, is that good books can lead to good jobs. It may seem odd to think of English as a key part of a larger career trajectory. In its sheer range of less concretely definable skills, the major often seems diffuse where other majors seem fixed. After watching our majors make their various ways in the world, however, I would argue that it is the flexibility of the skills students acquire in the English major that make the major so attractive as a starting point. Our majors go on to become not only professional writers and professional teachers, but lawyers and editors, public relations directors and advertisers. In today's economy the ability to write clear, intelligible prose, to argue cogently and wisely, and to read critically and well are indeed marketable commodities. For more information about what our majors do after college and how we prepare them for careers, see our Career Manual and our internship program . English majors may risk a less determined course after college, but the entrepreneurial energy demanded can lead to immeasurable rewards.
Sincerely,
Deborah Clarke
Associate Professor of English and
Undergraduate Program Director
Undergraduate Office
Department of English and American Studies
The Pennsylvania State University
103 Burrowes Building
University Park, PA 16802-6202
Telephone: (814) 863-0258
Fax: (814) 863-7285
Email: kmd16@psu.edu
