The inevitable question I always receive upon telling someone I am graduating with a degree in English is "what can you do with that degree?" It's so hard not to roll my eyes every time because the better question is, "what can't I do with this degree?"
I was a biology major for three years, and nobody ever questioned me what I could do with my biology degree. Society holds STEM majors to higher standards than every other major and to be honest, they're not any better than us. I can fight this topic all day because I have been on both sides of the spectrum. Whether it be my English degree, someone else's theatre/film degree, or elementary education degree, whatever it may be, there's a reason someone wanted to pursue that degree, working just as hard, if not harder than the STEM major, and for you to blatantly undermine someone's work is absolutely frustrating.
I switched from biology to English because I had a moment where I asked myself the question nobody else seemed to ask me, "what was I going to do with this biology degree?" I knew I wanted to take a gap year before applying for physician assistant school, but I did not want to work in a lab or take another expensive class to get certified in something after graduation. Then I began thinking about the idea of "what if I didn't get into physician assistant school" then, what would I do for the rest of my life? My options seemed limited and personally, there was nothing else that I thought I could do with a biology degree that would satisfy me.
Despite what everyone else may think, becoming an English major was the best decision I ever made in my undergraduate career. My only regret is minoring in English freshman year when I should have been majoring in it all along. There is an endless amount of options that I could pursue after graduation with an English degree, which is something I never imagined possible with my biology degree. I could become a content creator; I could teach English abroad (where some companies pay for you to travel); I could continue to advocate for health by pursuing law school; I could become a journalist; I could become an editor; I could freelance my writing as a side hustle; I could even still pursue physician assistant school and stand out from my applicants because let's be real, the admission committee is tired of seeing every applicant listed as a "Biology" or "Chemistry" major.
Before you ask someone what can you do with this degree, really think about why you're even asking that question.
