Undergraduate English

What can you do with an English Studies major or minor? English Studies isn’t just for teachers (though WCU English Education students have outstanding placement rates). Our graduates are journalists (without journalism degrees), lawyers, web designers, poets and prose writers, bankers, children’s authors, technical editors, NASCAR publicists, and museum curators. English Studies can take you where you want to go.

At WCU you can publish creative writing, present professional research at national conferences, intern in Chapel Hill or Washington, DC, or rub elbows with famous writers at our renowned Spring Literary Festival. Try your hand at a novel or a screenplay. Honors English students publish the annual Imagine Magazine, and our professional writers produce real-world web pages and applications.

Degree Programs

WCU offers both two degree tracks:

1. Bachelor of Arts in English with four concentration options: Literature, Motion Picture Studies, Professional Writing, or English Studies Pedagogy. Learn More
2. A Dual Degree program for those interested in teaching through which students earn a B.A. in English (most often with a concentration in English Studies Pedagogy) and a B.S.Ed. Secondary and Special Subject Teaching in English. Learn More

We also encourage students from other fields to consider one of our minor options, including literature, creative writing, professional writing, film studies and teaching English as a second language. Learn More

Writing Fellows Program

English Studies majors are eligible and encouraged to work in the Writing Fellows Program at the Writing and Learning Commons (WaLC), which offers free writing tutoring to all students, for any class, and at any stage of the writing process.

Writing Fellows are assigned to specific classes and students in a wide range of majors. The best way to learn about writing is to teach writing, so why not get paid to learn?  Learn more about the Writing Fellows Program, apply for employment, and/or make an appointment for tutoring.