Find a Job You Really Want In
You know there are a ton of great reasons to major in english — the job prospects, the intellectual challenge, and the chance to follow in the footsteps of some of the greatest thinkers of all time.
But what program in Virginia offers the most to would be English majors?
We at Zippia decided to take a look at the data on the 188 institutions of higher learning in the Old Dominion to determine which programs offer the best career opportunities for English majors.
After the dust settled, we’re left with this set of the top colleges for English majors in Virginia:
- George Mason University
- University Of Virginia-Main Campus
- College Of William And Mary
- University Of Mary Washington
- University Of Richmond
- James Madison University
- Washington And Lee University
- Old Dominion University
- Regent University
- Virginia Military Institute
If you go to one of these schools, chances are, you’re not surprised. After all, you know how great you have it.
But for the rest of you — keep reading and we’ll get to just why these schools have some of the best English programs the Old Dominion has to offer.
How We Determined The Best English Schools In Virginia
English is, at its core, the study of theory and reason. When it comes to identifying the best English schools we wanted to approach the ranking like English major would, by looking at data on how schools perform and comparing them to one another.
What better way to optimize your choice?
So with that mind, we looked at the following data from the NCES (National Center For Education Statistics) and College Scorecard data from ED.gov to understand what english department offer the best career opportunities:
- Career Results
- Mean Earnings After 6 Years
- Mean Earnings After 10 Years
- Ratio of people working to not working after 10 years
- English Emphasis
- Percentage of Graduating Class That Are English Majors (Larger the better)
- School Performance
- Admissions Rate (More selective the better)
- Graduation Rate
- Average Cost Of Attendance (Lower is better)
- Average amount of debt
It’s hard to argue with a selective school that features English and produces strong earning potential for your career.
After we had this data, we looked at the 188 institutions of higher learning in Virginia. We then ranked each of these schools for each of the criteria above with 1 being the best in any given criteria.
Next, we averaged the ranks for each school to create an “English Quality Index”. The school with the best score on the “English Quality Index”, George Mason University, earned the distinction of being the ‘Best College For English’ in Virginia.
1. George Mason University
Enrollment: 33,723
English major earning rank: 5th
English majors working in field rank: 8th
Cost rank: 8th
2. University Of Virginia-Main Campus
Enrollment: 21,238
English major graduation rate: 1st
Admission rate: 3rd
English major earnings rank: 3rd
3. College Of William And Mary
Enrollment: 8,437
English major earnings rank: 4th
English major graduation rank: 3rd
Admission rate: 5th
4. University Of Mary Washington
Enrollment: 5,203
% of English majors on campus: 2nd
Graduation rate: 8th
Cost rank: 6th
5. University Of Richmond
Enrollment: 4,181
English major graduation rank: 4th
English graduates earnings rank: 2nd
Admission rate: 4th
6. James Madison University
Enrollment: 21,227
English graduates earning rank: 6th
English majors graduation rank: 6th
Cost rank: 7th
7. Washington And Lee University
Enrollment: 2,264
English major graduation rank: 2nd
English grads earning rank: 1st
Admission rate: 1st
8. Old Dominion University
Enrollment: 24,934
% English majors on campus rank: 7th
English majors earnings rank: 11th
Cost rank: 5th
9. Regent University
Enrollment: 2,161
% English majors working in field rank: 7th
% English majors on campus rank: 3rd
English majors earnings rank: 10th
10. Virginia Military Institute
Enrollment: 1,700
Admission rate rank: 7th
English majors grad rate rank: 7th
English majors earnings rank: 8th
Author
Chris Kolmar is a co-founder of Zippia and the editor-in-chief of the Zippia career advice blog. He has hired over 50 people in his career, been hired five times, and wants to help you land your next job. His research has been featured on the New York Times, Thrillist, VOX, The Atlantic, and a host of local news. More recently, he's been quoted on USA Today, BusinessInsider, and CNBC.
