Find a Job You Really Want In
But the joke’s on them: English graduates are prized in plenty of industries, particularly in positions that deal a lot with communication. In his Forbes article on the subject, Jeffrey Dorfman is one of many suggesting that conventional wisdom may be wrong about English majors, whose lifetime earnings are much higher than what’s been typically assumed.
Even so, the school you attend can have an enormous effect on these earnings. When deciding which university to attend, it’s helpful to have some understanding of how graduates from that school made out in the real world.
We at Zippia wondered which public colleges in particular were the best for attending English majors. To that end, we compared 466 public schools across the U.S. and ranked them according to several factors in order to determine which were the best of the best.
The full list can be found below, but first, here’s a quick Top Ten:
- CUNY Bernard M. Baruch College
- University of California-Berkeley
- CUNY City College
- California State University-Long Beach
- University of California-Los Angeles
- San Diego State University
- University of Utah
- California State University-Fullerton
- San Jose State University
- CUNY Queens College
It seems to be looking pretty good right now for English majors in New York or California — and for at least a few folks in Salt Lake City, UT, as well. Go Utes.
Keep reading for our detailed breakdown of the top ten schools for English majors.
How We Determined the Best Public Colleges for English Majors
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?
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 departments 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 466 institutions of higher learning in the United States. 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”, CUNY Bernard M. Baruch College, earned the distinction of being the ‘Best Public College For English’ in the United States.
1. CUNY Bernard M. Baruch College
Annual Cost: $15,112.00
Percent English: 1.33%
Median Earnings 10 Years: $59,200.00
Median Debt: $10,000.00
Martin Shkreli — the noted young pharmaceuticals CEO and real-life 1980’s movie villain — is an alumni of Baruch College, but don’t hold that against them.
Author and noted muckraker Upton Sinclair also graduated from here, and the college’s 17-floor Newman Vertical Campus has been highly awarded by the American Institute of Architects.
2. University of California-Berkeley
Annual Cost: $32,715.00
Percent English: 5.16%
Median Earnings 10 Years: $78,600.00
Median Debt: $14,480.00
UC Berkeley is nationally renowned school for its program and accomplished alumni, as well as for the scientific accomplishments of its students and faculty. Dozens of major discoveries were made either at Berkeley or through the efforts of Berkeley alumni, including everything from wetsuits and polygraph machines to the atomic bomb and the concept of dark energy.
When the Earth inevitably collapses into a giant fireball through the accidental efforts of a rogue young scientist, this is almost certainly going to be the epicenter of the blast.
3. CUNY City College
Annual Cost: $14,041.00
Percent English: 6.37%
Median Earnings 10 Years: $49,100.00
Median Debt: $10,000.00
The first free public university in the U.S., City College of NY has more Nobel Prize-winning alumni than any other public university in the U.S.
Most of its older historic buildings are also covered in terrifying stone grotesques that all look like they’re about to suddenly come alive, and all the Nobel prizes in the world couldn’t make me look at any more pictures of them.
4. California State University-Long Beach
Annual Cost: $18,085.00
Percent English: 8.89%
Median Earnings 10 Years: $50,200.00
Median Debt: $14,494.00
Long Beach State University is notable for plenty of reasons — the college’s sustainable development push is doing pretty well, and its alumni includes folks like Steve Martin and Steven Spielberg, who are some of the world’s better Stevens.
Most notable, however, is the gigantic blue Pyramid of Sports the campus built in the ‘90s rather than a more run-of-the-mill convention center, which is pretty neat.
5. University of California-Los Angeles
Annual Cost: $31,474.00
Percent English: 4.97%
Median Earnings 10 Years: $70,200.00
Median Debt: $15,200.00
Well-known for its beautiful campus, amongst other achievements, UCLA has frequently been used by television and film directors as a prime shooting location.
UCLA is also home to an area of campus referred to as the “Sunken Garden,” whose phenomenally cool video game-esque name led me on a mildly disappointing — although admittedly very pretty — Google Image search.
6. San Diego State University
Annual Cost: $20,252.00
Percent English: 6.88%
Median Earnings 10 Years: $52,600.00
Median Debt: $14,495.00
While known for being a bit on the crowded side, San Diego State has a great reputation as a “Research University,” and its campus’ Student Union has achieved LEED Double Platinum status for its energy efficiency.
It’s also yet another of this article’s additions to my internal list of Schools With Buildings That Look Like a Super-Villain Designed Them, thanks to its appropriately titled Infodome.
7. University of Utah
Annual Cost: $19,048.00
Percent English: 2.93%
Median Earnings 10 Years: $58,600.00
Median Debt: $12,839.00
Another university with a strong research focus, the University of Utah is well-known for its efforts in sustainable and energy-efficient design. A full 31% of its power comes from wind and solar energy sources, while the other 69% comes from a thirty foot tall hamster wheel in the center of campus that members of the school athletics teams take turns running around inside of.
8. California State University-Fullerton
Annual Cost: $16,663.00
Percent English: 2.60%
Median Earnings 10 Years: $49,700.00
Median Debt: $12,900.50
Cal State Fullerton is known for its diverse student body and its botanical accomplishments, particularly its campus arboretum. Its alumni include Olympian athletes, renowned authors and scientists, and, of course, Kevin Costner.
The campus is built on the site of former citrus groves, and the ghosts of a million dead oranges haunt classrooms to this very day. As a result of their undead wrath, every table top at CSUF is just a little bit sticky at all times.
9. San Jose State University
Annual Cost: $21,160.00
Percent English: 4.81%
Median Earnings 10 Years: $60,300.00
Median Debt: $14,000.00
San Jose State is a huge school with high-ranking academic programs. It has some of the highest foreign student enrollment and one of the most diverse student bodies in the nation.
More students from San Jose State find their way into Silicon Valley firms than any other school, particularly Apple, Inc., so you’ve probably got SJSU grads to blame for that new software update you’ve been avoiding downloading for the last two months.
10. CUNY Queens College
Annual Cost: $13,676.00
Percent English: 4.67%
Median Earnings 10 Years: $51,500.00
Median Debt: $9,054.00
Located in Queens, NY — the most diverse county in the U.S. — CUNY Queens College is a school built on integration and celebrating diversity. Its students have historically been involved in the Civil Rights movement, and the school itself is home to Queens College Civil Rights Archive.
Jerry Seinfeld, Paul Simon, and Ron Jeremy all attended Queens College, and whichever one of those is most impressive to you tells a lot about who you are as a person.
Putting It All Together
For more information about English Literature and Language majors be sure to check out our page for English majors, where you can find everything from skills and interview tips to job postings, alongside our detailed career map.
That’s it! Below you’ll find the full list of the top U.S. Public Colleges for English Majors. Enjoy!
Author
Ryan Morris was a writer for the Zippia Advice blog who tried to make the job process a little more entertaining for all those involved. He obtained his BA and Masters from Appalachian State University.
