A major in English attracts students interested in writing, teaching, communications, and media. It is a classic liberal arts major, although not limited to liberal arts schools, and every top school has a strong English major. Particularly notable universities with strong English departments include Harvard, Williams, Vassar, Columbia, and Amherst (discover more). An English major is so classic, in fact, that it is easy to take it for granted. You take English and speak English and that’s enough as long as your games are great, right? That is a big mistake.
When you’re thinking of applying to college with English as your prospective major, there are a few things you need to be doing beyond doing well in your English coursework. We work with our students starting as early as freshmen year to craft an activities strategy that guarantees that they stand out on their applications. If you are a sophomore now, this is a perfect time to start. With most of high school left, you are able to launch yourself on a trajectory that that will result in outstanding accomplishments and results come senior year. But you need to start, and you need to start now.
In this post, we’ll give you a peek into how we think about activities for sophomores who are interested in English, and what we encourage them to prioritize. We’ll break it all down so that you can plan a sophomore year that truly makes a difference for your future.
When it comes to applying to college, an early strategy pays off. Learn more.
Below, we’ve broken down the different types of activities you need to be taking on based on type. You don’t need to be doing all of these things, but you do need to do a variety of activities that show that you have a range of interests under the English umbrella.
SCHOOL PAPER OR LITERARY JOURNAL
You need to be on the team of your school paper or literary journal. If your school does not have a paper or literary journal, you have the time as a sophomore to start one. Now, by “have the time” we don’t necessarily mean that your schedule is open. You are probably quite busy. However, you do have enough time between now and senior year to not just start a school paper or literary journal, but to build it into something pretty awesome!
Whether you are joining an existing team or considering starting something up yourself, you will need to pick either the paper or a journal. While you can do both, doing that would actually hurt your chances of admission to a dream school. This is because you need to be working towards a leadership position through an editorial role, and doing both can actually work against that end goal for you, as your attention will be divided.
SERVICE
Paired with writing and editing for a school publication, you need to be engaging in volunteer work that overlaps with your interest in English. Students interested in a major in English are often thought to be introverted, and that isn’t by itself a bad thing, but it does mean that you need to go out of your way to show that you think about others and care for your community.
To this end, you need to be doing service work that is local. We recommend connecting with your local library or a literary education non-profit that exposes younger students to literature. You may be shelving book returns, or you may be reading to a ground of young children at library story hour. Both are valuable and good. Starting as a sophomore will also show long-term commitment, as you will ideally continue in this type of role through senior year.
We also encourage our sophomores to get involved with a writing center or writing support resource if there is one at your school. These programs provide students with support on their writing, and you may have used the writing center yourself as a freshman or sophomore! Getting involved with the center or resource will allow you to give back to your school, mentor younger students, and has the potential for leadership in the future come junior or senior year.
EMPLOYMENT
We encourage all of our students to get a job before applying to college. Not only is pocket money fun, but putting a part-time or summer job on your college applications is especially useful in underlining your responsibility, commitment, and hard work beyond the classroom. Many parents look at us with their eyebrows furrowed when we advocate for getting a job — “Isn’t this the time to focus on school?” Well, yes, but not only that. This time is an opportunity to deepen your interests and develop as a human, and part of that is having new responsibilities and experiences. A job is an important and a useful vehicle for both.
For sophomores interested in an English major, we encourage applying for a job at a local bookstore. If there is no bookstore, inquire after a job at a store that sell books, or reach out to a local paper or magazine. And, if you are not old enough to work yet, ask for an internship. You’ll learn about running a business built on words, and that’s awesome.
INDEPENDENT WORK
Alongside what you’re pursuing at school, but outside of the classroom, as a volunteer, and in a part-time job, you should be doing writing of your own. Whether it is creative writing, literary critique, research, or any other form of writing, you should be doing independent work. And there’s an end goal beyond putting words on a page. There are many magazines, literary journals, and websites that specifically accept work from high school students. There are also writing competitions, including everything from the Scholastic Key awards to local newspaper competitions.
These things can be intimidating, but we encourage our students to use them as fuel for independent work. This may mean taking work you’ve done for class and reworking it for submission for publication. Or it could be brand new writing that you do specifically for a particular publication or resource.
As a sophomore, you have plenty of time to take big swings and make big moves that will ultimately lead to greater success when it comes time to apply to college. But you need to start making those moves, or else the time will race by, and you’ll find yourself playing catch-up.
We work with outstanding English-minded students to get into exceptional colleges, and the activities they do play a crucial part in attaining outstanding outcomes. You can do this too, but help — well — helps.
Applying to college can be stressful, but starting early distributes the load. Learn how we work with sophomores..