I need your help! I have to decide between majoring in English with a linguistics pathway or Communications and in all honesty I don’t know what I am doing or what I want to do in the future. Any comments, thoughts and experiences would be greatly appreciated and helpful to my journey.
If you can offer me any advice please do so in the comments below.
justnaya.wordpress.com 
I would suggest looking into a Communications degree, and depending on where you go to school, see what different kinds of communications degrees they have. I personally think that a communications degree open up more paths than an English degree.
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Thank you for your input. It just seems like people take English more seriously as a major.
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Hey Naya 🙂 I currently do a business and communications degree, and my best friend does an English degree. I think English is more interesting, especially if you love reading and writing, but in terms of the world/jobs/career/practical info, media and communications is such a rich degree filled with practical and critical analysis skills and topical conversations! xx
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Thanks for taking the time to comment. Although I love reading I prefer to do it in my own terms and although interesting it also seems a bit too difficult for me and I am a person that doesn’t cope with stress very well.
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English with the Linguistics pathway sounds more interesting.
It’s a stronger foundation if You choose this, and if You decide to go into communications later, it would be easy-breezy, when compared to the other way around. In other words, You will have a wider variety of opportunities.
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I understand where you’re coming from. My biggest concern is the difficulty of the English major and whether I’ll be able to pull it off!
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Ahaaa I see, I think You should do some private research on it. The best way to get genuine info and advise will be from people who are there already.
Wish you the best Naya.
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Thank you very much!
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Hey Naya! I had a very similar experience when I was in school. One of the great options with both of those concentrations is that they will both open great and different paths for you career wise, especially if you have a passion for writing. Have you considered getting a minor in one of them? You might also want to speak to your Academic Advisor. They have great resources and insights.
For me, what it truly came down to was which concentration got me the most excited and allowed me to pursue something I love.
Good luck in your education! I know which every choice you make will be the right one 🙂
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I have visited the advisors and they were helpful but in the end they all tell me to choose what I like the most which is unfortunate because I have no idea.
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UGH! That’s hard. What type of writing are you most interested in?
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I guess fiction is what I gravitate towards the most.
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English might be the best course if you want to pursue fiction, but that’s only based on that factiod. Let me know if you want to talk about it more. I’m happy to help. Good luck with school!
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I know might not be the norm in your school but why not double major? Keeps your options open and allows you to do what you love.
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I don’t know too much about your choices, but I’ll pray that the ease of choosing comes to you and you do well with it whatever your path (:
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Thank you so much I really appreciate it.
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which ever your more passionate about 🙂
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Just from my own interests, I’d go English. But having no real knowledge on what communication entails I can’t really offer any substantial advice
Let us know what you decide though 🙂
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Thank you I will!
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Hi Naya! I would advise Communications. There’s always going to be a need for this field.
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As an English minor, I suggest English. (Psst… It’s easier!) The one communication class I took, was horrendous and I hated every minute of it. But I enjoyed all my English classes despite not necessarily liking the book we were reading or writing about specific topics. I find English professors also incredibly interesting people because they are so well-read. Just my opinion, you do you!
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Haha people in my college actually believe English is a lot harder than Communications. What class did you take?
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It was just a basic communications 101, where we had to prepare speeches. I’d rather read and write my ideas than speak them.
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Can I ask you why you didn’t like your communications class? Did it consist of alot of research and writing?
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I didn’t read the rest of the comments, so I apologize if this is a repeat. I just graduated from college this past year, and this is what I took from it. To start, I was a biology major, so I won’t tell you which pathway to go with. However, what I will tell you is that most people (not all) end up changing their major at least once during their college career. So just because you declare a major right now doesn’t necessarily mean you will end up with that in the end. The best advice I can give you is to just pick one but focus on your general requirements (e.g. Math, lower level English, history, psych, public speaking, etc.) and then take at least one required class for each major. Then you can decide what you like more AND the required course for the major that you don’t end up with can be used as one of your electives! 🙂
Another thing you can do is declare one and minor in the other. 🙂
Hopefully this might help with your decision! Good luck! 🙂
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Thanks for your advice. I actually already did that but I still cannot decide 😭. I could do a minor but at this point I want to focus on a major. But your advice is really good.
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If you still aren’t finished with your general education requirements, you could take a couple more classes for each major before you make a decision.
I found that talking to people within programs was really helpful too. They can tell you which classes are the best and the worst, whether or not the major is worth it, which teachers to avoid etc.
You could also look at double majoring. It can be really stressful, but if your school allows “double dipping,” it shouldn’t add too much extra time to your schooling.
One last thing you could do is think about the career path you want to do. Do you want to be a writer? Do you want to be a journalist? What do you want to do with your life? Then, when you get an idea, do some research into what that career path requires as far as degree.
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I went to university taking Communications and specialising in Journalism. I am now working as an English editor even though English is a second language to me. So far, the best experience I had in university was the opportunity for doing ‘internship’ and being an intern journalist was one of the best moment in my life. And yes, your major today won’t decide your future… and actually, I have so many journalist friends comes from English major 🙂 just pick something that you would think that, whatever assignment you get later, you’d actually enjoy doing it. Because, mannn.. I wouldn’t stand reading so many English literature. Hope this helps and good luck! x
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Haha assignments are indeed a pain. Do you think your degree has opened up doors for you?
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definitely! actually it was more of the great lecturers we had and the internship I had in one of the big newspaper in the city. I once was advised, when choosing a campus, don’t look at the name of the campus but look WHO teaches there, those people will help you a lot x
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Communications is a good all around major. You can do TV, etc the list is endless. Good luck, xx
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Indeed.
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I think it depends on the University (a bit) but I would say communications.
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I would recommend Communications because of the variety of jobs it opens up. It’s more interesting (and easier) than English. Do let us know which one you end up choosing.🙈
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I have BA and MA in English and PhD in Communication. While I liked linguistics and English literature, I enjoyed more studying various aspects of human communications, including interpersonal communication, persuasion, mass media, etc. With the increasing use of digital communication by individuals and companies, there seems to be brighter job market for communication majors.
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I studied business from start to finish so I would lean more towards the communications major. Could you try double majoring? You’d get an advisor in both majors (I think, depends how your school does it) to help you think things through and could always drop one or change one to a minor if you end up having a strong preference either way! If your school has a career advice program/center you could ask there if they can help you. They might be able to get you in touch with professionals in both fields and you could shadow them or just chat with them and see if that can help point you in the right direction too. I hope this helps!
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Communications is something that will give you a lot of flexibility in terms of jobs. You can go down many avenues with that degree and can build on it at a higher level once you decide what career suits you.
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Truth be told I would like to work from home. I guess with Communication this will be more possible! Thanks for the advice!
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Communications sounds like a fantastic degree! Have you considered double majoring? Thanks for sharing, I’m looking forward to your future content 😊 Stop by my space sometime?
Mena | femmerewritten.com
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Not really. I get anxious very easily and I try to avoid stressful situations as much as possible. Double majoring would an immense stress on me that I do not think I can handle. But it would be a good solution to my problem.
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Hi Naya,
I’m Janice. You liked a comment I made on the Emma Edit’s blog. I came to thank you and introduce myself.
I would be happy to help you make your decision.
Regarding English: My daughter started as an English major. She wasn’t interested in the major and didn’t know what to do with it as a profession. There’s even a joke in the play “Avenue Q” it’s a “worthless” degree. I have an English minor. I teach English. It was kind of a hard minor but everything is relative.
Regarding Communications: I know less about it. I do know many people major in Communications so maybe it has appeal. I’m not sure what you could do with it professionally.
I am having a blog party this weekend. I’d love for you to come. Here is the link:
http://www.mostlyblogging.com/blog-party-blogger-meet-and-greet/
Thanks again for the “like.”
Janice
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such a beautful blog. i real real enjoy reading it
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Thank you very much!
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Your welcome.
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Hey just stumbled upon this post and I’d like to share my experience as a Communication student taking up Corporate Communication in minor. I highly suggest you to take Communications since I recently found an article from Forbes that Public Relation position has high salary nowadays haha. However if you like to speak up, innovative, social media addict, blog addict, design and film editing addict, just take communication 😀
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Thank you for your input. It’s really helpful because you took parts of my personality and paired them with a major. You definitely cleared up things for me. I appreciate it ❤️
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I am glad to help! Good luck in everything xx
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Look at the program for each and see which courses from each program appeal to you the most. Then, see if you can minor or get a two-year certificate in business administration to round out your studies.
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I was an English literature major with a minor in history, but taught at the university level in the School of Communication. Communication is the more practical degree for business careers. But, English is the more esoteric study that enables you to adapt at many different levels. I say go with what you love. In these times, most people have three or four different careers during their lifetimes, so a good basic education coupled with the intelligence and willingness to adapt to changing circumstances are the most important attributes for success.
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When the mind finds it too hard
I guess it’s just about time
To follow your heart 🙂 🍸
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Hey Naya, I am doing my final year bachelors in English lit now and is dealing with the same confusion. Some of the comments seemed really helpful to me. Hope it did so to you too!
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I don’t know …
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