The College of Letters

"What do you do with an English degree?" is an oft-heard jab on liberal arts colleges' campuses, but we're pretty sure that if COL were a more widespread major, English majors would be mocked significantly less often.

So what do you do with a COL degree? Ask Wesleyan's sysadmin, who is (surprise!) a COL graduate and has deemed it "the least practical major ever conceived." Excerpt here:

For instance, in job hunts, one doesn't often see bullet points like the following:

• Must have knowledge of Njal's Saga and basic economic principles addressed in other Icelandic Sagas.
• Working understanding of the difference of falling-towards-death and being thrown-to-death.
• Ability to discuss the sexual aspects of Harold and the Purple Crayon when necessary.
• Must have succesfully read Thucydides' Peloponnesian War without clawing one's eyes out because of the sheer tedium.

Full thoughts here.