What can a minor or a second major in English do for you? 

• It can prove to future employers and admissions officers that you have made a commitment to becoming a better reader and writer in college. For STEM majors, an English minor is a significant credential that will make you stand out from the crowd in medical or dental school admissions, graduate school admissions, and in your search for a job.  
• For students in the humanities and social sciences: English will offer you a new interdisciplinary angle from which to think about the key questions you are wrestling with in your primary major.  
• It can give you time and space to develop a different part of yourself in college, one grounded in critical thinking, imagination, and creative problem-solving. These skills are essential to most careers.  
• It can give you access to some of the best instructors and most engaging, fun classes at Marquette (think: Tolkien, Shakespeare, Creative Writing, Global Hip Hop, The Rhetoric of Black Protest, Feminist Rhetorics, Children’s Literature, The Medieval Imagination, Literature and Law, Language in the City, Literature and Medicine, The Russian Novel, The Epic, The Graphic Novel, and more). 
• You will join a tight-knit community of students and faculty who are passionate about what we do.  

And, we have good news: getting an English minor in the new Marquette Core Curriculum is incredibly easy to do! You need 6 classes to get a minor. Here’s how to make it easy using the MCC strategically: 

1. Take your ESSV 1 course in English (ENGL 2020 or ENGL 2030). Find our ESSV1 courses here!

2. Take your humanities course and your elective course in the Discovery Tier in English. Almost all of our classes count for MCC Discovery tier and WRIT credit, so we have something for everyone in every Discovery Tier theme. Find our Discovery Tier offerings here.

3. Take your ESSV2 class in English. We have fantastic choices (for example, the Rhetoric of Black Protest, Sociolinguistics, Native American Literature, Romanticism and Nature). Find your options here!

4. Take any 2 other classes in English. Course descriptions for Fall 2024 are available now!

And you will graduate with an English minor, which will make you distinctive and well-rounded, with stories to tell and the ability to tell them in a compelling way.  

Questions? Email the chair of the English department, Dr. Gerry Canavan (gerry.canavan@marquette.edu).