The University of Oregon

Date: Jul 11 2007
Major: English (This Major's Salary over time)
I started out as a Music Performance major at the UO. I thought the music school was pretty good, its strength definitely lies in the instrument professors, not necessarily in its classes. I changed majors into my second year because I found that the music world was just not for me and stumbled upon (with the help of my WR 121 teacher) the Comparative Literature department. A rather small department (my graduating class consisted of not more than 10 students), it was wonderful!! It is definitely not played up as much as it should be and remains rather hidden behind the Journalism, Business and other schools. Only after I became a major did I discover that its graduate program is one of the best in the nation. That means that any COLT class taught by a GTF is of excellent quality and any COLT professor is just as good but usually better (because by proxy they are the top COLT professors and grad students of the nation). I think of it as the Secret Garden of the University of Oregon. The lower division departmental classes were actually challenging and the upper division classes were intellectually stimulating with round table discussions and highly involved/invested professors. It was a very supportive environment and every COLT class I took was a highlight of the term. I had the flexibility to design my major and have it really cater to my interests and strengths. There were opportunities for your essays to be published and if a course didn't quite fit into their requirements, I could present it to my advisor and explain why it should count; nine times out of ten, it worked and I was able to take a class of particular interest and have it count for the major! Of course, it wasn't easy and there is a lot of in depth thinking, paper writing and insane amounts of reading. But…it's college, isn't it? Isn't that what we're here for?? I also double-majored in Spanish which was a nice boost for my resume but the department is HUGE. It's a little hard to get personalized attention like that of COLT but it was still worth it. I also recommend studying abroad whenever you get the chance. I went to Granada, Spain for 5 months and it changed my world!! (For the better…) So to wrap up, if you want to come out with a degree that you can be proud of, is unique and will offer you an intellectual roller coaster, I STRONGLY recommend the Comparative Literature major at the UO.