English
Why Study English?
The Bachelor of Science (BS) in English degree program at Caltech teaches you how to construct evidence-based arguments and recognize flawed reasoning—but you'll also learn how to empathize with the stories of other humans. By studying English alongside a robust STEM core, you'll practice analyzing complex texts, careful reading, and clear writing. This combination equips you to express sophisticated ideas in accessible language, whether explaining groundbreaking research or designing user-centered technology—skills essential for distinguishing scientists and engineers in any field.
Why English at Caltech?
English at Caltech includes film studies and literature coursework that allows students to relate to diverse human experiences throughout history. The Division of Humanities and Social Sciences' distinctive approach centers on small, discussion-based courses instead of lectures, where peers' scientific and personal perspectives enrich the analysis of fiction, poetry, and language.
Virtually every Caltech student works on research through programs like SURF (Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships). Senior English majors demonstrate their ability to write detailed reports through a faculty-mentored scholarly thesis, with freedom for personalized research topics. Student research projects have explored women's war poetry and analyzed linguistic histories of an ethnic group.
What You'll Learn
As an English major, alongside the core STEM and humanities curriculum, you'll explore key British and American literature periods, spanning medieval poetry to contemporary fiction, with specialized topics like dystopian narratives and turn-of-the-century fantasy. This degree emphasizes student-driven inquiry, culminating in a senior thesis project demonstrating your literary analysis and research mastery.
Take courses like "What Would Women Want: Desire in the American Novel" and "Literature and Medicine" to explore how literary texts engage with gender dynamics or how medical ethics, empathy, and illness narratives appear from classic works to graphic novels. As both a standalone major and a minor, English uniquely prepares Caltech students to bridge divides in the humanities and science and approach STEM careers with rare cultural fluency.
View the Caltech catalog for degree requirements and curriculum information.
Who You'll Learn From
50+ humanities faculty are active researchers specializing in poetry, comparative literature, American history, Black studies, STEM writing, film history, film analysis, and visual culture. This vibrant department helps students develop literacy in traditional texts, philosophy, history, and visual narratives. Faculty tailor learning to individual students' goals in discussion-based seminars and mentored research projects.
Whenever you make an argument, whether in a paper or a conversation, you want it to be evidence-based. Certain things count as evidence in chemistry or physics, as well as in film and English. What is evidence? What is good evidence? How do you build an argument out of evidence? Even in the humanities, you can be wrong—not every argument is correct.
Career Possibilities
Graduates of the bachelor's degree in English have a skillset in report writing, working collaboratively, and understanding scientific research and advancements from a broader context. Leveraging a rare combination of scientific training and humanities expertise across diverse fields, English majors are equipped to enter technical engineering and computing careers creatively and thoughtfully, as well as study unique interdisciplinary topics. Career possibilities include:
- Graduate programs in law or medicine
- Scientific communication and publishing
- Computer programming
- User experience design
Curriculum Components and Prerequisites
After completing the first-year core curriculum's humanities, social sciences, and STEM course requirements, English majors complete an interdisciplinary course sequence in which they can tailor their choice of advanced courses to various areas of interest in the humanities and the social sciences.
- Introductory coursework in literature and language arts
- Advanced English courses (can be substituted for foreign language courses)
- Additional courses in science, math, and engineering
- Senior Tutorial two-course research course sequence
Pursue a Bachelor's in English at Caltech
Develop essential skills scientists need, from empathy to the ability to create a coherent argument, in Caltech's undergraduate English major or minor program. Whether chosen as your primary field or a complementary option, studying English equips you with creative thinking as you enter diverse professional realms that require innovative solutions.