The Department of English at the University of Pittsburgh offers two different major programs, English literature and English writing. Both majors are responsive to many of the traditional goals of a liberal arts education: they seek to develop a broad critical and historical understanding of influential cultural traditions and to foster a range of reading and writing strategies as well as skills of critical analysis. The majors prepare students fairly directly for careers in teaching or writing. But the skills and knowledge the majors impart are useful in numerous business and professional settings. For example, an English major is highly regarded as a pre-professional major for further training in law, medicine, or business. The director of academic affairs for the Association of American Medical Colleges has said (1986) that English majors have a higher rate of acceptance at medical schools than students who have majored in the biological and physical sciences.
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