Program Overview

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English Bachelor of Science Degree

English

Bachelor of Science Degree

Overview for English BS

Why Study English at RIT?

• Three Dynamic Track Options: Choose to focus on creative writing, literature and media, or worldbuilding and transmedia storytelling, or mix and match to meet your needs.
• Read, Analyze, Make : At RIT, we're not just analyzing and writing, we're building fantasy worlds, interactive game fictions, graphic novels, digital poems, and dangerous texts.
• Expertise in Tech-Infused Humanities: Our curriculum leverages our position as a leading STEM university by incorporating digital tools and methodologies as well as professional electives that allow you to differentiate yourself from English majors at other universities.
• Gain Real-World Career Experience: Work with organizations such as Art and Literary Magazine and the Center for Worldbuilding and Transmedia Storytelling to gain immersive career experience through professional-grade projects that build your portfolio.
• Teaching Partnership Program Available: 4+1 or 3+2 programs enable you to earn your bachelor’s degree at RIT and a master’s degree in education at one of our partner universities.

A 21st-Century English Bachelor's Degree

Technology affects how we write, tell stories, and analyze literature. And there’s no better place to explore the fusion of technology and English than at RIT. Our English bachelor's degree grounds you in critical thinking, writing, and making, all while preparing you with digital tools as well as the soft and hard skills that impress employers. With concentrations in creative writing, or literature and media, the English major offers more than 70 courses for you to choose from. In addition to traditional literature, you'll study what interests you.

Our faculty offers exploration in fantasy worlds, Twitter bots, social justice, Afrofuturism, transgender poetics, graphic novels, Twine interactive game fictions, speech technologies, the rhetoric of science and terror, digital poems, and dangerous texts. You’ll gain expertise in articulating your innovative ideas, building collaborative teams, managing projects, creating powerful messaging that gets results, providing critiques and feedback, making intelligent and ethical arguments and decisions, and speaking in ways that make you stand out.

Preparing You for Today’s Dynamic Careers

Today’s emerging careers require English language expertise, writing, and analytic skills paired with computer science, new media, linguistics, animation, and more. Today’s writers are also content creators who use digital tools to communicate a range of messages across a variety of platforms and collaborate with game designers, animators, scientists, engineers, and digital media strategists.

In the English BS degree, we introduce you to digital tools that interface with the study of language, literature, and media. Additionally, your BS in English includes professional electives in any area you choose, which empowers you to customize your English degree around your career goals. You’ll have access to a range of computing and tech courses and the world-renowned faculty who teach them.

Are you interested in writing for video games? Your professional courses can come from RIT’s major in game design and development.

Do you have a passion for science? Choose professional electives from our majors in biology, biomedical sciences, physics, and more.

In RIT’s English BS degree, you will learn:

• Writing – Gain a complete command of the English language, including grammar, rhetoric, and argument. This gives you an edge in all types of writing, from effective presentations to video game text, and everything in between.
• Storytelling – Learn to tell smart, moving stories about yourself, your organization, your clients, or the products you’re tasked with selling.
• Digital Creation and Literacy — Become an expert in creating, reading, and interpreting digital content, developing skills that combine writing and tech, using digital tools for textural analysis, and more.
• Close Reading, Critical Analysis, Interpretation – Articulate deep knowledge and understanding of all kinds of media, concepts, and theories, as you interpret difficult concepts, analyze and defend positions, and provide and accept constructive criticism.
• Communication – Gain expertise in nuance and subtext, and the different modes of writing and speaking in traditional and digital formats. You’ll also understand how to assess different audiences in order to strike the proper tone and articulate ideas in clear yet sophisticated ways.
• Cultural Literacy – Learn about the power of language and its role in creating cultural meaning. You’ll learn how different social and cultural contexts affect language and meaning, and learn about different cultures through their media traditions, from major literary works and genres to critical traditions.
• Research – Master a variety of research methods, including digital tools and data methodologies, specific to English majors, as well as presentation techniques.
• Organization – Attain the skills needed to work independently and in teams, manage projects, set schedules, meet and manage deadlines, organize projects, execute planning and research, lead and participate in discussions, and present ideas and information.

Concentrations

RIT’s English BS offers two concentrations that provide you with an opportunity to tailor your degree to your interests and career aspirations.

Creative Writing

• At RIT, creative writing is more than writing poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. We analyze, write, and revise the traditional and innovative writing that inspires you. With a concentration in Creative Writing, you’ll learn how to analyze and write in multiple genres and forms, including worldbuilding, digital creative writing, and playwriting. With our organizational affiliations to RIT Storytellers, Mental Graffiti, and Signatures Arts and Literary Magazine , you can gain valuable professional experience while expanding and refining your writing horizons.

Literature and Media

• Literature involves reading and analyzing meaningful works of writing to dissect and understand their historical, cultural, and literary significance. In this concentration, you’ll examine a range of works, both classical and contemporary, to expand your critical thinking, analytical, and interpretive knowledge of writing and text. While you'll study Shakespeare, Austen, and Morrison, you'll also dive into everything from graphic novels to banned books, from anime to the works of rapper and Pulitzer Prize winner Kendrick Lamar. Add to that hands-on experience with the digital tools that English majors need, and you'll be able to pursue your specific interests at the same time you're setting yourself up for professional life.

English as a Double Major

Are you interested in pairing an English degree with your interests in programming, computing, law, foreign language, business, or the arts? With its focus on writing, critical thinking, and communication, an English degree deepens your expertise in both areas and broadens your skill set for a career in a range of dynamic fields. An English degree can complement the following RIT majors:

• Applied Modern Language and Culture
• Business Degrees
• Computer Science BS
• Criminal Justice BS
• Humanities, Computing, and Design BS
• Film and Animation BFA
• Game Design and Development BS
• Human-Centered Computing BS
• Illustration BFA
• Marketing BS
• New Media Interactive Development BS

In addition, an English bachelor's degree is an excellent major for those wishing to pursue careers in law or medicine. RIT’s Pre-Law and Pre-Med programs provide academic advising and guidance on course selection to help you build the core competencies needed to become a strong candidate for admission to law school, medical school, or graduate programs in the health professions.

Study Abroad

Opportunities to study abroad enhance your understanding of global cultures. Students may study full-time at a variety of host schools and are able to select courses in their major as well as liberal arts courses. Visit RIT Global to learn more about the range of study abroad programs available, including opportunities at RIT’s global campuses in China, Croatia, Kosovo, and Dubai. Recent English study abroad programs have taken place in France, Croatia, and Portugal.

RIT’s Pre-Law Program

Law schools welcome applications from students majoring in a wide range of academic programs. RIT’s pre-law program will help you navigate the admission process for law school, explore a range of legal careers, and guide you through course selection to ensure you build the skills and competencies required of competitive law school applicants. The program is open to students in all majors who are interested in pursuing a career in law.

Furthering Your Career in English

Combined Accelerated Bachelor's/Master's Degrees

Today’s careers require advanced degrees grounded in real-world experience. RIT’s Combined Accelerated Bachelor’s/Master’s Degrees enable you to earn both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in as little as five years of study, all while gaining the valuable hands-on experience that comes from co-ops, internships, research, study abroad, and more.

• +1 MBA: Students who enroll in a qualifying undergraduate degree have the opportunity to add an MBA to their bachelor’s degree after their first year of study, depending on their program. Learn how the +1 MBA can accelerate your learning and position you for success.

3+3 Accelerated BS/JD Programs

RIT has partnered with Syracuse University’s College of Law and University at Buffalo School of Law to offer accelerated 3+3 BS/JD options for highly capable students. These programs provide a fast track to law school where you can earn a bachelor’s degree at RIT and a Juris Doctorate degree at Syracuse University or University at Buffalo in six years. Interested students may apply to the option directly, with successful applicants offered admission to RIT and conditional acceptance into either Syracuse University’s College of Law or University at Buffalo School of Law.

RIT's English degree is one of the approved majors for the 3+3 option.

Learn more about Accelerated Law 3+3 Programs.

RIT’s Teaching Partnership Programs

Whether your goal is to go into early childhood or elementary education, become a secondary education teacher with a content area specialty at the middle or high school level, or work in the higher education or counseling fields, RIT’s partnership programs with local universities provide a guided pathway to a career in teaching.

These 4+1 or 3+2 programs enable you to earn your bachelor’s degree at RIT and a master’s degree in education at one of our partner universities. As you progress, you’ll benefit from focused academic advising, career exploration opportunities, and resources for research, learning, and skill development.

RIT’s English degree is eligible for RIT’s Teaching Partnership Program.

Learn more about RIT’s Teaching Partnership Programs.

Curriculum for English BS

English, BS degree, typical course sequence

• First Year
  • ENGL-101: English Studies
  • ENGL-210: Literature and Cultural Studies (WI-GE)
  • ENGL-215: Text & Code (WI-GE)
  • YOPS-10: RIT 365: RIT Connections
  • Choose one of the following:
    • ENGL-211: Introduction to Creative Writing: Prose and Poetry (WI-GE)
    • ENGL-212: Introduction to Creative Writing: Forms and Styles
  • General Education - First Year Writing (WI)
  • General Education - Artistic Perspective
  • General Education - Ethical Perspective
  • General Education - Global Perspective
  • General Education - Social Perspective
  • General Education - Elective
  • Open Elective
• Second Year
  • ENGL-250: Data Methods for English Majors
  • ENGL-275: Storytelling: [Genre/Theme]
  • English Concentration Course 1, 2 §
  • General Education - Natural Science Inquiry Perspective‡
  • General Education - Scientific Principles Perspective
  • General Education - Mathematical Perspective A
  • General Education - Immersion 1, 2
• Third Year
  • Professional Core Course 1
  • English Concentration Course 3, 4, 5 §
  • General Education - Mathematical Perspective B
  • General Education - Immersion 3
  • General Education - Electives
  • Open Elective
• Fourth Year
  • ENGL-500: Capstone in English
  • Professional Core Course 2, 3, 4
  • English Concentration Course 6 §
  • General Education - Electives
  • Open Electives

Total Semester Credit Hours: 120

Please see General Education Curriculum (GE) for more information.

(WI-PR) Refers to a writing intensive course within the major.

• Please see Wellness Education Requirement for more information. Students completing bachelor's degrees are required to complete two different Wellness courses.

† English Internship (ENGL-498) or English Co-op (ENGL-499) is recommended in the summer prior to the final year of study.

‡ Students will satisfy this requirement by taking either a 3 or 4 credit hour lab science course. If a science course consists of separate lecture and laboratory sections, the student must take both the lecture and the lab portion.

§ Students are required to complete at least one course at the 400-level or above as part of the concentration.

English Concentrations §

Literature & Media

• ENGL-307: Mythology & Literature
• ENGL-309: Topics in Literary Forms
• ENGL-312: American Literature
• ENGL-313: British Literature
• ENGL-314: Ethics in the Graphic Memoir
• ENGL-315: Digital Literature
• ENGL-316: Global Literature
• ENGL-318: Popular Literature
• ENGL-319: Anime
• ENGL-322: Literary Geographies
• ENGL-328: Rhetoric of Science
• ENGL-330: Rhetoric of Health and Medicine
• ENGL-333: Rhetoric of Terrorism
• ENGL-345: History of Madness
• ENGL-373: Media Adaptation
• ENGL-374: Games & Literature
• ENGL-375: Storytelling Across Media
• ENGL-376: Experimental Writing
• ENGL-377: Transmedia Storyworlds
• ENGL-379: Virtual Worlds
• ENGL-381: Science Writing
• ENGL-391: Dangerous Texts
• ENGL-400: Literary & Cultural Studies
• ENGL-410: Film Studies
• ENGL-413: African-American Literature
• ENGL-414: Topics in Women's and Gender Studies
• ENGL-418: Major Authors
• ENGL-419: Literature and Technology
• ENGL-420: Speculative Fiction
• ENGL-421: The Graphic Novel
• ENGL-422: Maps, Spaces and Places
• ENGL-450: Free and Open Source Culture
• ENGL-472: Topics in Rhetoric and Literacy Studies
• ENGL-510: Transnational Digital Creation Workshop

Creative Writing

• ENGL-386: World Building Workshop
• ENGL-389: Digital Creative Writing Workshop
• ENGL-390: Creative Writing Workshop
• ENGL-392: Queer and Trans Creative Writing Workshop
• ENGL-475: Immersive Storytelling
• ENGL-490: Advanced Creative Writing Workshop
• ENGL-511: Advanced Topics in Creative Writing
• ENGL-543: Game-Based Fiction
• ENGL-586: Advanced Worldbuilding

Worldbuilding and Transmedia Storytelling

• ENGL-314: Ethics in the Graphic Memoir
• ENGL-315: Digital Literature
• ENGL-319: Anime
• ENGL-373: Media Adaptation
• ENGL-374: Games and Literature
• ENGL-377: Transmedia Storyworlds
• ENGL-379: Virtual Worlds
• ENGL-386: World Building Workshop
• ENGL-389: Digital Creative Writing Workshop
• ENGL-410: Film Studies
• ENGL-421: The Graphic Novel
• ENGL-475: Immersive Storytelling
• ENGL-510: Transnational Digital Creation Workshop
• ENGL-543: Game-Based Fiction
• ENGL-586: Advanced Worldbuilding

Admissions and Financial Aid

First-Year Admission

First-year applicants are expected to demonstrate a strong academic background that includes:

• 4 years of English with a strong performance is expected.
• 3 years of social studies and/or history with a strong performance is expected.
• 3 years of math is required and must include algebra, geometry, and algebra 2/trigonometry.
• 2-3 years of science.

Transfer Admission

Transfer applicants should meet these minimum degree-specific requirements:

• A minimum of college algebra is required.

Learn How to Apply

Financial Aid and Scholarships

100% of all incoming first-year and transfer students receive aid.

RIT’s personalized and comprehensive financial aid program includes scholarships, grants, loans, and campus employment programs. When all these are put to work, your actual cost may be much lower than the published estimated cost of attendance.

Learn more about financial aid and scholarships

Facilities

• Center for Engaged Storycraft
• Center for Worldbuilding and Storytelling

Events

• August 29: Donuts with the Dean in the College of Liberal Arts
• September 25: Donuts with the Dean in the College of Liberal Arts
• October 24: Donuts with the Dean in the College of Liberal Arts

All RIT Events

Related News

• May 27, 2025: Thirteen seniors at partner high school headed to RIT
• April 26, 2025: Thousands celebrate technology and creativity at Imagine RIT
• April 21, 2025: RIT solidifies its place in LA

More Program News

Contact

Program Contact

• Heather Roth
• Assistant Director of Recruitment and Retention Outreach
• Dean’s Office
• College of Liberal Arts
• 585‑475‑5456

Offered within the Department of English