I’m double majoring in english and education. My father wants me to have the education degree so I can work immediately out of college. I want to be an english professor. I don’t want to teach high school, middle school, or younger. Is there a second major you could recommend that I suggest to my dad so we can forget this education thing? Or do you think I should go along with the degree in education?

Forget this education thing? You want to be a professor, jackass. An education degree would not be wasted on you.

Ask around. I think you’ll find that a degree in education would make you more appealing to certain PhD programs, especially ones where you’d be teaching. You don’t have to have an English degree to be a strong applicant for an English PhD program, and if you don’t get accepted into a program, with an education degree you can always turn around and teach high school English.

Fair warning, though. Even if you do get accepted, you’ll be slogging it out in a PhD program for the rest of this decade before you get a shot at being an English professor. Competition will be fierce. Work will be grueling. You will be poor as shit.

Maybe it’s worth it. Maybe it’s not. Either way, quit worrying about your major and start looking at the bigger picture.