Not everyone can be “Red” and “1989,” and that’s okay.
Emie Garrett | Entertainment Editor
Every college major has a reputation, whether people think it’s too easy, impossibly hard or that you’ll never be able to get a job with your degree *major eye roll*. It doesn’t really matter what people think about your choice of degree if you enjoy it, but wouldn’t it be fun to categorize them using Taylor Swift’s iconic studio albums?
Below are nine of the most pursued college degrees, according to Best Colleges. So, even if that doesn’t sound fun to you, here it is:
* Disclaimer: We encourage our readers to listen to Taylor Swift’s music that she owns. This article will be updated as she rerecords each of her albums.
Ridiculously cool and a lotta bit angsty, there is simply no other album that perfectly encapsulates what it means to be young, confused and a little bit jaded. There’s no way the iconic lyrics in “Red,” “All Too Well” and “Sad Beautiful Tragic,” don’t speak to your artistic soul whilst you gaze out your window and ruminate, searching for a glimmer of inspiration hiding within our broken world, or while you feverishly work, bringing your visions to life. And what about the new additions from the vault like “Nothing New”? Come on, Phoebe Bridgers— the queen of the angsty cool girl— is featured on it for crying out loud.
Anthropology: “folklore”
Anthropology, the study of humanity. One of the ways you study humanity as an anthropologist is by observing human behavior, which is, essentially, what the entirety of “folklore” is. You could spend days writing entire think pieces– something many Swifties have done– about the human behaviors and interactions exhibited in the intricate lyrics of songs like “my tears ricochet,” “this is me trying” and “the last great american dynasty.”
Business: “Speak Now”
Business majors may get a bad rep for choosing a college path that’s “too easy,” but hey, that’s not true– hello accounting classes– and besides, you’re just trying to have fun and soak up every moment of college. You know the value of hard work, but you also know how crucial a healthy work-life balance is within the business world to avoid the dreaded burnout. With hits like “Enchanted,” “Mine” and “Sparks Fly,” Swift’s third studio album is all about being young, in love and living in the moment, exactly what you’re allowing the room for in your life.
Communications: “Lover”
No one but a communications major could weave heart-shattering lyrics like, “Gave you too much, but it wasn’t enough…” in “Death By A Thousand Cuts” into a foot-tapping bop, or verbally cut a person straight to the bone by telling them of your complete indifference, heard in “I Forgot That You Existed.” The entire “Lover” album takes the good, bad and ugly parts of loving someone and somehow makes them each taste like a spoonful of sugar, something communications student are taught how to do on the daily—delivering messages strategically and effectively, both good and bad.
English: “evermore”
English students are taught the art of analysis. Whether they’re reading between the lines of characters, themes, setting, dialogue, etc. they’re basically detectives searching for clues to uncover the true feelings, motives and meaning behind each word on the page. So don’t lie and say that you couldn’t spend hours, nay, days, writing critical analysis essay after critical analysis essay on the stories told in songs like “champagne problems,” “happiness,” “tolerate it,” and, essentially, every song on the “evermore” album. With complex characters and themes, “evermore” is what every English major’s literary analysis dreams are made of.
Engineering: “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)”
This one feels sort of obvious from the name alone seeing as engineering majors fearlessly—maybe not entirely without fear, but you get it—take on courses where one problem takes up the whole whiteboard– yikes. Songs like “You Belong With Me” and “Love Story” chronicle a young Swift’s fearless, unrelenting pursuit of love, reflecting your similarly unrelenting pursuit of your degree, no matter how many epic-length equations are thrown your way.
Finance: “reputation”
Whether you are a finance major, or know a finance major, this one is pretty self-explanatory. You’re kind of intense, probably drink your coffee black, aren’t afraid of a little confrontation and are a bit of a walking red flag in general– all jokes… sort of. Songs on Swift’s killer come-back album, which dropped a year after Swift went off the grid following the infamous Kim-Kanye-Snake-Emoji-Drama, like “End Game,” “Look What You Made Me Do” and “…Ready For It?” perfectly encapsulate your no-nonsense attitude.
Marketing: “1989”
An iconic album, as it marks when Swift officially made the transition from country to pop, “1989” seamlessly navigates this transition, and only a marketing pro could navigate an industry leap like that. Equipped with the tools and strategies to add just the right amount of sparkle here and throw just a little extra pizazz there, you know how to keep audiences eating out of the palm of your clients’ hand, exactly what Swift had every one doing when she dropped songs like “Blank Space,” “Style” and “Wildest Dreams”.
Nursing: “Taylor Swift”
Too often forgotten, rarely given the credit it deserves, Swift’s eponymous debut country album gave the world iconic bangers that landed her on the map like “Picture to Burn,” “Tim McGraw,” “Our Song,” and one all you nursing majors can surely relate to when you’re doing clinicals and studying and simultaneously trying to maintain some semblance of a social life, “Teardrops On My Guitar.”
Happy back to school to all, and to all a stress-free semester ahead. So, which one of Swift’s nine, equally iconic, albums best describes you?
Emie Garrett is currently serving as our Entertainment Editor. During her three years at Alice, she has written numerous stories for both our digital and print channels. Originally from Demopolis, Alabama, she earned her Bachelor’s degree in public relations from The University of Alabama in 2021, and will begin her second year of graduate studies in the fall, working to earn a Master’s degree in advertising and public relations with a concentration in creative advertising.
