BA in English Overview
High Quality, Cost-Effective, Optimal Convenience
UT Permian Basin has been acknowledged by U.S. News & World Report for having some of the “Best Online Bachelor’s Programs.” The combination of quality and affordability makes our BA in English an exceptional value. Combined with the extraordinary convenience of being able to earn your degree on a flexible schedule from anywhere in the world, it’s easy to see why online learning from UT Permian Basin is an increasingly popular choice.
Our 100% online Bachelor of Arts in English program provides deeply enriching engagement with the English language and culture. As a student, you’ll examine the structure and complexity of the English language and explore British and American poetry, fiction, and drama through a review of works by creative minds ranging from Shakespeare to Spielberg. Our program will help you develop incisive writing, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills, as well as gain a fuller understanding of global perspectives.
Our BA in English prepares you for a variety of professional and academic pursuits, including:
Students must complete 42 credits from the following areas of study to meet general education requirements: communication (6 credits); U.S. history (6 credits), language, philosophy, and culture (3 credits); mathematics (3 or 4 credits); life and physical sciences (8 credits); political science (6 credits); creative arts (3 credits); social and behavioral science (3 credits); component area (1 credit if math is 3 credits).
One course required.
One course required.
One course required.
Admission Requirements
In order to prevent delays in processing applications, UT Permian Basin is temporarily modifying the freshman admission process by moving to a test-optional policy that will apply through Fall 2023. See the Test-Optional Policy section below for additional details.
Transfer Student Admission Requirements
- Minimum of 24 transferable credit hours from a regionally accredited college or university
- GPA of 2.0 or higher in previous college-level coursework
- Official transcripts from all colleges and universities attended
- Dual-credit high school courses must be included
- Completed application
Incoming Freshman Admission Requirements
If you have completed less than 24 hours of transferable college-level work from a regionally accredited college or university after graduating from high school or receiving your GED, please provide the following:
- Official transcripts from all colleges and universities attended (including dual-credit work while in high school)
- Official high school transcript showing GPA, class rank, and expected graduation date or GED scores
- SAT and/or ACT scores from within the last five years (see below for minimum score requirements)
- Completed application
Official Transcripts
Official copies of transcripts must come directly from the school in a sealed envelope and should be mailed to:
UT Permian Basin
Office of Admissions
4901 E. University Blvd.
Odessa, TX 79762
Official transcripts in electronic format can be sent to admissions@utpb.edu.
Minimum Score Requirements for Freshman Admission
| High School Graduation Class Rank | SAT | ACT |
| Top 25% | No minimum score | No minimum score |
| 2nd Quarter | 1020 | 20 |
| 3rd Quarter | 1160 | 24 |
| 4th Quarter | 1280 | 27 |
Application Fee
The application fee is $40.
If you are a freshman applicant, you may request a fee waiver when you apply by sending us your official college application fee waiver form provided by the SAT or ACT. You may also request a fee waiver if the Estimated Family Contribution (EFC) listed on your Student Aid Report is zero.
Test-Optional Policy
Students will be reviewed on a holistic basis focusing on the strength of the high school record, overall grade point average, grades within the core subjects, dual credit work, and additional information (resume and/or extracurricular activities, leadership opportunities, and work experience provided with the GoApplyTexas application). We also recognize the value of standardized tests as a piece of the review process and will consider scores alongside the other required application credentials, if provided.
Professor
Department of Literature and Language andres_s@utpb.edu
Sophia Andres is professor of English, Kathlyn Cosper Dunagan Professor in the Humanities, and English MA program head in the Department of Literature and Languages, where she teaches Romantic literature, Victorian literature and art, literature and mythology, as well as modern and postmodern British fiction. She is the recipient of several teaching and research awards and is currently a member of the UT System Academy of Distinguished Teachers. Her work has been published in several journals and book chapters. Her most recent book, Poetry in Pre-Raphaelite Paintings (2018), was preceded by The Pre-Raphaelite Art of the Victorian Novel (2005).
William and Ordelle Watts Professor
English Program
babcock_r@utpb.edu
Rebecca Day Babcock is the William and Ordelle Watts Professor at UT Permian Basin, where she teaches courses in writing and linguistics. She also serves as the freshman English coordinator and the director of undergraduate research. She has authored, co-authored, or edited several books on tutoring, writing centers, disability, and meta-research. Her latest book, the first not about tutoring, is Boom or Bust: Narrative, Life, and Culture from the West Texas Oil Patch, edited with former UT Permian Basin students Sheena Stief and Kristen Figgins and based on an NEH grant, the first ever to be awarded to UT Permian Basin. Boom or Bust also features narratives by current and former UT Permian Basin graduate students and faculty. In addition to her many books, Babcock has also published research articles in Writing Lab Newsletter, Linguistics and Education, Composition Forum, Praxis, The Peer Review, and others. She won the IWCA Outstanding Article Award in 2011 for her article on interpreted writing tutorials with deaf writers and the CWPA Outstanding Scholarship Award in 2019 for “Writing Center Directors and Diversity,” written with Karen Keaton Jackson and former graduate student Sarah Banschbach Valles. Most recently, she won the Best Edited Collection Award for Theories and Methods of Writing Center Studies from the Association for Writing Across the Curriculum.
Associate Professor and Chair
Department of Literature and Language
English Program
fick_m@utpb.edu
Dr. Marlon Fick is an associate professor of English and chair of the department of literature and languages. He holds a BA from the University of Kansas (philosophy), an MA from New York University (poetics/English), and a PhD from the University of Kansas (English). He is the author of three poetry collections, a book of short stories, and the novel The Nowhere Man (Jaded Ibis, 2015) and is editor/translator of The River Is Wide/El río es ancho: Twenty Mexican Poets (New Mexico, 2005), as well as XEIXA: Fourteen Catalan Poets (Tupelo, 2018). Awarded fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, ConaCulta in Mexico, and Institut Ramon Llull in Catalonia, Dr. Fick specializes in teaching comparative poetics at UT Permian Basin.
Professor of English
Department of Literature and Language
richardson_t@utpb.edu
Todd H. Richardson is a professor of English specializing in American Romanticism, transcendentalism, American women writers, nature writing, and multicultural fiction. His work has appeared in American Literary Scholarship (Duke UP), Approaches to Teaching the Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (MLA), Emerson in Context (Cambridge UP), Oxford Handbook of Transcendentalism (Oxford UP), Walt Whitman Quarterly, and New England Quarterly. He is past president of the Ralph Waldo Emerson Society.
Dunagan Professor of English
Department of Literature and Language
wildermuth_m@utpb.edu
Mark Wildermuth has served at UT Permian Basin since 1992. He has published articles in Philosophy and Rhetoric, the Journal of Popular Film and Television, and the Journal of Popular Culture. He has published the following books: Blood in the Moonlight: Michael Mann and Information Age Cinema; Print, Chaos and Complexity: Samuel Johnson and Eighteenth-Century Media Culture; Gender, Science Fiction Television and the American Security State, 1958-Present; and Feminism and the Western.