A degree in French or Italian will prepare you for a wide variety of career choices in fields such as interpreting, translating, and foreign language teaching. It also serves as an auxiliary skill in business, industry and commerce, the civil service (both foreign and domestic), law, library science, journalism, radio and television, the film industry, publishing, science and social sciences, travel and tourism industries, and religious, health and social service agencies in the United States and abroad.
Many French and Italian majors at CU Boulder choose to pursue another BA in International Studies, History, Philosophy or the Social Sciences along with their French degree. Majoring in French or Italian or adding the French or Italian major to another area of study has led many of our recent graduates to careers in publishing, editing, education, arts management, philanthropy, public health or international marketing.
If you plan to continue on to graduate studies, the major provides an excellent background for business, political science, history, law, management, journalism, art history, literary criticism, library science and international relations.
Career Services offers free services for all CU Boulder degree-seeking students, and alumni up to one year after graduation, to help students discover who they are, what they want to do, and how to get there. They are the bridge between academics and the world of work by discussing major and career exploration, internship or job searching, and graduate school preparation.
According to the 2019-20 College Salary Report by PayScale Human Capital:
- The average expected salary for someone with a bachelor’s degree in French is $60,000; and
- The average expected salary for someone with a bachelor’s degree in Italian is $54,000.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that 2016-2026 job growth for language translators and interpreters will be 18 percent, which is “much faster” than average job growth.

The estimated median salaries,
as reported on Tableau, for French graduates for 1 to 5, 6 to 10, and over 11 years out from school.

The estimated median salaries,
as reported on Tableau, for Italian graduates for 1 to 5, 6 to 10, and over 11 years out from school.
At CU Boulder, French and Italian graduates earn more than the nationwide average of comparable majors as reported by PayScale. CU Boulder alumni in these disciplines earn an estimated annual salary of $92,582 and $79,821, respectively, based on a pool of 183 alumni who graduated between 1989 and 2018. Those amounts, however, are both above and below the average for all CU Boulder graduates with a bachelor's degree, according to a survey by Esmi Alumni Insight of 25,000 alumni who graduated during the same stretch.