Best Colleges for an English Major

College Search & Lists
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Hello everyone! I’m planning on being an English major possibly with a double major in women’s and gender studies. What are some really strong undergrad english departments? I really like Lehigh and the feel of it but their english department isn’t the best. I’m willing to consider pretty much anything from small lacs to large public universities

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2

Take a look at Sarah Lawrence and Vassar.

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3

Look into Vassar, Kenyon, Williams, Hamilton, Amherst, Colby, Pomona/CMC/Pitzer. Note that these colleges are generally extremely selective, however.

If you like Lehigh, you might want to consider Colgate, which would be excellent for English.

Denison would be strong for English and a less selective option than the above suggestions.

You may find schools of interest in this article as well:

http://flavorwire.com/409437/the-25-most-literary-colleges-in-america/view-all

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4

http://college.usatoday.com/2017/05/05/best-colleges-for-english-majors/

Here’s another list. Some of these are quite selective, but may give you an idea of what to look for in programs

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5

You’re not going about this in a very effective way. English is a core liberal arts discipline and by far the most popular of the humanities; there are dozens if not hundreds of very strong English programs. English graduate programs churn out far more than PhDs than can get hired, so you’ll find faculty from top-notch schools even at community colleges.

I recommend beginning with the basics – selectivity (what are your GPA and test scores?), financial/merit aid (how much can you afford?), location, size, etc. Once you draw up a list based on these factors, you can start comparing academic offerings.

Keep in mind that you’ll only take about 12-15 courses at most in your major. Even mediocre English programs typically offer far more courses than you’ll have time to take. Moreover, unless you’re aiming for a PhD program in English, you don’t need a “top” program in English – a program like Lehigh’s is perfectly adequate for most undergrads’ purposes.

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6

Harvard, Yale, Williams, Amherst…
Honestly, English is going to be a super strong program at any super-selective non-tech school. In fact, English is one of the most reliable departments at most selective academic colleges, and it’s not hard to find a great English program.

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You were given some excellent suggestions in post #2. My daughter, now an English major at Kenyon, found it extremely helpful to read through the course descriptions at her schools of potential interest. This exercise helped her to eliminate a few colleges, and add some. While Kenyon became her ultimate choice, she was also particularly impressed by the English departments at Hamilton, Bates, Bryn Mawr and Mt. Holyoke.

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8

There are scores (if not hundreds) of schools with decent English departments.
You’ll need to narrow down that search space.
IMO post #4 outlines a good approach.
For many families, cost is a key factor.

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9

The title of the thread is “Best Colleges for an English Major.” I’m sure the OP realizes that she could major in English at "dozens, scores, hundreds” of schools.

She asked for the best. Let’s, in our opinions, give her the best.

10

If you don’t mind remote schools, Sewanee and Kenyon might be interesting to you.

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11

@apple23 is right that Kenyon, Hamilton, Bates, Bryn Mawr, and Mt. Holyoke have terrific English departments.

@tk21769 is right that there are probably hundreds of schools with good English departments.

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12

Are we ever going to see Van Cleve again, @marvin100?

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One never knows what the future may bring, @merc81 :smiley:

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I wouldn’t assume anything about what a high school student does or doesn’t know. Is there anything wrong with recommending a more effective approach?

Posters are also free to recommend their favorites or alma maters. To each his own!

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15

There’s nothing wrong with recommending a more effective approach, if that approach is in fact more effective, @warblersrule. In this case, the OP asked for the best English departments. She did not ask about any of the other details that drive college selection. A quick check on CC will reveal that she has started additional threads addressing other aspects of the college search. In the spirit of remaining focused on her very specific question, I felt it best to give her names, as that’s what she appears to be seeking.

By the way, if you are suggesting that I may be inclined to recommend my alma mater, in this case you’re partly right. I did. However, that was through the context of my daughter, whose perspective is her own.

16

@apple23
Fair enough, let’s try to focus on the OP’s topic question. However, the difficulty is that there is no clear, uncontroversial way to define and measure “the best” college for an English major. Furthermore, the “best colleges for an English major” can’t be separated completely from factors (such as net cost and selectivity) that make a college good-better-best for any other liberal arts major (or this one in particular).

Nevertheless, English department rankings do exist, although the ones I know about focus on graduate programs (and therefore ignore LACs). The NRC ranking applies 5 different ratings; on its website you can click-sort on the columns you think best represent your needs/interests:
https://www.chronicle.com/article/NRC-Rankings-Overview-English/124728.
The USNWR ranking is based on an opinion poll of academics:
https://www.usnews.com/education/best-graduate-schools/articles/social-sciences-and-humanities-schools-methodology

Top-rated schools in both rankings include (no surprise) 7 of the 8 Ivies, Stanford, UChicago, JHU, Berkeley, and Michigan (among others). In my personal opinion the best of these for an undergraduate is UChicago, which USNWR has tied for #1 with Berkeley. UChicago is one of the most LAC-like of all “elite” universities, with undergraduate Core classes capped at 19 students (unless this has changed recently). More importantly, it’s my alma mater.

If you want to rank LACs by English department strength, one measurement you could consider is the number of alumni-earned PhDs in English (preferably per capita, or better yet, per English major). This may give you a rough indication of how well each college motivates and prepares English majors for advanced work in the field … although it is likely to be confounded by selection effects (from differences in the abilities or preferences of enrolled students).

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17

The list below shows the number of PhDs in English and Literature earned by LAC alumni from 2012-2016 (inclusive), according to NSF/WebCASPAR data. For comparison, at the top I’ve included numbers for the 5 research universities that USNWR ranks highest for their graduate English programs:

PhDs … School (English majors 2015-16, ~ English PhDs per major*)
103 … UC Berkeley (313, 0.066)
58 … Columbia (107, 0.108)
44 … UChicago (56, 0.157)
37 … UPenn (69, 0.107)
31 … Stanford (53, 0.117)

30 … Oberlin College (55, 0.109)
25 … Reed College (29,0.172)
25 … Wesleyan University (52, 0.096)
23 … Mount Holyoke College (36,0.128)
23 … Swarthmore College (25, 0.184)
22 … Amherst College
22 … Barnard College
22 … Bowdoin College
22 … Kenyon College
22 … Wellesley College
22 … Wheaton College, Wheaton
22 … Williams College, Williamstown
20 … Bard College
20 … Smith College
19 … Haverford College
19 … Rhodes College, Memphis
19 … Vassar College
18 … Bucknell University
18 … Skidmore College
16 … Middlebury College
16 … St. Olaf College
15 … Carleton College
14 … College of the Holy Cross
14 … Macalester College
13 … Denison University
13 … Sarah Lawrence College
12 … Bryn Mawr College
12 … Furman University
12 … Grove City College
12 … Hamilton College
12 … Occidental College
11 … Colgate University
11 … Davidson College
11 … Scripps College
11 … University of Richmond
10 … Bates College
10 … Cedarville University
10 … Grinnell College

  • The "PhDs per major" rate is calculated by dividing the number in column 1 by 5x the number of English/Lit majors graduating in 2015-16. So it assumes the number of English majors is constant from year to year; it only counts students whose first major is English/Lit (no minors). Sources: NRC/WebCASPAR (for PhD raw numbers); IPEDS (for majors)
18

In addition to the list above, perhaps look at what the departments offer. While many students go on to earn a Ph.D., others want to work in some other industry. English lends itself to –

  • Journalism
  • Advertising
  • Publishing
  • Fiction writing (and then what genre are you interested in?)
  • Nonfiction writing (books, articles, etc.)
  • Political writing
  • Teaching elementary school, middle school, etc.
  • Writing for corporations or non-profit entities in their communications departments
  • Etc.

The OP would do well to look at a school’s department and see if they have the means to help them enter their desired field. For example:

  • Does the English Department offer internship placement?
  • If so, what kind? (What sort of connections are in place at the school? What alumni have graduated from there?)
  • Does the ED / College offer support for unpaid or underpaid internships?

St. Olaf’s English department seems to offer varied opportunities, financial support and so to my mind would rank fairly high on the list.

Oberlin offers no financial support for unpaid internships. That would make it drop in my personal ranking.

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Berkeley and UChicago are tied for top English departments in the US.

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Re #17

English is also a fairly common prelaw major for some reason, though much less so than political science.

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