@ucbalumnus any field at all is good for going to law school.
warblersrule nailed it (and others have since echoed his/her remarks),
Asking for what schools are strong for English is like asking which oceans have a lot of water.
OP, you mention Lehigh, and you also said that you are open to any school. If your family can afford it, I would maybe target LACs. English departments will be strong at all levels: small, medium, and large schools. The appeal of an LAC, though, is that the smaller size means that the education will be more personalized, classes will be smaller, and, thus, you’ll pretty much be in graduate-style seminars more often than not (a few basic required classes like Brit Lit I and II might be on the larger side (read: 20-25 students)). Really, though, you’ll find solid English departments everywhere.
Start with what sorts of schools you absolutely love and can reasonably get into and afford. Then, narrow things down based on which English department seems coolest to you.
(Credentials: English major in college who went on for both MA and doctoral study).
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Yes, I know. But it seems like so many high school seniors who want to go to law school default to political science or English as their undergraduate majors.
No–the OP asked for “some really strong” English departments. If you’re going to be a scold, at least be accurate 
That’s a perhaps technically accurate but still not completely clear distinction, @marvin100. The title of the thread begins with “Best” and includes “English.”
I won’t speak for anyone else, but on these threads it can sometimes be frustrating to arrive at my own strongest recommendations, only to be immediately followed with indirect comments with respect to their deficiencies. So maybe you need to look at where the “scolding” really began?
Thank you everyone for you recommendations! To clarify my intention with an English major are not to go to law school (at all, law school actually sounds like a nightmare to me). I genuinely just really love literature and analyzing it. I intend on pursuing graduate study in English.
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@Chrchill, Berkeley and Chicago are tied as #1 by who, or is it whom? Certainly can’t mean number of PhD’s as all graduates don’t follow that path - most don’t even at the most selective schools as we have seen from the student outcome data from Swathmore, amongst others.
(looks like USNWR… I was thinking gourman at first… sorry, not Chrchill 
)
USNWR
^ Those are graduate department rankings though.
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From a website called college transitions.
These are the Ph.D. feeder schools for English–
- Reed
- Swarthmore
- St. Johns of Annapolis (I’m pretty sure as it’s the reading college/ and Santa Fe_
- Amherst
- Scripps
- Pomona
- Haverford
- Oberlin
- Vassar
- Kenyon
- Wellesley
- Carleton
- Bowdoin
- Williams
- Wesleyan
- Grinnell
- Barnard
- Bryn Mawr
- Hampshire
- Rhodes
Given the extremely poor career prospects in academia for PhDs in English, one would hope that the vast majority do not aim for a PhD.
A few years back a LAC professor wrote excellent articles on the topic that should be required reading for all prospective PhDs in the humanities.
[ul][li]“Graduate School in the Humanities: Just Don’t Go” - https://www.chronicle.com/article/Graduate-School-in-the/44846[/li]
[li]“Just Don’t Go, Part 2” - https://www.chronicle.com/article/Just-Dont-Go-Part-2/44786[/ul][/li]
One wonders if schools faring poorly on PhD production in the humanities actually have weak programs or they’re simply giving students some tough love about career prospects in academia.
Along the same lines, I’m firmly convinced exposure to the workload and mental state of graduate students is one reason smaller percentages of university graduates go into PhD programs than LAC graduates. A recent study found that PhD students are at significant risk of depression and related issues.
Don’t want to shift the focus too far from “strong English departments,” but as the spouse of a humanities Ph.D. who has spent the last 30 years around academic families – many academics we know come from very wealthy families, where the Ph.D. student has family money to live on and soften the blow of the many contingencies inherent in academic life. Those who are not personally wealthy may be married to professionals who could support the family through grad school and beyond.
It is not a life for the faint of heart. The job market is abysmal, the pay is nearly insulting --humanities profs, unlike business and law profs, do not have to be wooed away from lucrative private sector jobs to teach in the academy. So salaries are low, raises are usually in the 1-3% range (3% of $50,000 is not much more take home pay over the course of a year), and in many schools/departments, salaries have been frozen. While $50k might sound like a nice starting salary for a young person, a humanities Ph.D. program usually takes 6+ years, and a student often does not get a job the first year on the market, so is probably 30 or older when they get their first tenure track job. Ten years later, they are still making $55-60,000, a time when folks are hoping to own a house, save for retirement, and save for their own children’s college education. Tenure involves a bump in pay, but that is the only time a faculty member sees a serious pay increase, often around 10% of their base. Having a competing offer from a peer school can lead to a pay increase from the home institution but, given the tight job market, the chances of getting another offer from a comparable or better school, are slim.
And while a professor may not have to physically be in the office the way a business person might, the hours are actually quite long. A professor does not “get” summers off, at least not if they want to get their initial contract renewed (most faculty have a third year review, long before tenure consideration, and those who aren’t on track for tenure are relieved of their position). Summer is for research and writing – even for faculty at LACs which emphasize teaching over research. Take a look at the webpages of faculty at LACs, and they too have CVs replete with conference presentations, papers, and books.
It is a career someone should feel they cannot exist without, like an artist, and should know what the sacrifices and downsides are, going into it.
Based on another of your threads, it appears you will be applying to colleges with a well-earned ~4.0 GPA (SAT: 1510), @hopestobe. You will be in great position to follow through on some of the school recommendations on this thread, as well as on other options that might be personally appealing to you.
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@merc81 - And here I thought I was the only one that had tracked down that Cornelius Van Cleve! @marvin100 has made me put the Fitzwilliam Museum on my ever-growing list of museums to visit. I love that particular Virgin and Child – esp. that Child with his cat-that-ate-the-canary look! And you, @merc81, are the one that put the Ecole du Louvre on my daughter’s list of places to study, so thank you for that.
As to the OPs question, I agree that looking at course descriptions – and faculty profiles – can be quite useful.
You’ll want to find programs that are strong in the type of literature and writing that you might want to focus on and how they approach it, how well various genres and time periods are covered, whether the school is strong certain areas that might interest you (e.g., literary analysis, creative writing). You’ll also want to think about class size, whether classes are taught by faculty or T.A., etc.
Most universities and LACs will have good English programs. Certainly the top public and private universities and LACs will have strong English departments.
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