Good Lit. Departments?

pinnipotto
Fri, 03 Aug 2007 10:54:28 +0000

Ditto what the others have said. Unless the school is EXTREMELY technically oriented, (or just REALLY bad in general), I would be very surprised if the English major were not strong. And English is what one would generally mean when they say “Lit”…you seem also interested in Classics and Comp Lit, which, while they do both involve study of Literature, just as English does, would both require extensive foreign language knowledge. I assume you’re willing to put forth the effort to achieve that? It’s not too relevant, though, because those majors are much less common, and any school that has one or both of those (Classics most places have, I think, Comp Lit as an undergrad major may be more rare…but I imagine creating a Comp Lit major at any school that has majors in English and Foreign languages wouldn’t be too hard), will almost certainly have a quality English department.

In addition, you probably don’t know exactly what you wish to study in Literature, and English is a subject that you really need graduate school in, if you plan to work in the field (unless, perhaps if you want to be a teacher.) Thus, since you’ll almost certainly have to go to graduate school,and by that time you’ll know specifically what you want to study, you’d be much better off focusing your energies on finding the strongest program for that specifically, when you’re ready to go to grad school. Any college will prepare you well for graduate study in English.

(All that said, I would not be surprised if in the time it took me to type this, someone had posted the Gourman, Ruggs, and USNews Graduate rankings for English. Or all three majors you listed. And hey, those lists can be a good starting point. But with something like English…it really doesn’t matter. Go to the best school for you.)