<p>Mythmom: your comparison of the two English departments is intriguing, even if it’s somewhat incomplete. I don’t doubt for a moment that Wellesley’s pedagogy is more traditional/conservative than Smith’s, simply because I think the same can be said for the colleges themselves. Students would be well-advised to look at both the course catalogue and the departmental pages to get a sense of how the majors are trained, although, again, you can’t tell everything from an online perusal.</p>