Top Colleges for English
A stalwart of the humanities, the English department can be found at all but the most technical of colleges. With so many options, it can be hard distinguish the masterpieces from the minor works. The usual elite schools-Harvard, Yale, etc.-all have great programs with star professors, but the teachers might be more concerned with their next book release than your lecture course. Many smaller schools offer an intense, personal academic experience that will really keep you turning the pages.
Grinnell College
Located halfway between Des Moines and Iowa City, Iowa, Grinnell will offer few distractions from your Hawthorne and Thoreau. Maybe that's why the school earned a spot on the New York Times' 2006 list of 20 under-appreciated colleges of excellence. Grinnell's proximity to the prestigious Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa offers great speakers and literary events; faculty from the IWW even teach Grinnell's creative writing courses.
Grinnell College
Grinnell, IA 50112
(641) 269-4000
www.grinnell.edu
Johns Hopkins University
Thought Johns Hopkins was only for pre-meds and engineers? The Zanvyl Kreiger School of Arts and Sciences here offers the renowned JHU education to thousands of students without lab coats in their futures. US News & World Report ranked JHU's graduate English program in the Top 20 for 2009, and The Atlantic Monthly named its undergraduate writing program one of the Top 10 in the nation.
Johns Hopkins University
3400 North Charles St.
Baltimore, Maryland 21218
(410) 516-8000
www.jhu.edu
Kenyon College
Kenyon has reaped in accolades for its liberal arts undergraduate experience, being named a "New Ivy" by Newsweek in 2006 and ranked as a top college by Forbes Magazine in 2009. Kenyon's English department is famous for its connection to the influential literary journal The Kenyon Review, where undergrads can still participate in the Associates Program. The college has produced such notable alumni as novelist E.L. Doctorow, Poet Laureate Robert Lowell, and Pulitzer Prize winner James Wright.
Kenyon College
Ransom Hall
Gambier, Ohio 43022
(740) 427-5776
www.kenyon.edu
Reed College
For the quirky and intensely academic, Reed is the place to be. In his book Colleges That Change Lives, education expert Loren Pope calls Reed "the most intellectual college in the country." Even scientific classmates will be well-versed in literature thanks to a mandatory first-year humanities course. Despite officially withdrawing from college rankings (for ideological reasons), Reed was still named in the Top 10 for "Best Classroom Experience" and "Professors get High Marks" in 2009 by the Princeton Review.
Reed College
3203 SE Woodstock Blvd.
Portland, OR 97202
(503) 777-7511
www.reed.edu
Southern Oregon University
When a young professor started putting on classic plays in Ashland in 1935, Southern Oregon became home to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Over 70 years later, the Festival is a Tony-winning, preeminent regional theater, and maintains close ties to the university. The resulting unique educational opportunities include a minor in Shakespeare Studies that bridges theory and practice. Students here can pursue a renowned liberal arts education for a public school price.
Southern Oregon University
1250 Siskiyou Blvd.
Ashland , OR 97520
(541) 552-7672
www.sou.edu
St. John's College
Technically, you can't major in English at St. John's-in fact, you can't major in anything-but you will read and write. A lot. Each of the approximately 1,000 students on both bicoastal campuses pursues the same academic program "based on the reading, study, and discussion of the most important books of the Western tradition." Students at St. John's spend four years reading through the Western canon, from Homer's Greek epics to Heisenberg's explanations of quantum theory. A 2006 study by the Higher Education Data Sharing Consortium found that St. John's was the No. 2 school in the nation for producing students who go on to earn English Ph.D.s.
St. John's College- Annapolis Campus
60 College Ave.
Annapolis, MD 21401
(410) 263-2371
St. John's College- Santa Fe Campus
1160 Camino Cruz Blanca
Santa Fe, NM 87505
(505) 984-6000
Tags: Johns Hopkins, Southern Oregon, Colleges English, English department, English John