I have never stepped foot on SIU Carbondale’s campus. I have, however, taken a look at some of the data of which schools are producing graduates who go on to earn doctoral degrees: Baccalaureate origins of doctoral recipients. Looking at the data from 2000-2018, I selected Illinois as a place of comparison:
SIU-Carbondale produced the 4th highest number of doctoral recipients in that time frame. But how does the size of the college impact that number? For a rough calculation, I took the number of doctoral recipients and divided it by the number of current undergrads (per College Navigator) to get a rough ratio of how prevalent students thinking (and successfully completing) a doctorate are at a particular school. The schools are listed from highest ratio to lowest.
| Illinois Schools | # of Doctoral Recipients | # of Undergrads | Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| U. of Chicago | 2,880 | 7,636 | 0.377 |
| Wheaton | 805 | 2,341 | 0.344 |
| Northwestern | 2,663 | 8,847 | 0.301 |
| Knox | 344 | 1,156 | 0.298 |
| Illinois Wesleyan | 403 | 1,653 | 0.244 |
| Augustana | 390 | 2,338 | 0.167 |
| UIUC | 5,332 | 34,779 | 0.153 |
| SIU-Carbondale | 1,174 | 8,147 | 0.144 |
| Lake Forest | 190 | 1,661 | 0.114 |
| Illinois Institute of Technology | 336 | 2,998 | 0.112 |
| Millikin | 193 | 1,812 | 0.107 |
| Bradley | 435 | 4,331 | 0.100 |
| Western Illinois | 453 | 5,394 | 0.084 |
| Eastern Illinois | 514 | 6,903 | 0.074 |
| Loyola Chicago | 854 | 11,819 | 0.072 |
| Northern Illinois | 840 | 11,834 | 0.071 |
| Illinois State | 926 | 17,674 | 0.052 |
| U of I - Chicago | 1,164 | 22,279 | 0.052 |
| Northeastern Illinois | 227 | 4,608 | 0.049 |
| DePaul | 573 | 14,294 | 0.040 |
| Southern Illinois-Edwardsville | 396 | 9,967 | 0.040 |
To provide a point of comparison, here are the same data with the colleges in the state of Washington:
| Washington Schools | # of Doctoral Recipients | # of Undergrads | Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whitman | 573 | 1,559 | 0.368 |
| U. of Puget Sound | 558 | 1,866 | 0.299 |
| Evergreen State | 459 | 1,849 | 0.248 |
| Pacific Lutheran | 321 | 2,373 | 0.135 |
| Walla Walla | 184 | 1,402 | 0.131 |
| U. of Washington - Seattle | 3,580 | 36,201 | 0.099 |
| Whitworth | 226 | 2,309 | 0.098 |
| Seattle Pacific | 245 | 2,640 | 0.093 |
| Gonzaga | 386 | 4,986 | 0.077 |
| Northwest | 52 | 778 | 0.067 |
| Seattle | 275 | 4,241 | 0.065 |
| Western Washington | 801 | 14,019 | 0.057 |
| Washington State | 1,106 | 24,278 | 0.046 |
| Eastern Washington | 363 | 8,217 | 0.044 |
| Central Washington | 279 | 9,566 | 0.029 |
| Saint Martin’s | 30 | 1,358 | 0.022 |
| City U. of Seattle | 20 | 1,145 | 0.017 |
| U. of Washington - Tacoma | 26 | 4,327 | 0.006 |
| U. of Washington - Bothell | 14 | 5,454 | 0.003 |
So SIU’s ratio is quite close to UIUC’s (the state flagship) and is in the same range as that of smaller liberal arts schools that (in my opinion) punch well above their national reputation’s weight. And its ratio is much higher than at other schools that are also well-respected and mentioned much more frequently on CC. And when looking at the ratios of Illinois schools as compared to Washington schools, I think that the comparison is very favorable to the ones in Illinois.
In relation to SIU-Carbondale, it offers through a doctorate in CS, so it should have more than sufficient depth in the department to satisfy OP’s interest. It also offers a Master’s (6 recipients in the most recent year of IPEDS data) along with a Bachelor’s in linguistics, so there should be adequate strength there, too. There were 9 students in the most recent year of IPEDS data that got an MFA in Creative Writing, so the undergrad program should also work for OP. And it offers a full ride for which I think that OP would be extremely competitive.
I stand by my suggestion of SIU-Carbondale for OP to investigate.
And in looking at price totals, right now SIU-Carbondale would be $18,366 for tuition & fees plus room & board based on 23-24 costs (after the guaranteed level of merit aid) and OP would be eligible to compete for the full ride.