<p>You don’t need the best English department to be a very good English major, but you must love to read a lot, talk about literature a lot, think about literature and ideas a lot, and constantly improve your writing. As much as any major, it’s not where you go but what you DO there. The school is not going to give you an education; you’re going to educate yourself. If you cannot work hard in all the above areas, you will not be a best English major. As an undergraduate you don’t need to get caught up in the anxieties grad students have about picking the right grad program for them. Just find a school that fits you for cost, size, etc., and go to school and work your butt off. You can get a superb education at hundreds of departments. Don’t spend more money than you have to. Go visit the campus and talk to the department chair and/or undergraduate studies about having students like you in their department and how you’ll fit there, and sit in on classrooms and talk to students about their studies and homework. </p>