<p>I'm currently trying to decide what college/university would be best for me here in Texas, but there's something of a dearth of information about English programmes online. Right now I'm considering UT, A&M, and Tech, but I'm definitely open to suggestions.. basically, what I'm looking for is a school that</p>
<p>1) Is affordable and/or has good aid</p>
<p>2) Has a reputable English programme (duh)</p>
<p>3) Isn't in the middle of nowhere</p>
<p>4) Has intelligent & hopefully friendly students</p>
<p>5) Has somewhat small class sizes (big schools scare me a bit)</p>
<p>6) Has an awesome library</p>
<p>7) Has many or particularly exceptional creative writing courses </p>
<p>If you know of or go to a school with any or all of these characteristics, please let me know and tell me why you like it there! Thanks! :) </p>
<p>Note: I am very much aware that a liberal arts degree is virtually useless, no need for you to point it out ^_^</p>
<p>I would say UT, because I don’t think A&M is known for the humanities, and Tech is in the middle of nowhere.
You could also go to a liberal arts college like Austin College, but it is more expensive than a public school.
UT certainly is in a large city with plenty of opportunities for writers, so I would go for that.</p>
<p>UT also has a program called FIGS that pair up 20 freshman that have similar interests. These students take a lot of the large core classes together, so that gives it a small class feel.</p>
<p>Trinity University - probably will not be as affordable as the state schools (depends on scholarships and aid) but probably better.</p>
<p>I have been considering tech, and was a bit leery of it for its gargantuan size, but the FIG programme sounds like it might help with that. UT is supposed to be the highest ranked school for English, but I don’t know if it’s worth it for the price tag. </p>
<p>I can’t afford any of the liberal arts universities that I’ve looked into, unfortunately- unless I get extremely lucky with scholarship money, it’s probably not going to happen :(</p>
<p>All of my friends who go there love Tech, so if you go there I’m sure you will too. Good luck with the college search!</p>
<p>First, don’t rule out private schools, they give much better financial aid than state schools. Use their net price calculators and check out their scholarship requirements. Austin Colleges gives $19,000 for a 3.0 GPA and 1250 SAT. </p>
<p>As for the “best” English department, that’s not a very meaningful distinction at the undergraduate level. Unless you’re looking for some very specific creative writing program, it’s probably better for you to look and see what classes are actually being offered each semester and the number of students enrolled. Look up the course schedules, not the course catalog. No one is going to hire you because someone thinks that UT’s undergraduate English department is better than A&M’s. </p>
<p>I wouldn’t write off A&M just because it’s not known for it’ “humanities.” I think they do a much better job of undergraduate education than UT. </p>
<p>You might also want to be careful about avoiding colleges in the “middle of no where.” First of all, once you hit 10,000 full-time undergraduates, there are going to be very few things not available unless you’re really into big city symphonies or something similar. And if you actually start visiting smaller schools, you’ll hear about the campus bubble. These schools know the limited opportunities off campus and work hard to provide them on campus to the point that students don’t ever leave campus.</p>
<p>I strongly recommend you at least do some of the visit days that are offered on the weekends, to start to get a feel for the different schools. It’s a good way to start without conflicting with classes.</p>
<p>Sadilly’s advice is excellent, please consider it. Also, assuming you have a high GPA and good ACT/SAT scores, consider applying to Tech’s honors college. It has many liberal arts offerings and the classes are small. You can bet that Tech’s liberal arts offerings are strong as it has a Phi Beta Kappa chapter which only UT Austin and A&M among Texas state universities. If you are applying to any Texas state universities other than A&M and UT Austin, consider applying to their honors colleges. By the way, the spelling is “program” rather than the British “programme”,</p>
<p>I’m a liberal arts major as well, history. I’m looking at A & M, first & Tech 2nd, but seeking admittance into the Honors Programs as previously stated by other posters here. If you can at all DO apply for the Honors Programs as it will be well worth it. I would say Honors Programs at any of the schools you mentioned, UT, TAMU, or TT would be equivalent to just about any program in the country at the undergraduate level.</p>
<p>Rice and Trinity - both offer quite a bit of aid so they may be more affordable than you think.</p>