<p>The Princeton Review did not give the OSU English department a great endorsement in an earlier edition. Does anyone have information as to the strength of this department? How might it compare to say…Kenyon? Is OSU a good place to go for English?</p>
<p>I’m an English major at OSU - I actually didn’t plan on being one, but I switched because I think it’s an incredibly strong department. I switched because of the faculty; the department is full of absolutely wonderful and personable professors who are very invested and willing to help out interested students. I like my other classmates, too, which wasn’t true of some of the other departments I’ve been in. Two of my favorite HS teachers were products of OSU English, incidentally.</p>
<p>There are some lower-level classes I haven’t taken and can’t speak to, because I jumped right into higher ones. There are many course offerings and you can make your major as difficult/fulfilling as you’d like. There’s a cool short-term study abroad program hosted by English, where you spend a quarter reading the literature of a city and then go on a 9-day trip there with your class during the next break.</p>
<p>The only complaint I have about the department is that the major is randomly more time-consuming than other majors (the honors version requires almost 70 credits, whereas most other majors require 45-55) which can make it hard to double-major if you don’t make up your mind right away… but it’s not not such a big issue. </p>
<p>I can’t compare it to other schools (I’ve heard Kenyon is absolutely fantastic for English) but I’ve never been unsatisfied with OSU’s English dept. Exactly the opposite, actually. When making the decision between a small liberal arts school and OSU, number of students is a big thing to consider. OSU has many classes limited to smaller sizes, but most classes have 20+ (or 40+) students. I don’t have a problem with this because I’m not shy during class discussions, but everyone is different. If you need to be forced to speak up it might be hard. </p>
<p>Of course, a benefit of having so many students is the sheer number of classes offered each quarter. I just counted the classes being offered Fall quarter, and there are ~70. So it’s a trade off. </p>
<p>Basically, at a large school, I think you get out of it what you put into it because no one is going to hold your hand. But if you put a lot in you have so many resources to benefit from.</p>
<p>If you have any other/specific questions feel free to ask here or via pm.</p>