<p>what liberal arts colleges have a strong English, philosophy, and political science departments?</p>
<p>Amherst College, certainly.
We have exceptional faculty in all three of those departments.</p>
<p>Washington and Lee is second ranked to none amongst top lac in those categories...</p>
<p>Swarthmore.... poly sci and philosophy at Swarthmore is probably the best in the country at the undergrad level.</p>
<p>There is no particular LAC with "second ranked to none" strength in English. Can't speak for the other departments, but strong English departments are common among the elite LACs.</p>
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what liberal arts colleges have a strong English, philosophy, and political science departments?
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<p>I think that you could safely assume that all classic elite LACs are strong in those areas: Williams, Swarthmore, Wellesley, Amherst, Pomona, Carleton et al. Colleges that will not be strong in such areas are those like Juniata, Babson, or Bentley, that have a more vocational/business orientation. (Although some people will still call them LACs, I don't think they really qualify as such.)</p>
<p>The best way to see if a school has strong offerings is to go to their web site and look at the number and qualifications of the faculty in the department in question, and also look at the course schedules. Few faculty, few faculty with PhDs, few courses, lots of survey courses, lots of "out of discipline" courses--like "writing for business" in the English dept--are bad signs. (I'm not saying that "writing for business" is a bad thing if you are studying business, I'm saying that it isn't relevant if you plan to go to grad school in English.)</p>
<p>For philosophy, also check the Philosophical Gourmet web site for advice on choosing an undergraduate program.</p>