<p>My son liked a school that we visited. It is a fit as far as size, their traditions, ECs, etc. The problem is that we just realized that their offerings in English seem a bit sparse. English is not one of their most popular majors. This is a small school, so we cannot compare it with a school that has a larger student body. How do we decide how sparse is just too sparse, and if some schools of similar size are listing courses that have not been taught for 2 years, or are only offered once every other year? I was wrong to assume that every school must have a solid English department. Right now, my son's response to the limited course selection was, "So, I am not even sure as to what I want to major in. I don't know why I am saying English." The truth is that English is a strong area for him, and I am certain that he will not major in something science/math related.</p>
<p>On S’s college website, there is a page that lists all the classes that are offered for the following semester. If the school your son is looking at has a similar page, you might be able to see how many of the English department’s courses are offered this year. (Of course, they could still cancel them if enrollment is really small.)</p>
<p>Or you could ask the secretary of the department. They know everything.</p>
<p>That is interesting. I did not know that some college websites offer a page like that.</p>
<p>If they don’t have the page, or if they do you may still want to call the school and check it out. Nothing wrong with that. Ask them about course availability. Also see if you can find out the school’s graduation rate in English. If many go in, but a few come out it can tell you something, like course availability issues may exist.</p>
<p>It’s sometimes hard to evaluate the strength of a particular department. I agree with the suggestion posted above to look at actual courses that are offered, not just the ones in the catalog. For instance, here is the one for Pitt, a school I am familiar with:</p>
<p>[Course</a> Descriptions | University of Pittsburgh](<a href=“http://www.courses.as.pitt.edu/]Course”>http://www.courses.as.pitt.edu/)</p>
<p>Use the drop-down menu to navigate to a particular subject, then choose which semester you want. Pitt uses numbers to designate the different semesters, so just pick one (although I wouldn’t choose “summer.”) Then, to see all the classes, make sure you hit “list all” (on the right). Pitt is a large, state school, so I don’t mean this as a comparison. I’m just pointing out that every college has something like this. </p>
<p>Also check the website to see how many professors are in the department, how many are lecturers, etc., and what their credentials are. Also, at a small school, you need to find out if professors will be on sabatical and how that will impact the instruction. </p>
<p>Also, the common data set for each school will list the number of kids graduating from each department. If you see that English, for example, has fewer kids, you might think that the school hasn’t made that particular department a priority, for whatever reason.</p>
<p>Thanks hikids, and LurkNess. I have no idea as to why I didn’t think to back to the CDS!! Thank you LurkNess!!</p>