<p>D needs to decide which school she will attend in this fall from Penn and Amherst. Her major will be English. Which one is better in English? She plans to visit both schools recently. But now any input is welcome.</p>
<p>For what it’s worth, Penn’s English department is consistently ranked among the top 5 or 10 in the country–at #4, tied with Harvard and Columbia, in the latest graduate program rankings by US News:</p>
<p>[Rankings</a> - English - Graduate Schools - Education - US News and World Report](<a href=“http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-english-schools/rankings]Rankings”>http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-english-schools/rankings)</p>
<p>and at #8 in the 1990s National Research Council (NRC) graduate program rankings:</p>
<p>[NRC</a> Rankings in Each of 41 Areas](<a href=“NRC Rankings in Each of 41 Areas”>NRC Rankings in Each of 41 Areas)</p>
<p>So she can’t go wrong as an English major at Penn. Additionally, Penn has a longstanding submatriculation program that allows undergrads to earn both a bachelors and a masters in fields such as English in 4 years. Further, in addition to the 2,000 or so undergraduate courses Penn offers in the traditional liberal arts, the school also has its vaunted “One University” policy, which encourages undergrads to take courses in some of Penn’s graduate and professional schools (Annenberg School for Communication, Law School, School of Design, School of Social Policy and Practice, Graduate School of Education, Wharton School, etc.), offering a potential breadth and depth of undergraduate curriculum and experience that is simply unavailable at a small liberal arts college such as Amherst.</p>
<p>Now all that having been said, schools like Amherst also offer an extraordinary undergraduate experience, and English majors will do just as well there as they will at research universities like Penn. The atmospheres and experiences at Penn and Amherst are just completely different from each other, so it’s really a matter of personal choice and fit. Your daughter needs to decide which school OVERALL is a better fit for her, and not worry so much about the specific English department or major at each school, since she really can’t go wrong in that regard at either school.</p>