<p>Hi! I'm a prospective transfer to Smith, Bryn Mawr, and Wellesley (along with Reed, Pitzer and perhaps Mount Holyoke). I am most interested in Smith, but I was wondering if someone could shed some light on their English Department. Does anyone have any perspective on the other colleges that I listed compared to Smith when it comes to English?</p>
<p>The truth is, 1) They’re all fine schools; and 2) Where a particular faculty member teaches will be mostly a factor of who was hiring that particular year. Which means that each of the schools will have some wonderful faculty, and a couple of duds. The only advantage of Smith over the others is that it is larger, and hence there will likely be more faculty and course options from which to choose. On this board, you will hear raves about the English faculty - after all, this is the Smith board! But you’ll likely hear similar about the other ones as well.</p>
<p>Unless you have a particular area and/or faculty member you wish to work with, you’ll do better choosing among these excellent schools based on other factors.</p>
<p>Smith has a great English Department, it’s always been one of the colleges strengths from the beginning. Smith of course has a number of famous writer alums (though I’m sure the other schools can boast similar) if that’s your interest area. It’s a large, well funded department, the major is quite demanding (it has a longer list of required courses than some other majors on campus), but the professors are great. I have English major friends who are now in prestigious MFA Creative Writing programs, who work for blogs and newspapers, who work for radio, and who are just starting careers as freelance writers. So, a wide swath of careers for newly graduated students. Those are just the ones I know personally as well, there are many others who graduate into publishing, journalism, advertising, law school and a 101 other professions where being a good writer is an asset (basically in every profession). </p>
<p>All the English classes I took at Smith were great. I wasn’t a major, but I liked English and did a class here and there to keep my hand in the game. Without fail the professors were interesting, knowledgable, and very available to students. they all clearly liked to teach and were very supportive.</p>
<p>My daughter, a junior, adores being an English lit major. As one of the larger departments with thirty profs (I think), it offers both breadth and depth and it has a excellent reputation with grad schools; e.g., a senior who graduated last spring will be attending Oxford for grad school this fall. My daughter was accepted to Oxford for her spring study abroad program.</p>
<p>As Mini says, all the schools you’re considering are strong academically, and Smith has the advantage of being larger. I noticed this fact when my daughter considered Bryn Mawr which is about half the size of Smith. Their English offerings were noticeably fewer, but I imagine this situation was compensated by English classes offered at Haverford; however, I didn’t have a chance to see how they complemented each other. </p>
<p>I agree with Mini. Look at these schools in their totality; don’t get stuck on English. You’ve got New England, Mid-Atlantic, Pacific Northwest, and California locations in rural, suburban and urban (sort of, kind of) settings. Co-ed vs. women’s. Have you visited any of them? See as many as you can.</p>