<p>I've searched CC and have a list of many of the schools that are suggested for English degrees, but DD wants to be in a bigger metro area, which kind of rules out some. Suggestions? I know she'd love to look at the Ivy's, Duke, Northwestern, and possibly some other Big 10's as fall backs. She's only a sophomore, so not a clear vision as to a major, we just know that English/writing is more her 'thing' than math/science. Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>Columbia and NYU come to mind. </p>
<p>Kenyon and Hamilton immediately come to mind, but both are rural.
Excellent urban schools that could serve as match colleges between Top 20 and Big10 schools: Agnes Scott College, Rhodes, Macalester, Brandeis, Barnard (more of a reach), Bryn Mawr, Pitt Honors.</p>
<p>Fortunately there are a ton of strong english programs in high populated areas. Going off of Wikipedia’s list of largest metro areas in the US, here are some possibilities</p>
<p>NYC:
-Columbia
-NYU
-Sarah Lawrence (very limited curriculum)
-Fordham
-Barnard</p>
<p>Los Angeles
-Occidental (small LAC)
-Claremont Colleges
-UCLA (expensive OOS)
-USC
-Loyola Marymount (possibly, don’t know much about its humanities)
-UC Irvine (expensive OOS)</p>
<p>Chicago
-University of Chicago
-Lake Forest College (possibly)
-Depaul
-Northwestern</p>
<p>Atlanta
-Spellman (all women HBCU with close connections to the all male Morehouse)
-Emory/ Oxford College of Emory
-Agnes Scott (all women</p>
<p>Dallas
-SMU
-University of Dallas (extremely Catholic institution)
-Texas Christian University (possibly)</p>
<p>Houston
-Rice University</p>
<p>Philadelphia
-Rutgers
-University of Delaware (good for a day trip, not actually near the city)
-Bryn Mawr
-Haverford
-UPenn
-Swarthmore
-Villanova
-Temple (not sure how strong the English program is)</p>
<p>DC
-University of Maryland - College Park
-George Washington University
-Georgetown
-University of Richmond</p>
<p>Boston
-Boston University
-Boston College
-Harvard
-Brandeis
-Tufts
-Wellesley
-Wheaton College</p>
<p>Obviously there are other cities in the US. I’m just too lazy to list all of the major metro regions. </p>
<p>Thanks for the input so far. We should probably sit down and figure out how ‘big city’ she wants to go. As the mom, my ideas are probably considerably less-populated. LOL I do know she’s thinking more Midwest and East/Northeast. We probably need to discuss the differences between fun places to visit and places you want to live–sometimes cities fall in both categories, other times not.</p>
<p>She has a rough list:</p>
<p>Harvard (this was more of a ‘haha’ but we’ll go look, just the same)
Cornell
Brown
University of Maryland–College Park
Georgetown
George Washington
Columbia
New York University
Duke
Penn
Northwestern
University of Chicago
DePaul
Boston College
Purdue
University of Minnesota–Twin Cities
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Carleton</p>
<p>It’s a start at least, right? We’ll see most of the midwestern schools in a few weeks, and will save the east coast for next summer. Hopefully seeing something small like Carleton compared to some of the bigger universities will give her something to think about size-wise. The same way with schools in a more suburban area vs. right in the middle of the city.</p>
<p>We’ll continue to research others mentioned in this thread to make sure we don’t leave something wonderful out. (Where is the free school that’s great in English? Hahahahaha)</p>
<p>Also, she’s thinking maybe Journalism, Communications, or Political Science as a minor, so we should probably look into school’s programs for that as well.</p>
<p>Thanks again for all the input, feel free to keep it coming!</p>
<p>UH in Houston evidently has a highly regarded Creative Writing program.</p>
<p>If you’re sticking to B10 country (+ a few states), Iowa is a giant in writing. Northwestern, Mizzou, Syracuse, and Columbia are renown in journalism. Northwestern and Syracuse have great reputations in communications in general.</p>
<p>Carleton is in rural MN. Macalester in St. Paul might be a better match. It’s in a nice area of the Twin Cities.</p>
<p>The best English departments are generally going to be at elite universities and elite LACs. But those schools are much less likely to have “Communications” or undergraduate journalism. What are your daughter’s stats like?</p>
<p>Is her primary focus studying literature, or creative writing, or something else? Does she place equal emphasis on both? What, exactly, does she want to get out of a communications major that she thinks she would not get out of an English department? Is it something specific? My son just graduated from Columbia Journalism school. (His undergrad degree was in a difference field.) He has some classmates who have not gotten jobs or internships, even with an MS from the nation’s premiere journalism school. I have to say that I have some doubts about the prospects of those with BAs in journalism, unless they go to a well-connected program and make very strong efforts to network and get good internships.</p>
<p>You might want to take a look at Goucher. It has a communications/media department and is well situated for internships. I know of a kid who has done extremely well in journalism coming from there.</p>
<p>Lastly, it is important to separate the graduate school departments and opportunities at some of these schools from the undergraduate ones. </p>
<p>What aspect of english interests her? I know that Hamilton College as a phenomenal writing program and is a very writing intensive school. It also has an open curriculum, but it is not located in an metropolitan area</p>
<p>She loves to write, but has gotten enough “Do you have your job at Starbucks lined up for after graduation?” comments she feels like she should have something else to keep her well-rounded. She thinks she would like to work at a publishing company, maybe as an editor because she does like to help people with their writing. Besides that, she loves History (probably not teaching though) is passionate about causes so political science might work. She’s still in the process of trying to nail down what she wants to do. We just know it won’t be in math/science. Not that she’s bad at those, they just aren’t her thing. Sometimes it’s easier for her to pinpoint the things she <em>doesn’t</em> want: No math/science, no schools in the South. LOL</p>
<p>MominWis–I did see that Carleton is more rural, but we decided to stop by between the University of Minn and Northwestern, just to see if her ‘has to be in a big city’ thought was too specific. Maybe something within an hour of a metro area might be nicer. She’s not coming from a big city, we’re probably in a 250k metro area, but maybe that’s why she wants to get away to one. Anyway, I figured looking at something small/rural will give her another aspect to compare. Maybe it will solidify that she wants big city, maybe driving in Chicago will be scary enough she’ll rethink things. Hahaha!</p>
<p>She will graduate with highest honors, will have a number of AP classes under her belt (got a 5 on her first one–APUSH), will most likely stay above a 4.0, good extracurriculars and leadership roles. I know many schools she’s listed will be reaches. But we told her, at this point, there’s no reason to exclude anything because you think it’s a long shot or too expensive. Eventually that will come into play, I’m sure, but she may as well keep her options open for now. </p>
<p>Consolation, you’re right. We’re trying to separate grad school rankings from undergraduate, sometimes it’s hard. I guess I thought if a school got kudos for it’s grad program, it’s undergrad shouldn’t be too bad.</p>
<p>Don’t overlook Fordham - both the main campus in the Bronx and the Lincoln Center campus (its not exclusively for performing arts). BU is very strong in Journalism/Communications. Emerson is, also, and has a creative writing major. Wait 'til she gets some standardized test scores and junior grades, though, before you set your heart on specific schools. There are lots of good colleges out there.</p>
<p>Fortunately, your D can get good training in literature in English at hundreds of schools. There are many very good English professors and departments at every kind of school. It is training in methods of reading, thinking, speaking, and writing about literature and ideas that she will learn. She will develop her own methods and preferences as she goes along. She should come out of the program with the ability to communicate cogently her ideas about literature in all its varieties. A keen, discriminating mind is what she should hope for, or at least to be far along the way to having such a mind. Such abilities are welcome not only in literary fields, of course, and, it may take some time, but she can find work in a lot of different areas. If she likes helping others with their writing, not only editing and tech writing but teaching come to mind as possibilities, of course. I have a friend who worked on the Hill after graduating and helped write the laws that broke up Ma Bell in the eighties. She’s had jobs as a speechwriter, worked in the communications industry, and now is working for Dept of Homeland Security. An English major and her family must be flexible and think broadly about how her skills translate into the needs of employers. Your D is a bright, curious sophomore, and it’s a bit early to be worried about whether or not she’ll find work when she graduates. She is likely, after all, to change her major more than once between now and then and drive you crazy in the process.</p>
<p>My suggestion is that she not limit herself to schools with her major or even any major unless her focus changes and becomes much more specific. Instead, she should focus on schools near or within cities that are strong in the humanities and social sciences AND that her family can afford. You can help her to find these schools by readily providing her with the income and assets data she’ll need to complete the “net price calculators” (NPCs) each school offers on its financial aid page. You and she need to know what city schools that are strong in humanities and social sciences that you can afford and that she will fit. There’s no sense finding out that a school where she might fit is out of your price range.</p>
<p>Educate yourself about the nuances of this college admissions and financing process. There’s a lot of info at CC, some of it accurate even. But it should not be your only source. The Fiske book gets a lot of mention around here; the Princeton less so. I like the Choosing the Right College, which offers a conservative evaluation of schools and thereby tells you things about some schools Fiske won’t. Make sure your D gets into good graces with her guidance counselor and that she thinks of her teachers as candidates for writing letters of rec. In junior year you can begin to form a list of schools that fit your criteria AND that you can afford. (Affordability was my number one criterion for looking at a school, if you haven’t already guessed.) </p>
<p>Johns Hopkins and MIT also have amazing English programs. Emory’s is probably one of the best in the nation but that’s deep in the south. She also might want to take a look at Wellesley.</p>
<p>Forgot to say that she got a 31 on her ACT, but she didn’t prep so she could use the score as a baseline. She plans to do better next time around. </p>
<p>She should look to publish her writing before applying to any of the elite schools.</p>
<p>Judging by your description, I would suggest that she look for schools with broad excellence in the liberal arts rather than any specific department. (The idea of going to MIT to major in English is ludicrous, frankly, on many levels.) There is a lot of mythology about undergraduate English departments being “good” at various places. To evaluate a department, look at the courses offered, the number of full-time professors–not adjuncts–and the number of majors. You want to see a department that offers a lot of courses that are specific to genres, authors, etc. You do not want a department that offers mostly survey courses. You do not want to see a department that offers mostly courses obviously aimed at improving the skills of STEM and vocational majors. You want to see a lot of discussion classes. And you want to be sure that they are actually reading entire texts.</p>
<p>All of the Ivies and their peers are going to have fine English Departments, as are all of the elite LACS. </p>
<p>For your D, a significantly higher ACT would help give her a better chance at such schools. I wouldn’t get too bent out of shape about getting published. The vast majority of people studying English at the nation’s elite schools were not published in HS, outside of their HS literary magazine or newspaper. I <em>would</em> suggest that she get involved in those. Pay no attention to those ignoramuses who claim that English majors are doomed to end up working in MacDonalds. There are many different career paths they can take. I know one, for example, who two years out of college is writing at The Onion. I was an English major, and I had a career in technical and corporate communications. It definitely helps an English major to have gone to a name school, and being proactive and creative about internships and jobs during college is absolutely key. Double majoring or minoring in something she’s also interested in and would possibly write about is another strategy.</p>
<p>You have some odd picks on your list: the OOS publics (where are you in-state?), DePaul, and Purdue. </p>
<p>I second much of what @Consolation has said. In addition to perhaps a second major and internships and jobs during college, she might take some courses in web design and advanced software skills. She could write for the student paper, get herself a column, anything to demonstrate she’s done something beyond reading Beo and Virginia Woolf.</p>
<p>All very helpful info, thank you. Yes, DD plans to have a higher ACT score. She took it in 7th grade and did very well, so like I said, she wanted to take it ‘cold’ since that’s how she took it then. 34’s on reading and English this time around, AP Calc and AP Physics coming up this year (her junior year) should help raise her math and science scores. As will actually prepping for the test.</p>
<p>She won’t be looking at in-state schools. Work relocated us to AR and she has no interest in the schools here. DePaul she picked just because we were going to be in Chicago, though the folks she knows that went there were in theatre. And I just told her last night that Purdue probably wasn’t for her, but since it’s on our way home it doesn’t hurt to stop by. Someone else had mentioned Indiana-Bloomington or Illinois-Champaign, but she didn’t seem interested in them. The other OOS publics would probably be her safety schools, if she likes what she sees next week, since she has no in-state options.</p>
<p>I guess budget is no issue then. Kenyon has been mentioned, fairly rural. Denison is in a quaint town ~30 mins from Columbus OH. Lewis and Clark in Portland OR.</p>