which English graduate programs should I consider?

Graduate School
1

<ul>
<li>rising (English major, sociology minor) junior at a top 10 LAC</li>
<li>approximately a 3.8 English (major) gpa [including, as a sophomore, receiving a 3.7 in a 300-level (traditionally junior/senior) seminar comprised of merely 2 other students that focused on {Derrida, Kristeva, Jameson, Cixous, etc.} Marxist & feminist deconstructionist theory & postmodernism; 3.4 overall gpa [with my non-major classes factored in]</li>
<li>particularly interested in literary criticism and theory; also interested in 18th-20th century British literature.. would ultimately like to be an English professor</li>
<li>abundance of extracurriculars, including a varsity sport, year-long volunteer work for the college last year and next year concerning the freshmen's transition to school, a summer abroad in europe doing various forms of volunteer social work in a post-conflict affected country, a political club, a religious club, and an on-campus work-study job</li>
</ul>

2

<p>First, grad programs do not care one bit about your extracurriculars. We only look at your academic record, your writing sample, your statement of purpose, and your letters of rec.</p>

<p>Here's how to narrow down your list of programs:
1) Speak to your current professors. Ask for their opinions on programs appropriate for you.
2) Have favorite scholarly articles that reflect your preferred methodology and area of focus? Who wrote them? Where do they teach? Does that university have a grad program? If so, investigate it. Successful graduate school applications are all about selecting faculty with whom you'd like to work, and convincing the committee that you're RIGHT for THAT PROGRAM. (It's called "fit.") Selecting schools to which to apply is all about finding a program with faculty with specializations that match your interests. So in your case, you want someone who does lit crit, and someone who does modern Brit lit. Does it have to be the same person? No. Keep in mind that your dissertation committee will be comprised of faculty, all of whom need to know something about your project. Find a program with sufficient depth of faculty for you to create a good committee. (Keep in mind that one committee member will be from another department at the same university, and one might be from another university altogether.)</p>

<p>I hope this helps.</p>