Best Universities offering graduate programs in English Language and Literature

The aim of the Princeton graduate program in English is to produce well-trained and field- transforming scholars, insightful and imaginative critics, and effective and creative teachers. The Ph.D. program is rigorous but also supportive. It is certainly possible to complete the degree in five years, though the department and Graduate School now offer multiple funding opportunities for research fellowships in year six, should students need an additional year for dissertation completion and for the academic job market or for pursuing other career opportunities should they choose to do so.

While a high-powered research institution, Princeton also maintains a feeling of intimacy. In keeping with the goals of the University at large, the Department of English seeks to cultivate and sustain an extremely diverse, cosmopolitan, and lively intellectual community. Because this is a residential university with a tradition emphasizing teaching as well as research, the faculty is easily accessible to students and committed to their progress.

The faculty of the Department of English is notable for its world-renowned scholarly reputation, commitment to teaching, and accessibility. The faculty showcases wide-ranging interdisciplinary interests as well as a diverse range of critical approaches within the discipline. In addition to offering seminars in every major historical field of concentration, from medieval to contemporary literatures, the universityoffer a wide range of theoretical specializations in fields such as feminist theory, gender and sexuality studies, psychoanalysis, Marxism, postcolonialism, environmental studies, political and social theory, and cultural studies. Students may also take courses in cognate departments such as comparative literature, classics, philosophy, linguistics, history, and art history.

The Graduate Program in English aims to provide PhD candidates with a broad knowledge of the field of English, including critical and cultural theory. Additional important skills include facility with the tools of scholarship—ancient and modern foreign languages, bibliographic procedures, and textual and editorial methods. The program also emphasizes the ability to write well, to do solid and innovative scholarly and critical work in a specialized field or fields, to teach effectively, and to make articulate presentations at conferences, seminars, and symposia.

The program takes from four to seven years to complete, with the majority of students finishing in five or six years.

The admissions committee carefully examines the overall profile of each applicant, taking all aspects of the application into consideration. The English Department Guidelines for Admissions provide answers to many initial questions and program requirements.

The Yale English Department offers a broad-ranging program of graduate education, with courses that engage all periods of British literature, American literature since its inception, and many of the contemporary interdisciplines (feminism, media studies, post-colonialism, Black studies, LGBTQIA+ studies, and the environmental humanities).

The Department aims to train future scholars, writers, and teachers of many kinds: our primary focus is on the development of college and university professors, but our alumni also go on to careers as curators, librarians, secondary school teachers, university administrators, journalists, editors, and professional writers. Our faculty believe in the values of pluralism (in what is studied and how it is studied), and they are committed to preparing students to succeed in competitive and demanding professions. To that end, we make the teaching of undergraduates an important part of graduate training, as well as offering a wide array of professional development opportunities at The Yale Review, university libraries and museums, the Digital Humanities Lab, and elsewhere on campus.

Pluralism within the Department is enhanced by relations with other graduate programs. The English Department offers combined PhD programs with African-American Studies, Film and Media Studies, History of Art, Early Modern Studies, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and has strong affiliations with graduate programs in American Studies, Comparative Literature, Medieval Studies, Religious Studies, and other humanistic disciplines. Faculty members are often joint appointees in English and another of these programs, and many courses are cross-listed. The Department encourages its students to design programs of study that combine specialization with wise generalization.

There are two tracks through the M.A. program at Columbia: sequential and free-standing. Sequential students are admitted as potential candidates for the M.Phil. and Ph.D. degrees. Free-standing students are admitted as candidates for the M.A. degree only.

Free-standing M.A. students must register each semester for a Residence Unit (RU) consistent with their full- or part-time status. Free-standing M.A. students may register for a full, half, or quarter RU.

The Department of English and Comparative Literature follows the Graduate School of Arts and Science's policy on transfer credit. Please note, however, that consistent with rules on departmental autonomy, the Department does not offer advanced standing toward the M.A. degree.

Students in the major who are interested in further postgraduate work in English may apply for Stanford's coterminal master's program. Candidates for a coterminal master's degree must fulfill all requirements for the M.A. in English (including the graduate language requirement), as well as general and major requirements for the B.A. in English. A minimum GPA of 3.7 in the major is required of those applying for the coterminal master's degree.

The English doctoral programme is competitive and limited. Every year, normally accept 8–10 new students. The PhD program is vibrant and rigorous within a collegial environment of intellectual interaction, and they are well known for their unique and influential approaches to the study of literature. The Black Atlantic, Irish and other diasporas, multilingual North America, and pan-Pacific literatures are among the many English and American literary genres that students are urged to read widely.

The Department provides full-time programmes for the M.A. and Ph.D. These programmes are challenging and intellectually stimulating, offering a wide range of specialities. Our Ph.D. programme equips students for full engagement in the field of scholarship and teaching of English and American literature, broadly construed, while our M.A. programme provides students with a strong foundation in the professional study of literature and culture.

At Johns Hopkins, the PhD in English literature takes three years to complete after two years of dissertation research and writing. The same amount of financial assistance will be provided to students for the whole five-year period who maintain good standing.

Through advanced literary study, students grapple with the thought and creative vision of the world’s most remarkable minds: rediscover and master classic texts while exploring exciting, contemporary works, diverse genres, and cutting-edge ideas in narrative form and interpretation. This broad and stimulating intellectual challenge improves the ability to analyze complex information, challenge assumptions, weigh competing considerations and reach effective conclusions. Graduates of the MALit program are well prepared for application to PhD programs and for success in diverse professional areas from advertising to law. Secondary-school teachers develop a competitive edge by deepening their subject-area knowledge — a key distinction between the MALit program and more general graduate programs in education.

The English doctoral programme is competitive and limited. Every year, normally accept 8–10 new students. The PhD program is vibrant and rigorous within a collegial environment of intellectual interaction, and they are well known for their unique and influential approaches to the study of literature. The Black Atlantic, Irish and other diasporas, multilingual North America, and pan-Pacific literatures are among the many English and American literary genres that students are urged to read widely.