How do I find the right grad school for English/Literature studies?

Question

I can't find a decent search engine that can list all the colleges and there rankings concerning the field of English/Literature/etc. How can I easily anrrow down my choices? I'm looking in the US and the British Isles.

Answer 1

Graduate schools are chosen by faculty.

In other words, you must narrow your field of specialization, and find the professors whose work you respect in that particular area. For example, if you plan to study (and eventually to write your PhD dissertation on) the fluidity of gender representation in Elizabethan drama, you find out who the top scholars are in that area, and where they teach.

Graduate school admissions focuses directly on this aspect of a candidate's application. It is called "fit."

Applicants should pay special attention to both specific field of expertise, and to methodology. For example, if you are interested in constructions of gender and prefer to employ postmodernist feminist methodologies in your analyses of literature, you want an advisor who employs the same or similar methods, rather than an advisor who employs, for example, neo-Marxist methods of analysis.

A search engine cannot, by definition, help with this type of research. If you are really having trouble finding appropriate programs for you, speak to your current professors. They know who teaches where, and who would be appropriate graduate faculty for you.

Answer 2

I represent Institute of Applied Language Studies of University of Edinburgh. This is a world famous institution for English/Lit/TEFl etc.If you send me your CV I can help you to apply.There may be some scholarships available.