Almost every university with a graduate program will have an English department, leaving you with an overwhelming number of choices. Here are some of the criteria that you should take into consideration when searching for the school and program that best fits your needs and interests.

Funding

Most PhD programs for English offer some sort of stipend. This varies from school to school. Ideally, a PhD. program will offer a tuition waiver, fellowship support, and teaching opportunities, as well as medical insurance and grants for research and conference travel. Since your academic work will be your full-time job while you are in graduate school, it is crucial that you find a program that will provide adequate funding.

Faculty and potential research advisers.

If a professor whose work and research has caught your interest and has informed your thoughts on particular areas of literature, he/she could be a potential dissertation adviser and help introduce you to relevant academic networks.

Other academic resources

Researching what libraries each school has and what scholarship and rare books they house could narrow your decision. Apart from libraries, every institution will also have subscriptions and memberships to various academic societies, journals and other resources. They could also have working relationships with other scholarly institutions and public libraries that could benefit your future research goals.

Location

In some instances schools are strategically located in areas where there is access to museums, theaters, public libraries, and other graduate institutions. If this is important to your area of interest then the proximity of your school of choice to these places should be taken into consideration. For example, if you are interested in drama, you may want to consider schools near vibrant theater cities such as  New York or Chicago.

Below are some links that could help you narrow your choices.