General English Literature is above average in terms of popularity with it being the #33 most popular doctor's degree program in the country. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 12 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best General English Literature Doctor's Degree Schools in the Southeast Region ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 255 doctor's degrees in general english literature during the 2022-2023 academic year.
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Choosing a Great General English Literature School for Your Doctor's Degree
The english doctor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality english program can vary widely even among the top schools. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
Overall Quality Is a Must
The overall quality of a doctor's degree school is important to ensure a good education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges for a Doctor's Degree ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
Average Early-Career Salaries
Average early-career salary of those graduating with their doctor's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. That is, everyone wants their doctor's degree to be worth something, and salaries are one measure of determining that.
Other Factors We Consider
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to general english literature students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - How many other general english literature students want to attend this school to pursue a doctor's degree.
Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
Student Debt - How much debt general english literature students go into to obtain their doctor's degree and how well they are able to pay back that debt.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized general english literature related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for general english literature students working on their doctor's degree.
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best General English Literature Doctor's Degree Schools in the Southeast Region ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
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Duke University is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a doctor's degree in general english literature. Located in the large city of Durham, Duke is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
After graduating, english doctorate recipients usually make around $49,440 in the first five years of their career.
University of Florida is a wonderful choice for individuals pursuing a doctor's degree in general english literature. Located in the city of Gainesville, UF is a public university with a very large student population.
Doctorate recipients from the general english literature degree program at University of Florida make $13,991 more than the average college grad with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a good decision for individuals pursuing a doctor's degree in general english literature. UNC Chapel Hill is a very large public university located in the city of Chapel Hill.
After graduation, english doctorate recipients usually earn around $50,433 at the beginning of their careers.
Located in the medium-sized city of Tallahassee, Florida State is a public university with a very large student population.
Doctorate recipients from the general english literature degree program at Florida State University get $4,508 above the average college grad in this field shortly after graduation.
The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.