English Language & Literature is about average in terms of popularity for master's degrees programs. That is, it ranks #17 out of the 37 majors across the country that we analyze each year. As such, the degree program isn't offered at every college in the United States, but there are schools that do have a program in the field that are top-notch when it comes to quality.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 2 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best English Language & Literature Master's Degree Schools in Washington ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 109 master's degrees in english language & literature during the 2022-2023 academic year.
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Average Earnings
To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their master's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their master's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.
Other Factors We Consider
The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.
Major Focus - How much a school focuses on english language & literature students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - How many other english language & literature students want to attend this school to pursue a master's degree.
Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
Student Debt - How easy is it for english language & literature to pay back their student loans after receiving their master's degree.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized english language & literature related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for english language & literature students working on their master's degree.
More Ways to Rank English Language & Literature Schools
Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best English Language & Literature Master's Degree Schools in Washington list, to help you choose the best school for you.
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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.
Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
by our College Data Analytics Team
