About

WHAT DOES A HISTORY MAJOR
PREPARE STUDENTS TO DO?

The nature of training in history can help you to excel in any and every field. It has specific relevance to work as a historical writer/researcher in government and business; as a museum curator or archivist; as a teacher or professor; as a government official or worker at local, regional, state, national, or international level (in archives, embassies, consulates, or information offices). Many graduates today choose law schools or international studies to pursue their history-based careers.

Law School

History and political science have traditionally been the accepted majors for admissions to Law School. History offers three prized skills that makes a history major particularly attractive. First, so much of law involves researching precedents and having well-honed research techniques before arriving at Law School makes it that much easier. Second, writing skills are a prerequisite of law and history majors have had an enormous amount of experience writing. Third, law requires lawyers to look at the extenuating circumstances. Likewise, history teaches students to look behind the facts at bias, authorship, or cultural and historical particulars. This third point is why history is a worthwhile major for pre-law students.

Secondary Education

A growing number of history majors obtain teaching certificates. However many changes have been instituted that alter how students are certified to teach history. Therefore as a department we work closely with the education department and are committed to meeting state and nationwide accreditation criteria.

Graduate Studies

Some of our best students have gone on to the best programs in the United States and we believe through our early identification of gifted students the number of history majors who pursue graduate studies will continue to increase.

Other Careers

Recognizing incredible variety of job opportunities, we encourage majors to double major, add minors, or individualize their undergraduate degree to best suit their career goals. On the other hand, as a faculty we believe a history major is an excellent stand-alone major, for it embodies all the virtues of the best of a liberal arts education.