<p>My daughter wants to major in History or some related subject. Obviously, every school has a history department. How do you go about determining if a school has a good "____________" department for common majors such as this?</p>
<p>Search these forum's archives for "gourmans" (sp?) and "history"</p>
<p>What's a good department: One that sends many majors to grad school? One that offers a lot of courses in your D's area of interest? One that has enthusiastic and accessible professors? One with a huge library of historic documents?</p>
<p>Depending on your priorities, you could look at the course catalog of the college to see how many classes are offered, meet with a professor or current history major at each college, look at graduate school subject rankings etc.</p>
<p>I would assume that many schools have decent programs in common majors such as history. It comes down to your personal preferences to find the best fit.</p>
<p>I have wondered about this as well. I don't have an answer, just thought I'd put in that there's at least one more inquiring mind here.</p>
<p>You ask what makes a good department...I don't know. I have absolutely no idea what criteria would be used to make a determination. I personally have no basis for comparison, which was why I asked.</p>
<p>Another strategy is to look at the bylines of articles, journals and textbooks. True, those professors may not teach many, if any, classes but their work helps promote the college to the academic community and world at large. And if you can get a research position and letter of recommendation from one of those professors, then you're set for grad school.</p>
<p>Thanks, that's a good idea.</p>
<p>By the way, I checked on the Gourman's book...sadly it's not available at my local library OR Barnes and Noble. :o(</p>
<p>The Gourman's rankings look pretty arbitrary to me, and they came out over ten years ago, if I remember correctly. I wouldn't put much stock in it.</p>