Excellent History Departments?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I'm looking for good undergraduate history departments that would fit well with my stat profile (the typical CC one then with a few additions). I have no idea how competitive my profile is as I am a rising junior, I have basically no ECs, have good test scores, have ok GPA, have a glaring weakness in my math, am pretty shy, really good with history. I'm Asian, upper middle class (like most CCers). Boarding school costs like 40+ grand a year. (Yikes!)</p>

<p>Gender: M
Location: Pebble Beach, CA
College Class Year: 2014
High School: Private
High School Type: sends many grads to top schools, Boarding school</p>

<p>Stevenson</a> School</p>

<p>Stevenson</a> School: Upper School » College Counseling » College Placement</p>

<p>^Link to past college placement with SAT and GPA info.</p>

<p>Academics:</p>

<p>NOTE: I don't really remember my gpa from freshman year that well. I think it was 3.6, 3.7, 3.7 unweighted with one honors class. Also, note that my school requires students to petition for more than three honor/AP classes and it is unheard of to take five honor/AP classes unless a senior, and rare at that.</p>

<p>Sophomore Year:
Chemistry A/A-/A
AP World History A/A/A
English II Honors A-/A-/A
Math Honors (algebra II, trig, precalc) B-/B/B+
Foreign Language III A/A/A
Photo Aish all throughout the year (required for grad)</p>

<p>Junior Year (no grades because rising junior)
AP Chemistry
AP US History
English III Honors
Calculus Honors (precursor to AP Calc BC, but is really calc, not precalc)
Spanish IV
Radio (1 Term, required for grad)
Acting (1 Term, required for grad)
Self-Study: AP Comp Gov and AP US Gov</p>

<p>GPA may be inaccurate with me forgetting my exact letter grades..</p>

<p>GPA - Unweighted: 3.74
GPA - Weighted: 3.92
Class Rank: top 25%
Class Size: 125</p>

<p>Scores:</p>

<p>NOTE: SAT I scores are based on practice tests.</p>

<p>SAT I Math: 700
SAT I Critical Reading: 770
SAT I Writing: 790
SAT II World History: 800
AP World History: 5</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:
JV Tennis, a few clubs, nothing noteworthy, no leadership</p>

<p>Desired College Characteristics:</p>

<p>Location type: Urban, Small City
Size: Small (Under 2,500), Medium Small (2,500 - 5,000), Medium (5,000 - 10,000), Large (10,000 - 18,000), Very Large (Over 18,000)</p>

<p>Area: Other, East Coast, West Coast, Midwest, Southeast, Southwest
Importance of cost: Secondary</p>

<p>Thanks for reading my extremely long post!</p>

2

<p>Gourman Report ranking for undergrad history</p>

<p>Yale
Berkeley
Princeton
Harvard
Stanford
Michigan
Columbia
Chicago
Johns Hopkins
Wisconsin
Cornell
Indiana U
U Penn
Brown
UNC Chapel Hill
UCLA
Northwestern
UVA
U Texas Austin
U Rochester
U Illinois UC
U Notre Dame
U Washington
U Minnesota
U Iowa
Duke
Rutgers
UC Santa Barbara
UC San Diego
NYU
Vanderbilt
Washington U St Louis
U Maryland CP
Ohio St
Missouri Columbia
Emory
U Pitt
Rice
SUNY Stonybrook
Dartmouth
Brandeis
U Kansas
Boston U
UC Davis
SUNY Buffalo
Michigan St </p>

<p>Rugg’s Recommendations for history
Albion (MI) ……..
Amherst (MA) …..
Barnard (NY) ….
Boston Col. (MA) ….
Boston U. (MA) …….
Bowdoin (ME) …….
Brandeis (MA) …..
Brown (RI) ……..
Bryn Mawr ¶ .,
Bucknell ¶ …,
California, U. of (Berkeley) …
California, U. of (Los Angeles) …
Carleton (MN) ……
Centre (KY) …..,
Chicago, U. of (IL) ….’
Claremont McKenna (CA) ………
Colgate (NY) ……….’
Colorado Co. …..
Columbia (NY) ……,
Connecticut Co. ….’
Cornell (NY) ……..
Dallas, U. of (TX) ……….,
Davidson (NC) ……
Dickinson ¶ ….
Drew (NJ) …..
Duke (NC) …..
Emory (GA) ….
George Washington (DC) ….
Georgetown (DC) “,
Gettysburg ¶ …..
Grinnell (IA) …..,
Hamilton (NY) …..
Harvard (MA) …
Haverford ¶ ..
Holy Cross (MA) ….
Kalamazoo (Ml) …….
Kenyon (OH) ….
Lafayette ¶ …..
Lawrence (WI) …….
Macalester (MN) ..
Middlebury (VT) ……
Mount Holyoke (MA) …
North Carolina, U. of ….
Northwestern (lL) …..
Notre Dame (IN) ….
Oberlin (OH) ……..,
Pennsylvania, U. of ……
Pomona (CA) …….
Princeton (NJ) …
Reed (OR) ………
Rhodes (TN) ….,
Rice (TX) …….
Smith (M~) …………..
South, U. of the (TN) ….
Southwestern (TX) ….,
Swarthmore ¶ …..’
Texas Christian U. (TX) …..
Trinity (TX) …
Tufts (MA) ……
Tulane (LA) …….
Union (NY) ….,
Vanderbilt (TN) ..
Vassar (NY) ….
Virginia, U. of ….
Wabash (IN) …….
Wake Forest (NC) …
Washington & lee (VA) ….
Wellesley (MA) ………,
Whitman (WA) ……’
William & Mary (VA) ……,
Williams (MA) …..
Yeshiva (NY) …….</p>

3

<p>Thanks for replying! Is there anywhere that goes into more detail about what makes the department so great? As in, a particular specialty, small class sizes, nobel laureate professors, etc?</p>

<p>And also what schools do you think I have a shot at/what schools do I not?</p>

4

<p>Reed in Portland sounds like a possible match. See [REED</a> COLLEGE PHD PRODUCTIVITY](<a href=“http://web.reed.edu/ir/phd.html]REED”>Doctoral Degree Productivity - Institutional Research - Reed College) for History. Our D is a rising senior there and loves it.</p>

5

<p>Thanks, I’ll definitely investigate Reed. Any other suggestions anyone?</p>

6

<p>My History teacher likes Gettysburg and goes to conferences there A LOT</p>

7

<p>Bump. Anyone else have any opinions?</p>

8

<p>Penn looks like a fit here</p>

9

<p>Consider Yale; its specialty is history.</p>

10

<p>Is UCLA’s history department strong? UC Berkeley’s? I remember UCLA has Jared Diamond, right?</p>

11

<p>Wow, 3.35 + 1630 going to NU, someone must have pulled some major strings.</p>

12

<p>PBailey> Prof. Diamond is not with the History Department at UCLA. I believe he’s a geographer. Do you know what area of history you are interested in studying? (Some schools have more resources in different areas). I’m a 4th year History major here at UC Berkeley. I chose to go here because of the Center for British Studies (I’m majoring in British Imperial History).</p>

13

<p>History is a very popular major at UCLA. It is the largest History department in the United States.</p>

<p>[Welcome</a> — History](<a href=“http://www.history.ucla.edu/]Welcome”>http://www.history.ucla.edu/)</p>

14

<p>What kind of history? Do you want a history curriculum that specializes in a specific period or just general history?</p>

15

<p>I’m looking to major in history. So I will likely need to study different kinds of history. For example, I saw on one university website that to major in history, one needed to study one ancient period, one modern period, one Western, one not, etc.</p>

16

<p>In my experience undergrad rankings don’t matter much for majors like History. Rather look at the overall school rank.</p>

17

<p>PBailey> Usually Upper-Division history majors are divided into categories (areas). These areas can include: European/British, U.S., Africa/Asia/Middle-East, Latin American, Ancient and Intellectual/History of Science (although there are other additional groupings). Within each area, a history major is usually required to complete courses which span several periods. Lower-Division students are usually required to complete various prerequisite courses similar to the ones you describe.</p>

<p>At Cal (as well as some other universities) you are able to create your own area of study (as long as you can get your courses approved by the department).</p>

18

<p>Oh. Thanks for enlightening me.</p>

<p>However, as I’m still in high school, I feel that I can’t make the decision now, so I’m trying to find a good history department generally.</p>

19

<p>I think for history at the undergrad level you’re probably better off at a good LAC or a smaller research university where it will be easier to get to know the professors and work under their close tutelage; really serious work in history requires grad school, so what you’re really looking for at the undergrad level is a good solid liberal arts education, the opportunity to get your feet wet in history studies and real history research, and the opportunity to develop relationships with mentors who will help you get into a good graduate program. Most good LACs will have solid history departments. Here I’d look at the Ruggs list. Schools like Amherst, Bowdoin, Brown, Carleton, Grinnell, Haverford, Middlebury, Pomona, Swarthmore, and Williams I’d put in the “reach” category, just because they’re extremely selective and your stats, while good, are not going to make you a sure thing. In the possible “match” category I’d put schools like Brandeis, Bucknell, Centre College, Colgate, Colorado College, Connecticut College, Dickinson, Gettysburg, Hamilton, Kenyon, Lafayette, Lawrence, Reed, Union, Whitman. In the “safety” category I’d put maybe a Kalamazoo and maybe something in the UC system, say UCSB?</p>

<p>Now for each school on that lengthy initial list, take a look at the school’s website, specifically the faculty profiles in the history department and the list of course offerings in that field. Some will likely appeal to you more than others. Use that information to start winnowing down your “wish list” to a more manageable length, say 3-5 in the “reach” and “match” categories. You’ll want to visit these schools at some point to get a better sense of them, but as you’re just a rising junior there’s plenty of time for that.</p>

<p>And keep in mind this could all change as your hypothetical SAT scores are replaced by real ones, and as your junior-year grades come in. It’s also not too late to strengthen your ECs. Depending on what you do in your junior year, you could move significantly up this scale, stay the same, or move down. That’s the main task at hand.</p>

20

<p>The best education ig going to be at the Ivies, the top LACs, etc. Those schools, in turn, also will serve you the best as a history major regardless of what you want to do.</p>