<p>My passion is history (esp American) and I want to become a history teacher? Any exceptionally good colleges for that?</p>
<p>There are at least three routes you can go for that. </p>
<p>First, you can go to a college or university that offers a program in education leading to certification with the bachelor’s degree. If you do this, you probably want to go to college in the same state as you want to teach.</p>
<p>Second, you can get your bachelor’s degree in history from wherever and then go on to get an M.Ed. and your certification with the master’s degree. The benefit to this is you can go whever you want for undergrad and your starting pay will be higher with the M.Ed.</p>
<p>Third, you can get your bachelor’s degree in history from a school that has a strong Teach for America presence if you have a heart for teaching in underserved areas. It presents an alternative path to licensure and a summer boot camp in exchange for a three-year placement. Many students from Rhodes choose this path.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>I’d add a 4th possible route to lynxinsider’s 3:</p>
<p>You can get a B.A. in History (LAC would be good for this) and then after top-shelf work do an M.A. in History at a research university that would put you to work as a graduate instructor. With this pair of degrees and teaching experience you are a good candidate for an independent (prep) school history position. Outfits like this can help make the match:</p>
<p>[Carney</a>, Sandoe & Associates](<a href=“http://www.carneysandoe.com/]Carney”>http://www.carneysandoe.com/)</p>
<p>History is a core discipline in liberal arts colleges and in colleges of arts & sciences in universities, so you will find many schools that have solid history departments. You should focus on what type of school will be a good fit in terms of your preferences (location/region, size, etc.), finances, and likelihood of admission. In other words, first identify schools that offer the best fit for you, rather than trying to choose one for a particular department. After you identify these schools, then narrow them down in terms of departments that interest you. </p>
<p>Specifically for some features to help you compare history departments, see my post in this thread:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/other-college-majors/924594-ranking-history-departments.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/other-college-majors/924594-ranking-history-departments.html</a></p>
<p>Other factors that you might consider once you’ve identified schools that are a good fit:
Are you interested in a particular period of American history, or a region? If you interested in colonial America, you might choose a school located in a state where that was settled in the colonial period. If you’re interested in Southern history, you might pick a school in the South.
Are you interested in cognate areas, e.g., American Studies; Asian American history; American Indian studies; etc. Do you want to teach American government as well as history? Then consider a school’s offerings in those areas.
What is the teacher preparation program like at the schools that interest you? Are you interested in living/working in a particular area of the country? How competitive are the teachers produced by a school for teaching positions in certain types of schools, certain school districts or states, etc. Is there access to good archives or museums in areas that interest you?</p>
<p>See this link, too, for some schools that are considered to have strong history departments. [Privileging</a> History: Trends in the Undergraduate Origins](<a href=“Perspectives on History | AHA”>Privileging History: Trends in the Undergraduate Origins of History PhDs | Perspectives on History | AHA). Good history departments are not limited to those mentioned in that link, however.</p>