Hello Everyone,
I am about to enter my Freshman year of college and want to pursue a career in either Politics or Education (Plan B). I do not want to get a law degree as I do not want to spend money on a degree that I will barely use as a Lawyer, I am getting a degree in History instead as I excel in it and have a strong passion for it, I also think it can help me in Politics
(Newt Gingrich used his knowledge of History often during his career)
After I get my bachelors I am interested in getting my Masters in History from a “Top School”. Sadly many top schools only offer PhD routes which I am hesitant to join as money is a very large factor and spending two-three years on a PhD I might not use is risky (Using in terms of teaching History). One school that does offer a MA in History is The University of Chicago which is perfect as I live in Chicago.
Really I am just wondering would it be wiser to open my horizon to a PhD route although I really would rather work as a Public Servant than a History teacher.
To begin with, I had trouble understanding the portions of your post having to do with your future career plans. Do you want to become a lawyer, a politician, or both? Your answer will determine what sort of degree(s) you should try to get.
Also, you should attend a graduate school that’s the best fit for you and that has the resources that you’ll need to succeed and earn your degree, which may not necessarily be a “top school” in your field. In the end, rankings don’t usually mean much to anybody (including your employers). It’s your stats and what you did during your graduate school career that will.
Furthermore, many Ph.D. programs are completely funded for you (in other words, you wouldn’t have to pay a cent to be part of those programs). But that’s something that you’d have to double-check. (I’m no expert where the field of history is concerned.)
Lastly, some people do get a Ph.D. so that they can teach at the college level. But that doesn’t mean that you have to. In other words, you might still be able to get a Ph.D. and use it to become or continue to be a public servant. (Again, I’m not an expert where your field is concerned, so you’d have to double-check that. I would recommend doing so using the Occupational Outlook Handbook. It’s a credible and highly informative tool where that sort of thing is concerned.) Keep in mind, however, that getting a Ph.D. can take years and years, involves being very independent, and involves conducting a ton of research, amongst many other things. So you might not want to go through with it. Again, that’s something that you’d need to research - because only you can figure out if a Ph.D. is the right fit for you or whatnot.
I’m also a bit confused about what you are asking.
First of all, I just want to say that a PhD does not take 2-3 years. A PhD in history will take you at least 5 years to complete, and right now I think the average time to degree in history is actually 8 years.
Several top history departments only offer a PhD. That’s okay - you just need to go to a history department that offers a terminal MA. If you don’t want a PhD, you certainly shouldn’t pursue one simply because a lot of great departments only offer the PhD. Yale, Brandeis, NYU, Rutgers, Columbia, Arizona State, Brown, Tufts, Rochester, Duke, and UGA are all top history departments that offer terminal MA programs. I just pulled up the National Research Council rankings and quickly visited the webpages of the top 30 or so programs - actually, most of them offered both a terminal MA and a PhD program.
The University of Chicago was one of the programs that didn’t, though. They have a Master’s of Arts Program in the Social Sciences (MAPPS), which is a one-year flexible master’s that allows you to basically build your own degree in the social sciences. So you can shape it to be akin to an MA in history, but it’s not an MA in history per se. The history department itself does not offer a terminal MA.
Also, as stated, PhD programs are typically funded - your tuition and fees are paid and you are given a stipend of around $20-30K to support your living expenses.
So the short version
is no. You should only do a PhD in history if you want to be a historian, a scholar of history, who does research/scholarship in history and writes books and articles in history journals and probably teaches at a university, or maybe works at a historical trust or foundation. But if you want to be a politician, you certainly don’t need a PhD in history - in fact, you should be using those years to grow your network and begin working in politics.