Can anyone tell me what are some of the best schools in the US that have a great history department? I would love to major in history in college, but I’m having a tough time coming up with a list of colleges.
There are literally thousands of colleges and universities in the US, a few hundred of which probably have very strong history departments. Please check out the SuperMatch link on the upper left of this website.
To get advice, you really need to provide more information:
(1) What is your academic record? (SATs/ACT, GPA, class rank, rigor of courses, APs, etc)
(2) What are your preferences for schools:
(a) Size: Large university, medium university, small uni/large college, small college)
(b) undergrad only institution vs. research university
© City, suburban, town, rural
(d) geographic preferences
(3) Finances… will you need financial aid, how much can your family afford?
@harvardandberkeley Wow I never thought about providing all this! I guess when you take all this into consideration it really affects the selection process!
I am a sophomore, so I haven’t taken the ACT yet, but I am scheduled for my first ACT this April. My class rank is 18 out of 184, so I am in the top 10% of my class. I take all honors classes, plus one AP class. Next year I am taking college classes at the nearby university and plan on taking two AP classes. I prefer a medium to a larger college (I know, probably a bit dumb of me) but I just like the feel of bigger schools and more people. I’m looking for a university that has research aspects, while at the same time providing a great undergrad experience. Location doesn’t really matter, but I would like to be in a more urban-like area. I know for sure that I want to stay somewhere in the Midwest and eastward. Western universities probably will not work out for me. Financial wise, my family does alright, but I will need to apply for financial aid. I would be considered a ‘minority’ as well, if that helps. I am keeping tuition prices in mind, to be realistic, but I truly believe that if I get into a great university I will be able to pay for it with grants and scholarships (I write great essays, so I feel that I will be able to obtain scholarships).
Check out Gettysburg College if you have any interest in the civil war. They have an American civil war study concentration and a reenactment club. When I was considering majoring in history, it was my top choice because the program is amazing. The rest of their history dept. is great too, not just the civil war concentration.
I will surely look into it! @NotSteveBuscemi
As @harvardandberkeley says, pretty much every college has a history department. When you’re looking up places, go to the history department and look at the faculty. This gives you a better idea of the quality of the department.
As an undergraduate, you are not selecting (in most cases) a specialized program of study. It’s not like graduate school, where you’re selecting a department and will work closely with professors only in that department, rarely taking classes outside of it, and where your entire life kind of revolves around it. In undergrad, only about 1/3 of your required coursework happens in your major department; the majority are general education classes and electives that you will take in other programs and departments. That said, it’s probably a better idea to focus on the overall strength of the undergraduate education at X school - you can major in history pretty much anywhere, and a school with a strong undergrad program will likely have a strong history department.
The exception is if you have some sort of special interest that you are likely to maintain through college. For example, most colleges have strengths in modern American history and some measure of modern European history, with scattered coursework through other regional areas. But if you had a special interest in the history of some region - like Southern studies, East Asian history, or African history - you might want to look for schools that have those specializations (like Ole Miss, UNC, and Mercer for Southern history; Chicago, Yale, or Columbia for East Asian history; and a place like Wisconsin, Michigan, or Northwestern for African history). You might also be interested in the history of a certain period, like the colonial period, medieval history, or even ancient history. While again, remember, your job is not to specialize - you do at least want to make sure that your college has a few classes in the area in which you are interested. If you are interested in antiquity/ancient history, you might also want to be in a place that offers a classics major/department and significant coursework in Greek and Latin. Another special offering would be the history of technology and science, which is a special major or concentration offered at some schools.
With that said, the Midwestern large universities that have top history departments (measured on the graduate level, which doesn’t always completely overlap with undergrad quality) are most of the usual suspects - UChicago, Case Western, Michigan, Minnesota, Northwestern, Indiana, Ohio State, Loyola Chicago Wisconsin, Notre Dame, UIUC, Michigan State, Iowa, Purdue, Oklahoma, and Miami of Ohio (not necessarily in that order). If Pittsburgh is a nice middle ground, there’s also UPitt and Carnegie Mellon. But of course, any list of doctoral programs excludes places that don’t offer a doctoral degree in history. That includes places like Kent State, Xavier University, branch campuses of the major systems (like UW-La Crosse or UMN-Moorhead, Truman State University, and the College of St. Scholastica.
I also know that you said you wanted medium to large, but there are a bevy of excellent small liberal arts colleges in the Midwest - Carleton, Macalester, Oberlin, and Grinnell, but also St. Olaf, Denison, Wooster, Earlham, Lawrence, Kenyon, Kalamazoo and Beloit (also others I am leaving out).
@juillet thank you so much for your response! I’ve never really thought about liberal arts colleges, so I will most certainly take those into consideration.
What juillet said ^^ … plus I’ll share what I’ve been doing with my son, who is also hugely passionate about history. Check out the online course catalogs! I bet you have favorite eras that you’re drawn to; of course you’ll want to study widely, but some colleges (particularly smaller ones) may have strong history departments that focus in particular areas – which is a diplomatic way of saying they also skimp on certain areas and eras big-time. Read the course lists to see if you feel “hey, cool!” or just “yeah that’d be okay.”
Look in particular at the higher level course offerings. If you look at enough catalogs, you’ll notice that some schools might have, say, only one general course on the Middle Ages while another would have separate courses on Early and High Middle Ages plus a bunch of other offerings. One might have only “American History to 1865” while another would have a dedicated course on the Civil War plus maybe a few other related courses.
That’s particularly the case at LACs. For instance, Oberlin is an amazing place, with History courses that look super interesting for the right person, but there’s just not a lot for folks interested in stuff before 1600, the Civil War or WW II. (Courses seem to get into causes of the war to some extent and socio-political context, but European vs Pacific theater? No.) Meanwhile, a quick check of Gettysburg shows that for WW II, you could take a course on WW I, Modern Germany (19th-20th c), a focused course on the atom bomb, a seminar on Nazis, another whole seminar on WW II … total hog heaven for WW II buffs!
Ultimately, you’ll also want to think about the school’s atmosphere. Gettysburg, for instance, has a rep for being dominated by Greek life and on the conservative side. Dunno if that’s true for the History dept, but it gives my son pause, given the small size of the school… for others, it’d be a draw. Starting by looking at major offerings is sort of Step 1 when you look at colleges. Well, that and GPA/SAT fit, of course.
On the whole, larger universities tend to have wider course offerings as well as more “types” of students in terms of personal fit (and a better price tag) … but ask yourself how you’ll avoid getting lost in the crowd. It is absolutely possible to have a very personal experience at a large university and get to know your profs, but it’s easier if the department is smaller (not usually the case with history) and/or if you’re confident enough to take advantage of office hours and talk a lot to your profs (which can be intimidating in a big school at the age of 18.)
When the time comes, you’ll want to visit the schools on your “short list” and see how you feel at different places.
So that’s my two cents. Happy history hunting 
@MomOnALaptop Thank you for the advice! I didn’t realize that some colleges have specialized courses of certain parts of history. I find that interesting!