Hello all!!
I’ve thought for years that I would be a biology major, just kind of by default because I want to be a doctor, but recently I’ve started getting very into History. I especially like Medieval, Renaissance, Enlightenment-era, and Medical history… more in a sense of what life was like, social climates, architecture, art etc. than about political figures, though to be honest that interests me too.
My question is, what is it like? What are most classes like? Are they lectures, discussions, watching documentaries? Do you learn things like learning a story or does it feel like memorizing facts? What are assignments–is it the usual essays and long readings, or is it more? how much work do you get, and how easy/hard is it to get burned out? What are other people studying History like?
Wow, that’s a lot of questions!! ^__^"
(Caveat: I was not a history major, but I did take some history courses in college. A history major could answer this a lot better.) I think a lot of this is going to depend on your department and the professors you get, as well as the size of your college. At a smaller college where all of your classes are small, the coursework will probably be more discussion-based. There’s lots of reading; the classes often focus on discussing the reading and putting it in context.
For example, for my history of the modern world course, we read Machiavelli’s The Prince and talked about the historical context for the text, why he wrote it, what it meant then and how it connects to today. There are also lots of papers, as you write analyses of historical events and tie them together, displaying your ability to think critically. It didn’t feel like memorizing facts or learning a story. It felt like piecing together the puzzle of the world. How did we get where we are today? What factors influenced and shaped the way our world, our societies, our civilizations, look now? How can we avoid repeating the mistakes of the past and capitalize upon successes? Those are the grand themes you engage with in history.
In larger schools, your introductory classes might be more lecture-style with more memorization of facts and learning a story-type elements, but your upper-level classes will be smaller and more involved with discussion and reading. There’s not really a whole lot of watching documentaries.
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will be especially dependent upon where you attend college. I attended a small liberal arts college that quietly prided itself on being focused on social justice and human rights themes in the coursework. So a lot of our study of history was focused on social climates and what life was like for the ordinary person in history. Some departments focus more on political history and sort of major events, although in general I think college history delves deeper and gives you more facets than the sort of robotic fact-memorizing history you learn in high school. If you’ve ever taken an AP history course, college history is more like that than a regular high school history course.
If you are interested in art history I suggest you look at some colleges that have a major or concentration in that area, or at least a lot of coursework in it - you don’t have to major in it but you do want the option to take a couple of those classes.
@juillet Excellent response, you answered all of my questions–thank you!! 