Graduate Program in History
The M.A. in History involves more than forty full-time faculty members with a wide range of professional interests. Each student's program of thirty semester hours, including six hours for the thesis, is tailored to enhance his or her career objectives.
The History M.A. program serves three main constituencies: people who intend to go on to a Ph.D. in history; people who intend to go into teaching (or who are already teachers) in high schools and community colleges; and people, often mid-career professionals, who simply love history.
We welcome applicants of all ages and backgrounds. It is not essential to have majored in history as an undergraduate. Our students have included judges, lawyers, mechanics, union organizers, and retired state department employees.
While most of our students complete their degrees in two years, others work on their M.A. degree part-time, so they can continue their jobs while going to school, or combine family responsibilities with their own education, or simply explore the possibilities of graduate study at their own pace. All students must complete the program in six years.
Our graduates have gone on to excellent Ph.D. programs such as the College of William and Mary, Columbia University, Duke University, Emory University, George Washington University, Ohio State University, the University of California at Los Angeles, the University of Florida, the University of Georgia, the University of Minnesota, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Maryland, and the University of Pennsylvania. Other graduates move into diverse jobs, many that are related directly to history and some that are not, such as the law, banking, building, coaching, mothering, and marketing. You name it! A degree in history will teach you to read critically and to write well. These skills are useful in most jobs, and most employers know it.
