Bachelor's Degrees in History

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A bachelor’s in history is a four-year undergraduate degree, and almost always a Bachelor of Arts in History instead of a Bachelor of Science. Students spend those years learning to read historical evidence carefully and to write about it convincingly, usually ending with a long piece of original research.

Despite being one of the more interesting college major options, it comes with some downsides students should consider. This guide covers what a history degree requires, earning a BA in History versus a BS, the many schools that offer them, and what history majors do with their degree after graduation.

Key Facts

A bachelor’s in history is a four-year program made up of 120 credits.
There’s no shortage of options: our directory lists 1,690 bachelor’s programs in history, and over 130 of them are offered online.
The degree is usually a launchpad: about half of history majors (51.4%) eventually earn a graduate degree, per the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

What Is a Bachelor’s in History?

History bachelor’s degrees teach students to answer questions about the past using surviving evidence. You do guided reading over the first two years of the program, followed by more independent work. For example, a sophomore might take Reconstruction-era speeches and try to figure out what they reveal about the politics of the 1860s. A senior might spend time in a county courthouse combing through land records to build an original thesis. You will research and write constantly over the four-year program, with professors grading you on whether the evidence actually supports your arguments.

Coursework is similar across schools. You begin with broad surveys of U.S. and world history, take a methods course on how historians evaluate sources, and finish with upper-level seminars that deep-dive specific historical events or topics. Expect your degree to finish with a research seminar or senior thesis, which will be important if graduate school is in your future.

BA vs. BS in History

Undergraduate history degrees are almost always a BA. History sits in the humanities, and the Bachelor of Arts is the humanities’ standard degree, often paired with a foreign-language requirement that supports research in non-English sources. Our own directory reflects how lopsided this is: among the bachelor’s programs we track, 889 are explicitly titled B.A. programs and only 73 carry a B.S. title, with the rest listed under a generic bachelor’s name.

The B.S. versions that do exist tend to have a social-science or professional slant. For example, Campbell University offers a B.S. in Social Science with a history track, and Appalachian State University offers a B.S. in Applied and Public History; several of the B.S. titles in our directory are education degrees that prepare social studies teachers. For graduate schools and employers, the BA-versus-BS distinction in history carries little weight. What matters is the coursework and the writing you can show.

Bachelor’s in History Requirements

Admission works like any other undergraduate major: you apply to the college, and history rarely has extra prerequisites, portfolios, or auditions. Some universities admit students directly to the major, while others have you declare it after a year or two of general coursework.

The degree itself usually includes:

Survey courses in U.S. history and world or Western history, typically taken in the first two years.
A methods or historiography course, where you learn how historians frame questions, weigh sources, and critique one another’s work.
Upper-division electives spread across regions and periods, so you graduate with range, not one narrow track.
A research seminar, capstone, or senior thesis built on primary sources.
A foreign-language requirement at many schools, most common in BA programs.

Most programs also let you concentrate in a region or theme. If you already know your interest, our guides to American history, military history, and public history cover those paths in detail.

Where You Can Earn a Bachelor’s in History

The degree is one of the most widely available in the humanities. In the 2021–22 academic year, 1,171 U.S. institutions conferred history bachelor’s degrees, according to federal IPEDS completions data. That range runs from large research universities to small liberal arts colleges, with a growing online segment in between. A few examples from our directory show the spread:

University of California, Berkeley offers a traditional on-campus bachelor’s in history at a flagship research university.
Boise State University runs a fully online bachelor’s in history, one of the confirmed-online programs we track.
Amherst College houses its history bachelor’s in a small liberal arts setting built around seminar-style courses.

If you need the flexibility of distance learning, our online history degrees guide covers the fully online bachelor’s options, including how they handle research requirements at a distance.

What Can You Do with a Bachelor’s in History?

The short answer is: a wider spread of work than the degree’s reputation suggests. Among U.S. workers whose degree field is history, the single largest occupation is not teaching but law: roughly 101,000 work as lawyers or judges, more than in any other job, according to Census data compiled by Data USA (most got there by going to law school after the history BA). Teaching, at the K-12 and college levels, comes next, followed by management and business roles, with the rest spread across government, culture, and media.

Those categories break down into concrete jobs. Common roles for history bachelor’s holders, by field:

What Can You Do with a Bachelor's in History?
Field	Common roles
Law	Lawyer, judge, paralegal, legal assistant
Education	Elementary and secondary teacher, college instructor, education administrator
Business and management	Operations manager, management analyst, human resources specialist, financial manager
Government and public service	Policy analyst, records manager, intelligence analyst, foreign service officer
Culture and heritage	Archivist, curator, museum educator, librarian
Media and communications	Writer, editor, researcher, public relations specialist

Some of these, like lawyer and museum curator, usually require a graduate degree on top of the history bachelor’s; many others are open directly after undergrad.

Pay in the common destinations is solid if unspectacular at the bachelor’s level. Middle school teachers earn a median of $62,970 and librarians a median of $64,320, according to 2024 Bureau of Labor Statistics data, though both typically require further credentials (a teaching license; a master’s in library science). Anthropologists and archeologists, a smaller field some history graduates enter, earn a median of $64,910. For the full salary picture across history careers, see the salary tables on our various history degree guides.

The other major destination is more school. For the half of majors who continue past the bachelor’s, the BA works as the entry ticket to law school, master’s programs in history or library science, and teaching credentials; our master’s in history guide covers the most common next step. Employers outside those tracks tend to value the same underlying skills. As Martin Owings, a senior software-development manager who earned his BA in history at Metropolitan State University, put it in the AHA’s Careers for History Majors, “Every good organization values a diversity of skills and experiences. History students are well trained to bring critical thinking and unique perspectives to their work.”

Bachelor’s in History FAQ

Is a Bachelor’s in History a Good Degree?

It holds up better than its reputation. The AHA’s careers booklet, citing the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, notes that by mid-career history majors earn median salaries equal to or higher than those of most other majors. The caveat is the early years: the degree pays off most reliably when it is paired with a plan, whether that is a teaching license, law school, or work experience built through internships. Our history degrees guide walks through the worth-it question in full.

How Long Does a Bachelor’s in History Take?

Four years is the full-time standard, but it is not fixed. Students who transfer from a community college with an associate degree typically enter with two years of credit, and part-time students take proportionally longer. Course availability rarely slows history majors down, since the degree requires no lab sequences or clinical placements.

Can You Earn a Bachelor’s in History Online?

Yes. Online bachelor’s in history programs are well established, and some offer concentrations entirely at a distance; American Public University System, for example, runs online history bachelor’s tracks focused on American, European, and global history. Research requirements are usually met through digitized archives. See our online bachelor’s in history guide for the options.

What Should You Minor in with a History Major?

Pick the minor that serves your destination. Students aiming at teaching add an education minor or licensure track; future law students often add political science or philosophy; students eyeing museums, archives, or research add a language, statistics, or public history coursework. A practical skill-based minor tends to do more for job searches than a second humanities subject that duplicates what history already teaches.

Do You Need a Bachelor’s in History to Get a Master’s in History?

No. History master’s programs regularly admit students from adjacent majors such as English, political science, and anthropology. What programs look for is evidence you can do the work: a strong writing sample, some background with primary sources, and ideally a methods or historiography course. Details are in our master’s in history guide.

Schools with Bachelor's in History Degrees

1190 Schools Found

Alabama

Alabama State University

Montgomery, Alabama

B.A. in History

Athens State University

Athens, Alabama

Auburn University at Montgomery

Montgomery, Alabama

B.A. in History

BFA in Art History

Auburn University

Auburn, Alabama

B.A. in History

Faulkner University

Montgomery, Alabama

B.S. in Social Science - History Emphasis

Huntingdon College

Montgomery, Alabama

Jacksonville State University

Jacksonville, Alabama

B.A. in History

Oakwood University

Huntsville, Alabama

B.A. in History

Samford University

Birmingham, Alabama

B.A. in History

Stillman College

Tuscaloosa, Alabama

Key Facts

What Is a Bachelor’s in History?

BA vs. BS in History

Bachelor’s in History Requirements

Where You Can Earn a Bachelor’s in History

What Can You Do with a Bachelor’s in History?

Bachelor’s in History FAQ

Is a Bachelor’s in History a Good Degree?

How Long Does a Bachelor’s in History Take?

Can You Earn a Bachelor’s in History Online?

What Should You Minor in with a History Major?

Do You Need a Bachelor’s in History to Get a Master’s in History?

Online B.A. or B.S. in History

Online B.A. in History

Online B.A. in Art - Art History Concentration (online)

Online B.A. in History

Online B.A. in History

Online Bachelor's in History

Online Bachelor's in History

Online B.A. in History

Online B.A. or B.S. in History

Online B.A. in History

Online Bachelor's in Art History