History Degrees in Washington, D.C.

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The United States went about a century and a half without a national archive. Federal records were kept, in the National Archives’ own description, in basements, attics, abandoned buildings, and other storage places with little security or concern for storage conditions. Congress created the National Archives in 1934, staff and Works Progress Administration workers spent 1935 surveying what actually existed, and the first records arrived at the building in 1936. Everything on this page follows from that decision to gather the record in one city and pay people to look after it.

Washington DC has 7 colleges and universities offering history degrees, with 45 programs among them: 15 bachelor’s degrees, 12 master’s degrees, and 18 doctorates.

Doctorates outnumber bachelor’s degrees here. No state in the country is built that way.

Washington DC at a Glance

Schools offering history	7
History programs	45
Bachelor’s / master’s / doctoral	15 / 12 / 18
Online programs	0
Schools offering all three levels	5
Lowest in-state tuition and fees	$19,654 per year
Largest history catalog	Georgetown University, 13 programs

Program counts come from our directory. Tuition figures are annual published tuition and fees from the U.S. Department of Education, and exclude room and board.

Top History Schools in Washington DC

Seven schools in the District offer history, so we publish a top three. Our scoring uses the same four factors as every state we cover: history degree offerings and program variety (40%), student outcomes (25%), reputation (20%), and affordability (15%). Affordability does almost no work here, because every school in the District is private and the three below sit between $58,771 and $68,017. Depth and research standing decide it. Here are Washington DC’s best history degrees.

1 Georgetown University

Georgetown carries the largest history catalog in the District at 13 programs, and the shape of it is unusual. Its doctorate is not one degree but nine named fields: Africa, Europe, Russia and Eastern Europe, East and Central Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa, the United States, Transregional, and Environmental history. Applicants choose a field instead of a department. Beneath that sit a history bachelor’s, a B.A. in Art History, an M.A. in History, and an M.A. in Art and Museum Studies. It completes 95% of students in four years, the highest rate in the District.

History programs: 13
Levels offered: Bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral
Carnegie classification: R1, very high research activity
In-state tuition and fees: $68,017

2 George Washington University

GW is the museum school. It runs an M.A. in Museum Studies, an M.A. in History and Museum Studies, and a B.A. in History and Museum Studies, so the field is available from the undergraduate degree upward rather than only at graduate level. Its undergraduate history degree also splits into named tracks including Imperial History, The Atlantic World, and South Asian History. Add a B.A. and M.A. in Art History and a Ph.D. in History, and the total is 10 programs.

History programs: 10
Levels offered: Bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral
Carnegie classification: R1, very high research activity
In-state tuition and fees: $67,710

3 American University

American holds the only public history master’s in the District, which matters in a city with this concentration of museums and archives. Its doctorate runs in four named fields: U.S. history, modern European history, US foreign relations, and Jewish history, the last of which is rare as a named doctoral track anywhere. Art history runs at both bachelor’s and master’s level alongside general history. At $58,771 it is the cheapest of the three research universities here, which in this market still means nearly $59,000.

History programs: 9
Levels offered: Bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral
Carnegie classification: R2, high research activity
In-state tuition and fees: $58,771

Most Affordable History Degrees in Washington DC

Most affordable history degrees in Washington DC
Rank	School	Program	Tuition per year
1	Gallaudet University	B.A. in History	$19,654
2	Trinity Washington University	B.A. in History	$26,610
3	Howard University	B.A. in History	$35,810
4	The Catholic University of America	B.A. in History	$58,378
5	American University	B.A. in History	$58,771
6	George Washington University	B.A. in History and Museum Studies	$67,710
7	Georgetown University	Bachelor's in History	$68,017

Annual published tuition and fees. Every one of these institutions is private, because our listings show no public college offering history in the District. Gallaudet at $19,654 is the cheapest history degree here and also the highest starting price of any state or district in the country.

History Education in Washington DC

Washington DC is not a small version of a state. It is a graduate city with undergraduate programs attached.

There are 18 history doctorates in the District and 15 bachelor’s degrees. No state in the country is inverted like that. Everywhere else, undergraduate programs form a wide base with a thin layer of graduate work above them. Here the doctoral layer is the largest, five of the seven schools teach at all three levels, and 44 programs sit across a jurisdiction smaller than most counties.

Every institution is private. Our listings show no public college offering a history degree in the District, which makes it the only jurisdiction in the country where that is true, and it explains the cost list. The cheapest history degree here is $19,654 at Gallaudet University. That is the highest entry price anywhere in the country, and the next-highest floor, in Connecticut, is $13,050. Above Gallaudet, Trinity Washington charges $26,610 and Howard $35,810, and then four schools sit between $58,378 and $68,017.

The specialization matches the city. Six programs carry an art history designation and five carry museum studies, and the museum training is unusually deep: George Washington alone runs museum studies at bachelor’s and master’s level and pairs it with history in two separate combined degrees. American University holds the District’s only public history master’s. For anyone aiming at curatorial, archival, or collections work, the training and the employers are in the same few square miles.

The doctoral programs are worth reading closely instead of treating as interchangeable. Georgetown names nine doctoral fields and American names four, so at both you are applying into a field rather than to a department. Georgetown’s list includes environmental and transregional history alongside the conventional regional divisions; American’s includes Jewish history and US foreign relations.

One clear gap: there are no online history programs in the District at all, at any level, at any institution. Our guide to online history degrees covers what is available elsewhere.

There is no statewide transfer agreement here, because there is no state system to have one. What the District has instead is arguably better. The Consortium of Universities of the Washington Metropolitan Area lets a student registered at one member institution take courses at another, which the Consortium describes as dramatically increasing the range available beyond the home campus. Its 14 members include American, Catholic, Gallaudet, Georgetown, George Washington, Howard, Trinity Washington, and the University of the District of Columbia, along with George Mason, Marymount, both University of Maryland campuses, Prince George’s Community College, and the Uniformed Services University.

Read the fine print before you count on it. The Consortium states plainly that it does not itself handle course information, schedules, procedures, or policies for cross-registration. Tuition treatment, how the credit appears on your transcript, eligibility, and credit caps are all set by each institution separately. Ask your own registrar, not the Consortium. Details are at the Consortium of Universities.

Becoming a History Teacher in Washington DC

Licensure runs through the Office of the State Superintendent of Education.

Every candidate for an initial credential must pass all three Praxis Core Academic Skills for Educators tests, in reading, writing, and mathematics, and must then complete the relevant Praxis Subject Assessment along with a pedagogy test matching the credential.

The provision worth knowing applies to teachers adding an endorsement. The District accepts a completed degree major in the subject area as proof of content knowledge, in cases where it has not adopted a Praxis Subject Assessment for that subject. A history major can do the work of a test where no test has been adopted. That is a narrower door than it first appears, since it depends on which assessments the District has adopted, so confirm your specific subject before relying on it.

One administrative detail that catches people out: original score reports have to be submitted on paper with the licensure application, because the District has not finalized an electronic score-reporting process. Order them early.

Confirm current requirements with the Office of the State Superintendent of Education before choosing a program.

History Careers in Washington DC

History Careers in Washington DC
Occupation	DC jobs	DC median	vs. U.S. median
Historians	250	$118,290	+54%
Curators	140	$93,310	+47%
Archivists	200	$93,040	+44%
Secondary school teachers	2,800	$82,750	+15%
Postsecondary history teachers	180	$85,550	+2%

Employment and wage data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, 2025. All five occupations are published for the District.

This is the strongest set of career numbers on the site, and the reason is the one in the opening paragraph.

Curators in the District earn $93,310, 47% above the national median, the highest figure for that occupation anywhere in the country. New Hampshire is next at 30% above. Archivists earn $93,040, 44% above national, also the highest in the country, with Connecticut next at 24% above. Those are not small samples either: 140 curator jobs and 200 archivist jobs in a jurisdiction this size.

Historians earn $118,290, 54% above the national median across 250 positions. That is second in the country, not first, because Maryland pays 57% above, and the two figures are plainly part of the same labor market instead of two separate stories.

The two teaching rows are more ordinary. Secondary school teaching pays 15% above national across 2,800 positions, which is good but well short of the collections figures. Postsecondary history teaching is 2% above national on 180 positions, essentially the national rate, which is striking in a city with 18 history doctorates. The District trains doctoral historians at a rate no state matches and pays its college instructors about what everyone else does. The money is in the archives and the museums, not the classroom.

Set all of that against the tuition list. A history degree in Washington DC starts at $19,654 and runs to $68,017, so the earnings premium has to be weighed against the highest cost of entry in the country.

History Resources in Washington DC

National Archives, Washington DC. The reason the District’s archival job market looks the way it does. Created by Congress in 1934 to gather federal records that had until then been kept in basements, attics, and abandoned buildings, it received its first records in 1936 and now runs more than 40 facilities nationwide, including the Presidential Libraries, the Federal Records Centers, and the Office of the Federal Register. For a history student in the District it is both the largest primary source within reach and the largest single employer of the skills being taught.
Kiplinger Research Library, DC History Center, 801 K Street NW. For the city’s own history, not the nation’s: maps, broadsides, city directories, real estate atlases, photographs, and archival records of Washington itself. By appointment only, with sessions Tuesdays 3 to 7 and Thursdays 10 to noon and 1 to 3, and at least a week’s notice by email. In-person research appointments are free. Digital scans cost $10 per order of up to 10 pages and photographs $25 each, and remote paid research is $50 an hour. Collections do not circulate.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where Can You Study History in Washington DC?

The District has 44 history programs at 7 colleges and universities. Georgetown has the largest catalog at 13 programs, followed by George Washington at 10 and American at 9. Five of the seven schools teach history at all three levels, and every one of them is private.

Can You Get a History Doctorate in Washington DC?

Yes, and more easily than almost anywhere. The District has 18 history doctorates, which is more than it has bachelor’s degrees, and no state in the country is structured that way. Georgetown alone lists nine named doctoral fields and American lists four.

What Is the Cheapest History Degree in Washington DC?

Gallaudet University at $19,654 a year, followed by Trinity Washington at $26,610 and Howard at $35,810. Gallaudet is the least expensive option in the District and simultaneously the highest starting price of any state or district in the country, because there is no public alternative here.

Is Washington DC Good for Museum Studies?

Few places anywhere can match it. Five programs in the District carry a museum studies designation, George Washington runs museum studies at both bachelor’s and master’s level plus two combined history and museum degrees, Georgetown offers an M.A. in Art and Museum Studies, and American holds the District’s only public history master’s. Curators and archivists here are also the best paid in the country.

What Do History Careers Pay in Washington DC?

Better than anywhere else for collections work. Curators earn 47% above the national median and archivists 44% above, both the highest figures in the country. Historians earn 54% above national, second only to Maryland. Classroom teaching is more ordinary at 15% above national, and college history teaching is within 2% of the national median.