History Degrees in North Dakota

At 3:40 in the afternoon on November 2, 1889, President Benjamin Harrison signed the proclamations admitting North and South Dakota to the Union, using an eagle feather. Before he signed, Secretary of State James Blaine shuffled the two documents and covered them, so that neither state could ever claim to have gone first. Harrison’s stated view was that the two were born together and he would make them twins. The order of signature was never written down. It is one of the rare cases where a gap in the record was created deliberately, at the moment the record was being made, and no amount of later research will close it. Which records get made, and whose, is the more interesting version of that question. One university in the state has built two degrees around it.

North Dakota has 7 colleges and universities offering history degrees, with 12 programs among them: 9 bachelor’s degrees, 2 master’s degrees, and 1 doctorate.

North Dakota State University holds the state’s only doctorate and is the only school here teaching history at all three levels.

Top History Schools in North Dakota

North Dakota has seven history departments, which puts it in top-three territory. 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%). The two research universities take the top places, and the gap between them and everything else is wide: NDSU and UND hold 7 of the state’s 12 programs and all of its graduate work. Here are North Dakota’s best history degrees.

Most Affordable History Degrees in North Dakota

Most affordable history degrees in North Dakota

Rank	School	Program	Tuition per year
1	Valley City State University	Bachelor's in History	$8,514
2	Minot State University	B.A. in History	$8,702
3	Dickinson State University	Bachelor's in History and Social Sciences	$9,118
4	University of North Dakota	B.A. in American Indian Studies	$10,951
5	North Dakota State University	Bachelor's in History	$11,110
6	University of Mary	Bachelor's in History and Social Studies Education	$22,356
7	University of Jamestown	Bachelor's in History	$24,990

Annual in-state tuition and fees. Seven entries, which is every school in North Dakota that teaches the subject. The five public universities all charge under $11,200, including the one with the doctorate.

History Education in North Dakota

The most interesting thing about studying history in North Dakota is a pair of degrees at one university.

The University of North Dakota runs a B.A. in American Indian Studies and a Master’s in History and American Indian Studies. We searched every history program in our national directory for American Indian Studies, Native American Studies, or Indigenous Studies in the degree title, and these two are the only results. Other universities teach the field, and many treat it as a concentration or a minor. UND puts it in the name of a history master’s. For a student intending to work in tribal historic preservation, in Native archives, or in the history of the Northern Plains, that is a different proposition from a general history degree with a supportive adviser.

Graduate study otherwise concentrates at NDSU, which holds the state’s only doctorate and is the only school teaching at all three levels and the only R1. Between them, NDSU and UND account for 7 of the state’s 12 programs and all of its graduate work. The other five schools offer one bachelor’s degree each.

NDSU also offers a Bachelor’s in Public History, which is a useful thing to know about if you want applied training early. It is worth saying plainly that this is not unusual nationally: our directory carries 63 undergraduate public history programs across the country. It is a good option, not a rare one.

Price is compressed and reasonable. The five public universities run from $8,514 to $11,110, a spread of about $2,600, and the doctoral university sits at the top of that narrow band, not well above it. The two private colleges then charge $22,356 and $24,990, roughly double.

Distance study is thin at 1 online program, a bachelor’s at UND. Our guide to online history degrees covers the wider field.

Transfer runs on GERTA, the General Education Requirements Transfer Agreement, set up by the State Board of Higher Education. Complete the lower-division general education requirements, 36 credits or more, at one North Dakota University System institution and transfer to another, and those requirements are met on arrival.

The provision worth knowing is what happens if you move before finishing. Courses already taken still apply to the appropriate general education area at the new institution, with that institution’s own policies setting how many further credits each area needs. Many states protect only a completed block and leave partial progress to be argued over. History is one of GERTA’s named categories, so history coursework carries across in its own right. One limit to note: a student arriving from outside the North Dakota system gets a course-by-course evaluation instead of the block treatment. Details are with the North Dakota University System.

Becoming a History Teacher in North Dakota

Licensure in North Dakota runs through the Education Standards and Practices Board.

There are two layers to it. Beginning teachers in all content areas must pass all three Praxis Core Academic Skills for Educators tests, covering reading, writing, and mathematics. On top of that, an initial license requires a passing score on the Praxis content test for your endorsement area and on the Praxis pedagogy test, both at the minimum scores the Board sets.

We have not printed a test code or a cut score, because the Board revises both and a stale figure is worse than none. What matters for planning a degree is the shape: a basic skills stage, a subject test in your content area, and a pedagogy test, with the coursework behind them coming from an approved preparation program.

Get the current content test, the pedagogy test, and their passing scores from the North Dakota Education Standards and Practices Board before you plan a program around them.

History Careers in North Dakota

History Careers in North Dakota

Occupation	North Dakota jobs	North Dakota median	vs. U.S. median
Secondary school teachers	3,070	$61,210	-15%
Postsecondary history teachers	not published	not published	n/a
Curators	not published	not published	n/a
Archivists	not published	not published	n/a
Historians	not published	not published	n/a

Employment and wage data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, 2025. Four of the five occupations were withheld entirely, both counts and wages.

This is the thinnest careers picture of any state page we publish, and there is no honest way to make it fuller.

One row survives. Secondary school teaching pays a median $61,210 across 3,070 positions, about 15% below the national figure. That is where the overwhelming majority of history-degree employment in North Dakota sits, so it is also the number that matters most to most readers of this page.

On college teaching, curatorial work, archives, and research posts, the Bureau published nothing at all, because the samples are too small to release safely. North Dakota is unmeasured on those four instead of poor at them. If your plan runs through museums or archives, ask the State Historical Society and the university libraries directly what the market looks like, because the federal data will not tell you.

Set the one figure we do have against tuition that tops out at $11,110 in the public system, and the cost side of a teaching career here is favorable even where the pay side runs under national.

History Resources in North Dakota

• State Archives, State Historical Society of North Dakota, 612 East Boulevard Avenue, Bismarck. The state’s principal collection, holding government records for counties, municipalities, townships, school districts and every branch of state government, alongside manuscripts, letters, diaries, photographs, maps, newspapers, audio, and moving image material covering North Dakota and the Northern Great Plains. Open Monday to Friday, 8 to 4:30, and unusually for a state archive it also opens the second Saturday of every month, 10 to 4:30, which is worth knowing if you cannot get there on a weekday. Appointments are recommended. The society also runs a search portal at findhistory.nd.gov, so you can identify material before you travel.

Frequently Asked Questions