History Degrees in Maine

Maine became a state as one half of a bargain. The Missouri Compromise, approved on March 6, 1820, admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free one at the same time, so that the balance between slave and free states would not shift. The same law banned slavery above the 36°30′ line in the rest of the Louisiana Territory. That provision lasted 34 years before the Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed it in 1854, and in 1857 the Supreme Court held in Dred Scott that the compromise had been unconstitutional all along. Maine’s admission was the counterweight in a deal that was later declared void, which is a useful thing to know about how settlements get made and unmade. The state teaches the subject widely at undergraduate level and concentrates everything beyond it at one university.

Maine has 9 colleges and universities offering history degrees, with 12 programs among them: 10 bachelor’s degrees, 1 master’s degree, and 1 doctorate.

That master’s and that doctorate are both at the University of Maine, which is also the only school in the state teaching history at more than one level.

Top History Schools in Maine

Nine Maine schools 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%). Depth is decided before the scoring starts, because the University of Maine has 4 programs and every other school in the state has exactly 1. That gives it 87.8 against 52.1 for second place, a 35.7 point gap that only Delaware’s ranking exceeds. Here are Maine’s best history degrees.

Most Affordable History Degrees in Maine

Most affordable history degrees in Maine

Rank	School	Program	Tuition per year
1	University of Maine at Presque Isle	B.A. in History and Political Science	$9,402
2	University of Southern Maine	Bachelor's in History	$11,284
3	University of Maine at Farmington	B.A. in History (United States OR Global Concentration)	$11,308
4	University of Maine	B.A. in History	$13,326
5	University of New England	B.A. in History	$44,210
6	Saint Joseph's College of Maine	B.A. in History and Political Science, Secondary Education Minor	$44,420
7	Bates College	Bachelor's in History	$66,590
8	Bowdoin College	Bachelor's in History	$67,832
9	Colby College	Bachelor's in History	$69,600

Annual in-state tuition and fees. The four public universities all charge under $13,400 and the five private colleges all charge over $44,000. There is nothing in between.

History Education in Maine

Two things shape studying history in Maine: almost all of it sits at one university, and the price structure splits cleanly in two with nothing in the middle.

The University of Maine has 4 history programs. Every other school in the state has exactly 1. It holds the state’s only master’s, its only doctorate, and its only R1 classification, and it is the only school teaching at more than one level. Concentration like that has a practical consequence: for undergraduate study Maine offers nine reasonable choices, and for anything beyond it offers one.

The cost picture divides just as sharply. Four public universities charge between $9,402 and $13,326. Five private colleges charge between $44,210 and $69,600. There is no middle band at all, which is unusual, and the top of the private range includes three of the country’s better-known liberal arts colleges at $66,590, $67,832, and $69,600. Whichever side of that line you are on largely settles which schools are on your list.

Specialization is thin, which follows from having 12 programs. The University of Maine’s B.A. in Art History is the state’s only art history degree. The most interesting undergraduate title is at Presque Isle, a combined B.A. in History and Political Science, which is one degree spanning two disciplines, not a major and a minor bolted together.

Distance study is a single option. Maine has one online history program, the Presque Isle degree, so a student who needs to study remotely has exactly one in-state choice and should look at our guide to online history degrees for what is available elsewhere.

Transfer is handled well, and Maine is unusually honest about its limits. The UMS-MCCS General Education Transfer Block is a minimum of 34 credits agreed between the University of Maine System and the Maine Community College System. Complete it with a C- or better in every course and you are treated as having finished general education at the receiving university, with the credit applied as a block instead of course by course. No associate degree is required.

What makes it worth reading closely is that the policy names what still remains instead of letting you assume the block covers everything. After the transfer block you will still owe three credits in Human Values and Social Context, a Writing Intensive course inside your major, a Capstone Experience, and any general education courses your specific major requires. That is four items, they are knowable in advance, and knowing them is the difference between graduating on time and finding out in your final year. Details are with the University of Maine.

Becoming a History Teacher in Maine

Maine’s credential is endorsement 200, social studies, and it appears on middle level certificates covering grades 5 through 8, secondary certificates covering grades 6 through 12, and adult education certificates.

For the secondary endorsement the coursework requirement is a minimum of 24 semester hours spread across geography, history, economics, government, anthropology, psychology, and sociology. A history major will not fill that on its own, so plan the social science coursework deliberately. On top of it sit 3 semester hours of diversity-centered content, 3 semester hours in human development or educational psychology, a content area methods course, a course on teaching students with exceptionalities, and a full semester of at least 15 weeks of student teaching.

The provision most worth knowing is the one about basic skills, because Maine gives you three ways through rather than one. You can pass a basic skills test in reading, writing, and mathematics, or hold a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or above, or complete a successful portfolio review. A strong transcript substitutes for the test entirely. Very few states offer that, and for a history student who reads and writes well but tests poorly, it is a genuinely useful alternative to know about before you sit anything.

Confirm current requirements with the Maine Department of Education before choosing a program.

History Careers in Maine

History Careers in Maine

Occupation	Maine jobs	Maine median	vs. U.S. median
Secondary school teachers	5,540	$64,880	-10%
Postsecondary history teachers	80	$99,610	+19%
Curators	110	$56,470	-11%
Archivists	60	$56,260	-13%
Historians	not published	not published	n/a

Employment and wage data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, 2025. No historian figures were published for Maine at all, neither employment nor pay.

Maine splits sharply between one occupation and the rest, and the split runs the opposite way to most states.

Postsecondary history teaching pays a median $99,610, which is 19% above the national figure and the ninth-highest of the 45 states that publish this row. That is a genuinely strong number, and it sits in a state with exactly one history doctorate, so those 80 positions are not being filled by a large local pipeline.

Everything else is below national. Secondary school teaching pays 10% under across 5,540 positions, which is where nearly all the employment is. Curators are 11% below on 110 jobs and archivists 13% below on 60. Neither of those markets is tiny for a state this size, and 110 curator positions reflects a landscape of historical societies, house museums, and maritime collections, but the pay is under the national rate.

So the honest summary is narrow but real: Maine is a comparatively good place to be a college history teacher and a below-average place to do everything else the degree leads to. Weigh that against public tuition that tops out at $13,326.

History Resources in Maine

• Maine State Archives, 230 State Street, Augusta. Plan a week ahead. The archives operate by appointment with one week of advance notice, arranged by email or phone, so this is not a place you can visit on the strength of a free afternoon. It holds the state’s historical records and has recently moved back into the Cultural Building.
• Maine Historical Society, Brown Research Library, 485 Congress Street, Portland. Hours change with the season: Tuesday to Saturday, 10 to 4, from May through October, then Wednesday to Saturday, 10 to 4, from November through April. Those hours come from the Maine State Library’s listing, not the society’s own site, so confirm before making the trip.

Frequently Asked Questions