History Degrees in Massachusetts

On January 24, 1791, the Reverend Jeremy Belknap and nine other Bostonians met in the upper story of Faneuil Hall and founded the Massachusetts Historical Society, bringing family papers and artifacts out of their own houses to start the collection. It was the first historical society in the United States and the first institution of any kind built to collect and publish American history rather than simply to record it. The society published its first volume the following year. Massachusetts has been in the business of organizing the past for longer than almost anywhere else in the country, and the density of what followed shows up in the degree offering.

Massachusetts has 44 colleges and universities offering history degrees, with 109 programs among them: 62 bachelor’s degrees, 26 master’s degrees, and 21 doctorates.

Only New York holds more history doctorates, and only three states teach the subject at all three levels on more campuses.

Top History Schools in Massachusetts

We scored all 44 Massachusetts schools on the four factors we use in every state: history degree offerings and program variety (40%), student outcomes (25%), reputation (20%), and affordability (15%). Tufts and Boston College tie for depth at 9 programs, with Boston University at 8. Outcomes are exceptional across the board, led by Harvard at 98% and Tufts at 94% completing in four years. Reputation is close to flat, with seven R1 universities among the eight. Affordability does all the work, and it is the entire reason a public university sits at the top of a list otherwise made up of private ones. Here are Massachusetts’s best history degrees.

Most Affordable History Degrees in Massachusetts

Annual in-state tuition and fees. All ten are public, and the list runs from $11,346 to $15,908. Six of them teach history at the master’s level too.

History Education in Massachusetts

Massachusetts splits harder than almost any state between the institutions that get ranked and the ones that are affordable. Seven of our top eight are private universities charging between $58,867 and $70,704. Every school on the affordability list is public, between $11,346 and $15,908, and not one of them appears in the ranking. UMass Amherst is the single point of overlap in spirit, sitting at the top of the ranking on the strength of costing a quarter of its neighbors.

The private sector carries the field here: 32 private institutions run 79 of the state’s 109 programs, against 12 publics running 30. That concentration is why Massachusetts holds 21 history doctorates, behind only New York, and why eight schools teach the subject at all three levels, behind only California, New York, and Texas.

What distinguishes the graduate offering is how finely it is divided. Boston College names six separate doctoral fields and Boston University five, so applicants choose a field, not a department. Northeastern runs a Ph.D. in World History as its own degree. Harvard lists ancient history as a distinct doctoral route. Very few states let a prospective doctoral student pick a named field at this many institutions within an hour’s travel.

Museum training is the state’s other strength, and Tufts is the reason. Six of its nine programs are museum-related graduate degrees, running from an M.A. in Museum Education to an M.F.A. in Museum Studies, which is a rare credential in a field that normally stops at the master of arts. That sits inside a state with 370 curator jobs paying 23% above the national median, so the training and the market line up.

One school deserves naming outside the ranking. Salem State University has the fifth-deepest catalog in Massachusetts at 7 programs, is public, and costs $12,338. It misses the top eight because our scoring weights research classification and completion rates, but for a student who wants range without private tuition it is a serious option.

Transfer is protected by MassTransfer, and the detail worth knowing is the cap. The GenEd Foundation is 11 courses and 34 credits; complete it with a 2.0 or better and it transfers in full to any Massachusetts public institution, even if you never finish the associate degree, and the receiving school may add no more than six further credits. Most states guarantee a block and stay silent about what gets piled on afterwards. The A2B mapped pathways go further, guaranteeing at least 60 credits and, depending on GPA, admission and a tuition discount. Details are at the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education.

Distance study is the gap. Our directory shows 6 online programs, evenly split between bachelor’s and master’s, with nothing from the eight schools above. Our guide to online history degrees covers the wider field.

Becoming a History Teacher in Massachusetts

Massachusetts licenses the subject as History/Social Science, and the subject matter test is MTEL History/Social Science, test code 73. There is no standalone history exam, so the credential covers geography, government, and economics alongside the historical content.

Candidates for a first academic license also need to pass the Communication and Literacy Skills test. An alternative format, MTEL-Flex, is offered for the same subject area.

This is worth comparing with Illinois, which tests history entirely on its own under a separate code. In Massachusetts the exam is broader than a history degree, so treat the social science content as something to prepare for instead of something the major will cover.

Confirm current requirements with the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education before choosing a program.

History Careers in Massachusetts

Employment and wage data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, 2025. BLS published a wage for historians but suppressed the job count.

Massachusetts pays above the national median in every occupation on this list, which only a handful of states manage. The standout is historians at $121,710, 59% above national and the highest figure for that occupation anywhere in the country. The BLS withheld the employment count, so the wage is solid and the number of such jobs is unknown.

The rest is uniformly strong, not spectacular: secondary school teaching 32% above national, postsecondary history teaching 25% above, curators 23% above, archivists 21% above. Archivists actually out-earn curators here, at $78,180 against $77,790, which is the reverse of the usual ordering and reflects how much archival and library work the state’s universities and research institutions generate.

As with New York and California, read these figures against housing costs in Greater Boston rather than as straightforward gains. The 28,460 secondary teaching positions remain where nearly all the employment is.

History Resources in Massachusetts

• Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, founded 1791 and the oldest historical society in the United States. It was also the first institution anywhere in the country established to collect and publish American history, and it has been doing so continuously since 1792.
• American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, founded 1812 by the Revolutionary War printer Isaiah Thomas. It is the oldest historical society in the country with a national rather than regional focus, and it aims to hold every printed record produced in what is now the United States from first European settlement through 1900. It remains the most complete private repository of American printed works through 1876.
• Massachusetts Archives, at Columbia Point in Boston. The official repository for state government records, sharing a site with the UMass Boston campus.

Frequently Asked Questions