History Degrees in New Mexico

The Pueblo Revolt was scheduled by a knotted cord. Runners carried the cords out to the pueblos so that every community would rise on the same day. Consider what that took: an action coordinated across hundreds of miles, among people who shared no written language and had no fast way to send word. Two of the runners were arrested and questioned, so Po’pay moved the date forward, and on August 10, 1680 the rising began three days early. The Spanish did not return for twelve years. How many knots were on the cord is still argued over, which is a fair introduction to what studying history in New Mexico actually involves.

New Mexico has 6 colleges and universities offering history degrees, with 14 programs among them: 7 bachelor’s degrees, 5 master’s degrees, and 2 doctorates.

Every one of those schools is public. No private college in New Mexico offers a history degree.

Top History Schools in New Mexico

Six New Mexico 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 where this ranking is decided instead of price, because the six schools are separated by only about $4,200 in tuition but by a factor of seven in catalog size. Here are New Mexico’s best history degrees.

Most Affordable History Degrees in New Mexico

Most affordable history degrees in New Mexico

Rank	School	Program	Tuition per year
1	Eastern New Mexico University	B.A. or B.S. in History	$7,194
2	New Mexico Highlands University	B.A. in History	$7,416
3	Western New Mexico University	B.A. in History	$7,856
4	New Mexico State University	B.A. in History	$8,183
5	University of New Mexico	B.A. in History	$10,140

Annual in-state tuition and fees. Five entries, because five is every school in New Mexico we list a history degree for. All five are public, and the whole list fits inside about $3,000.

History Education in New Mexico

New Mexico is the clearest example in the country of a fully public system in this subject. All 6 schools and all 14 programs are public institutions, and no private college in the state offers a history degree at all. Only four other places are like this, and all of them are smaller: Nevada has 13 history programs, Delaware 9, Wyoming 3, and Alaska 2. That makes New Mexico the largest entirely public history offering in the United States. So the affordability list has no cliff in it. Nothing expensive sits at the bottom of the page waiting to distort the comparison, and only about $4,200 separates the cheapest school in the state from the most expensive.

The cheapest of them is the Institute of American Indian Arts at $5,920, the fifth-lowest published figure for a history degree anywhere in the country. IAIA is a tribal college in Santa Fe, and only four schools nationally are cheaper.

The concentration at the top is the other defining feature. UNM holds 7 of the state’s 14 programs, exactly half, and both of its doctorates. It is also the only school teaching history at all three levels and the only R1. If you are planning graduate study in New Mexico, you are largely planning around one institution, with NMSU’s public history master’s as the alternative.

Two specialties are worth naming. UNM runs art history at all three levels, bachelor’s through Ph.D., alongside an M.A. in Museum Studies, which is a deeper commitment to the visual and curatorial side than most states of any size manage. And NMSU’s M.A. in Public History covers the applied route. For a state with 14 programs, having both a doctoral art history department and a public history master’s is a lot of range.

The weak point is distance learning. New Mexico has one online history program, a bachelor’s at Eastern New Mexico University. Anyone who needs to study remotely has one in-state option and should look at our guide to online history degrees for the wider field.

Transfer is unusually clean here, and it is worth understanding before you enroll anywhere. New Mexico’s General Education Curriculum is 31 credit hours, roughly ten courses, split into six areas: communications, mathematics, science, social and behavioral science, humanities, and creative and fine arts. Twenty-two of those credits are fixed by area and nine are flexible. The guarantee is the strong part: an approved general education course taken at any New Mexico public college transfers and satisfies the general education requirement at any other New Mexico public institution, and that binds all 30 public and tribal colleges in the state. No associate degree is required to use it. Some college catalogs still quote an older 35-hour core, so check the figure against the New Mexico Higher Education Department, not a course listing.

Becoming a History Teacher in New Mexico

New Mexico’s endorsement has the longest name of any we have come across, and the name is informative: History, Geography, Economics, Civics, and Government (Social Studies). The state is telling you exactly which disciplines the credential covers, and a history degree alone does not cover all of them.

What makes New Mexico genuinely different is that a teacher already holding a license has three alternative routes to the endorsement, and only needs one of them.

• Testing. Pass the Praxis Social Studies exam, code 5581, or Middle School Social Studies, code 5589.
• Coursework. Earn 24 to 36 semester hours in approved subjects, with an upper-division minimum that rises by level: none for early childhood, 6 hours for elementary and middle, and 12 upper-division hours for secondary.
• National Board certification in history or geography.

The coursework route is the one most history majors will find useful, because it means a strong transcript can substitute for the exam entirely. The list of accepted subjects is broad: American and world history, economics, geography, government, sociology, anthropology, political science, criminal justice, law, and art history, which is worth knowing in a state whose flagship runs art history to the doctorate.

One caveat. A beginning teacher on an alternative license has to do the coursework and pass the test, so these are alternatives for people adding an endorsement to an existing license rather than for everyone.

Confirm current requirements with the New Mexico Public Education Department before choosing a program.

History Careers in New Mexico

History Careers in New Mexico

Occupation	New Mexico jobs	New Mexico median	vs. U.S. median
Secondary school teachers	8,120	$75,900	+5%
Postsecondary history teachers	120	$83,700	-0.1%
Curators	140	$63,690	+0.4%
Historians	40	$66,790	-13%
Archivists	not published	not published	n/a

Employment and wage data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, 2025. The Bureau published nothing at all for archivists here, neither a headcount nor a wage.

This is a better set of numbers than the state’s tuition would lead you to expect. Three of the four published occupations sit at or above the national median, which is unusual for a state where the most expensive history degree costs $10,140.

Secondary school teaching pays $75,900, about 5% above the national median, across 8,120 positions. That is where the volume is, and New Mexico paying above national for it is worth weighing against the low cost of qualifying here.

Curators earn $63,690 and postsecondary history teachers $83,700, both within a fraction of a percent of the national figure, which is to say the state pays the going rate, not a discount. The 140 curator jobs are a reasonable number for the population and reflect a state with a dense concentration of museums, historic sites, and tribal cultural institutions.

Historians are the exception at $66,790, 13% below national on 40 positions. That is the one row here that argues for looking beyond the state line.

History Resources in New Mexico

• New Mexico History Museum and the Palace of the Governors, 113 Lincoln Avenue, on the north side of the Santa Fe Plaza. The Palace was erected in 1610 by order of the Spanish Crown and is the oldest public building in continuous use built by European settlers in the continental United States, now a national historic landmark. For research instead of visiting, the important holdings are the Palace of the Governors Photo Archives, roughly a million items, and the Fray Angélico Chávez History Library. Open daily, 10 to 5, with later Friday hours in summer.
• New Mexico State Records Center and Archives, 1205 Camino Carlos Rey, Santa Fe. Established in 1959 and the home of the state’s public records. Its research strengths are specific and useful: land grant records, Native American manuscripts and photographs, gubernatorial records, and courthouse material. Open Monday to Friday, 10:00 to 4:45, closed weekends, so plan a weekday visit.

Frequently Asked Questions