History Degrees in Pennsylvania

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When Pennsylvania passed the first abolition law in the United States on March 1, 1780, it came with a registration rule: slaveholders had six months to record the people they held, or forfeit them. George Washington spent his presidency in Philadelphia working around that clause, rotating enslaved people back to Mount Vernon before any of them had been in the state long enough to qualify. The 1780 act also freed no one already enslaved, and children born after it were not free until they turned twenty-eight. It is a useful place to start a history degree, because it shows how much of the subject lives in the gap between what a law says and what it did.

Pennsylvania has 77 colleges and universities offering history degrees, with 148 programs among them: 121 bachelor’s degrees, 17 master’s degrees, and 10 doctorates.

That makes Pennsylvania the most undergraduate-weighted of the states with more than a hundred history programs, with 82% of them at the bachelor’s level.

Pennsylvania at a Glance

Schools offering history	77
History programs	148
Bachelor’s / master’s / doctoral	121 / 17 / 10
Online programs	10
Schools offering all three levels	5
Lowest in-state tuition and fees	$10,568 per year
Largest history catalog	University of Pennsylvania, 14 programs

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

Top History Schools in Pennsylvania

We scored all 77 Pennsylvania 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%). Penn takes depth at 14 programs, with Pitt, Temple, and Shippensburg tied at 6. Outcomes belong to Penn at a 97% four-year completion rate and Carnegie Mellon at 94%. Reputation favors the five R1 universities in the state. Affordability is what lifts Slippery Rock at $10,568 and West Chester at $10,775 into a list they would not otherwise reach, and what keeps Penn at fourth despite the largest catalog in the state. Here are Pennsylvania’s best history degrees.

1 University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh Campus

Pitt offers two undergraduate degrees you will struggle to find elsewhere: a B.A. in History and Philosophy of Science and a B.A. in Museum Studies, the latter unusual because museum studies is normally a graduate field. Add a history of art and architecture bachelor’s, a history master’s, and doctorates in both history and art history, and it is the most varied department in the state at any single price point.

History programs: 6
Levels offered: Bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral
Carnegie classification: R1, very high research activity
In-state tuition and fees: $21,926

2 Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus

Penn State runs the conventional structure well instead of unusually: art history and history bachelor’s degrees, a history master’s, and a history doctorate, with an 86% four-year completion rate. One of its four programs is available online, which is rare among the research universities on this list.

History programs: 4
Levels offered: Bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral
Carnegie classification: R1, very high research activity
In-state tuition and fees: $20,644

3 Temple University

Temple is the only school in Pennsylvania carrying both history and art history all the way from bachelor’s to doctorate, four of its six programs sitting on the art history side. For a student who wants the option to move between the two fields without changing institutions, that symmetry matters.

History programs: 6
Levels offered: Bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral
Carnegie classification: R1, very high research activity
In-state tuition and fees: $23,011

4 University of Pennsylvania

Penn has the largest catalog in the state at 14 programs, and eleven of them are named undergraduate concentrations inside the history B.A., covering American, diplomatic, economic, European, gender, intellectual, Jewish, political, and world history. Almost no other university subdivides the undergraduate degree this finely. It also offers a B.A. in Ancient History and doctorates in history and history of art, though it lists no history master’s.

History programs: 14
Levels offered: Bachelor’s, doctoral
Carnegie classification: R1, very high research activity
In-state tuition and fees: $68,686

5 Carnegie Mellon University

Carnegie Mellon keeps three programs and no named fields attached, a history bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D., and completes 94% of its students in four years. It is the most compact department in this ranking and the second most selective by completion rate.

History programs: 3
Levels offered: Bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral
Carnegie classification: R1, very high research activity
In-state tuition and fees: $66,246

6 Lehigh University

Lehigh pairs history and art history bachelor’s degrees with a history master’s and doctorate, and completes 88% of students in four years. It is the only R2 institution in the state offering a history doctorate, which gives students a research route outside the five R1 departments.

History programs: 4
Levels offered: Bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral
Carnegie classification: R2, high research activity
In-state tuition and fees: $64,980

7 West Chester University of Pennsylvania

West Chester offers a history bachelor’s and master’s at $10,775, the second-lowest price in the state, and completes 71% of its students in four years, which is the strongest completion figure among Pennsylvania’s affordable public universities. It is the value pick for students who want a master’s without private tuition.

History programs: 2
Levels offered: Bachelor’s, master’s
Carnegie classification: R2, high research activity
In-state tuition and fees: $10,775

8 Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania

Shippensburg has the joint fourth-largest catalog in the state and the most interesting applied offering: four named bachelor’s tracks in public history, American, Asian and Middle Eastern, and European history, feeding into applied history at the master’s level. That master’s is the only applied history degree in the state.

History programs: 5
Levels offered: Bachelor’s, master’s
Carnegie classification: Master’s university, larger programs
In-state tuition and fees: $13,720

9 Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania

Slippery Rock is the cheapest history degree in Pennsylvania at $10,568 and runs a bachelor’s and a master’s, one of them online. For a student weighing cost above everything else, it is the state’s entry point.

History programs: 2
Levels offered: Bachelor’s, master’s
Carnegie classification: Master’s university, larger programs
In-state tuition and fees: $10,568

10 Duquesne University

Duquesne runs an M.A. in Public History alongside its history bachelor’s and master’s, one of nine public history programs in a state that leads the country in the field. Among the private universities ranked here, none charges less than its $48,986.

History programs: 3
Levels offered: Bachelor’s, master’s
Carnegie classification: R2, high research activity
In-state tuition and fees: $48,986

Only five Pennsylvania schools carry history at all three levels, and every one of them appears above.

Most Affordable History Degrees in Pennsylvania

Most affordable history degrees in Pennsylvania
Rank	School	Program	Tuition per year
1	Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania	Bachelor's in History	$10,568
2	West Chester University of Pennsylvania	B.A. in History	$10,775
3	Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania	B.A. in History	$11,046
4	Millersville University of Pennsylvania	B.A. in History	$11,128
5	Kutztown University of Pennsylvania	Bachelor's in History	$11,314
6	Indiana University of Pennsylvania	B.A. in History	$11,380
7	Pennsylvania Western University	B.A. in History	$11,436
8	East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania	B.A. in History	$11,536
9	Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania	B.A. in History	$13,720
10	University of Pittsburgh-Greensburg	Bachelor's in History	$14,710

Annual in-state tuition and fees. All ten are public, and nothing on the list drops below $10,568 or climbs past $14,710. Half of them carry a history master’s alongside the bachelor’s.

History Education in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania is an undergraduate state. 120 of its 146 history programs are bachelor’s degrees, 82% of the total, and among states with more than a hundred programs no other comes close: Ohio is next at 74%, then California at 63% and New York at 60%. There are only 16 master’s degrees and 10 doctorates in the whole state, and just five schools carry the subject at all three levels.

The private sector explains a lot of that. 59 private nonprofit colleges run 103 of Pennsylvania’s programs, against 18 public institutions running 43. That is a larger private share than New York manages, and Pennsylvania’s private colleges are overwhelmingly liberal arts institutions that stop at the bachelor’s.

Price follows the same split, and Pennsylvania is expensive on both sides of it. The cheapest history degree in the state is $10,568, higher than the entire affordability list in Florida, Texas, or California. The public research universities are costlier still, with Penn State at $20,644, Pitt at $21,926, and Temple at $23,011, roughly double what comparable flagships charge in most states.

Public history is where Pennsylvania leads the country. Nine of its programs carry a public history designation, more than any other state, ahead of North Carolina and Illinois at eight. The state’s only applied history master’s is at Shippensburg, Duquesne runs a public history master’s, and Shippensburg offers a public history track at the bachelor’s level. For students aiming at historic sites, and Pennsylvania has a great many of them, the training infrastructure matches the employers.

Transfer works through the Pennsylvania Transfer and Articulation Center, and the guarantee is real but narrower than in some states. The Transfer Credit Framework lets a student move up to 30 credits of foundation coursework and have it count toward graduation, but it binds participating institutions only, not every public college by statute. Check that both your sending and receiving schools take part before you count on it. Details are at PA TRAC.

Online provision is reasonable at 12 programs, seven bachelor’s and five master’s, spread thinly rather than concentrated at one institution. Only Carlow and La Salle run more than one apiece. Our guide to online history degrees covers the wider field.

Becoming a History Teacher in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania issues a Social Studies 7-12 certificate, instructional area code 8875, and the initial credential is the Instructional I, a provisional certificate valid for six years of service, not six calendar years.

What sets Pennsylvania apart is how much that one certificate covers. A Social Studies 7-12 holder is qualified to teach Pennsylvania, United States, and world history; geography; civics and government; economics, international trade, and global economies; political science; commerce and international relations; American and World Cultures; psychology; sociology; archaeology; anthropology; philosophy; and personal finance.

That is a far wider brief than most states attach to a single credential, and it cuts both ways. It makes you employable across a whole department, and it means a history degree covers a smaller fraction of what you are certified to teach than it would in New York, where at least 21 of the 30 required content hours must be history and geography. Look for a program that builds the economics and behavioral science coursework in instead of leaving it to electives.

Certification also requires the Praxis subject assessment, with a passing score of 157 for social studies.

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

History Careers in Pennsylvania

History Careers in Pennsylvania
Occupation	Pennsylvania jobs	Pennsylvania median	vs. U.S. median
Secondary school teachers	52,240	$78,800	+9%
Postsecondary history teachers	960	$98,850	+18%
Curators	520	$62,100	-2%
Archivists	360	$60,690	-6%
Historians	70	$71,970	-6%

Employment and wage data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, 2025.

Pennsylvania splits cleanly between teaching and everything else. Postsecondary history teachers earn 18% above the national median at $98,850, and secondary school teachers 9% above at $78,800. The three collections occupations all sit slightly below national, with curators 2% under, archivists 6% under, and historians 6% under.

The 960 postsecondary history teaching positions are worth noting against the state’s degree structure. Pennsylvania has 77 institutions teaching history and only 10 doctorates, so most of those teaching jobs are filled by graduates of programs in other states. A Pennsylvania undergraduate aiming at college teaching will probably leave for the Ph.D. and may well come back.

Only 70 people are employed as historians in the entire state, which is a small number for Pennsylvania’s size. The curator and archivist counts, 520 and 360, are the more realistic targets for someone building on the state’s public history training.

History Resources in Pennsylvania

Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, founded 1824. It holds over 600,000 printed items and more than 21 million manuscripts and graphic items covering upwards of 350 years. It absorbed the collections of the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies in 2002 and the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania in 2006, which makes it unusually strong for immigration, ethnic, and family history research.
Pennsylvania State Archives, Harrisburg. A new archives building opened in December 2023 holding more than 250 million documents, replacing a 1965 facility that lacked adequate fire suppression and environmental controls. It is run by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, which also operates the State Museum of Pennsylvania.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where Can You Study History in Pennsylvania?

Pennsylvania has 146 history programs at 77 colleges and universities. The University of Pennsylvania has the largest catalog at 14, with Pitt and Temple at 6 apiece. Only five schools carry the subject at all three levels: Pitt, Penn State, Temple, Carnegie Mellon, and Lehigh.

Which Pennsylvania University Has the Best History Program?

Pitt ranks first in our scoring, helped by two degrees that are hard to find anywhere else, a B.A. in History and Philosophy of Science and an undergraduate B.A. in Museum Studies. Penn State is second and Temple third. Penn has the largest catalog but ranks fourth because its tuition is $68,686 against Pitt’s $21,926.

What Is the Cheapest History Degree in Pennsylvania?

Slippery Rock University at $10,568 a year, covering a bachelor’s and a master’s. The ten most affordable schools in Pennsylvania are all public and run from $10,568 to $14,710, which is a higher floor than most states, so cost-focused students should look closely at in-state aid.

Is Pennsylvania Good for Public History?

No state has more. Pennsylvania counts nine public history programs against eight in North Carolina and Illinois. Shippensburg runs both a public history bachelor’s track and the state’s only applied history master’s degrees, and Duquesne offers an M.A. in Public History.

Can You Get a History Degree Online in Pennsylvania?

Yes. Our directory lists 12 online history programs, seven at the bachelor’s level and five at the master’s. They are spread across institutions, not concentrated at one, with only Carlow and La Salle running more than a single program each.

How Do You Become a History Teacher in Pennsylvania?

You need a Social Studies 7-12 certificate, starting with the Instructional I provisional credential, which is valid for six years of service. The certificate covers an unusually wide span, from history and geography through economics, psychology, sociology, philosophy, and personal finance. You also need a passing Praxis score of 157 in social studies. The Pennsylvania Department of Education publishes the current rules.

Schools in Pennsylvania with History Degree Programs

78 Schools Found

Pennsylvania

Albright College

Reading, Pennsylvania