Best schools for a history major?
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Anonymous
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My son wants to study history.
Yes, I realize it will not lead to an immediate 6 figure STEM or finance job. Yes, I am okay paying for the degree. Now that I've gotten that out of the way, Do you have recs for a great undergraduate history program? I know the usual suspects (Ivies) have great departments but thoughts on other schools that do? Maybe you have personal experience or kids who do? He's a strong student so most options are on the table (in the lottery sense). Of course when contemplating schools he is also focusing on location, size, social scene, etc. Thank you so much! |
Anonymous
| What's his interest area within history? My experience is that my college's history offerings beyond introductory classes were really driven by faculty specialties. |
Anonymous
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It’s a hyper elitist
Yale or fail |
Anonymous
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Is he aiming for law school? The school where he can get a 3.8.
Otherwise, a lot of NESCAC schools have decent history depts. |
Anonymous
| MIT |
Anonymous
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All SLACs are good for this generally, in that you are taught almost exclusively by tenure track professors. This is especially true at SLACs with a consortium, so you have other SLACs to choose from and possibly even graduate courses as a senior: the Claremont Colleges, the Five Colleges, and the tri-co consortium come to mind.
As for larger schools, the top Ph.D. History programs don’t typically provide the best undergraduate experience. Best bet is probably mid-size schools with lots of resources and smaller classes. |
Anonymous
THIS^^^. Go to a smaller school with a good history dept where your kid will be in smaller courses and able to engage with the professors. whether they are headed to law school or any other PHD program, they will benefit from this and with recommendations. It will be easier to engage with profs and be more involved in research, etc at a smaller school. |
Anonymous
| Michigan and Wisconsin have great history programs and you get the cross-disipline academic benefits as well as the big school/fun sports rah rah spirit benefits. |
Anonymous
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HYP etc are best for undergrad history.. Syracuse and Ohio strong programs that would be safeties.
Not sure why people say SLACs. You’ll end up with same professors for more than one class |
Anonymous
These are both great programs, but humanities and social science departments at R1 schools of this size generally focus their attention on their graduate students. As PP mentioned, you're better off at a smaller school and working closely with profs rather than with PhD students. |
Anonymous
Unironically MIT history and poly sci are extremely strong |
Anonymous
Way too many UGs in these programs so the quality is all over the place |
Anonymous
Agree. Look at the resumes of the tenured professors OR the department webpage OR a couple semesters of course offerings to get a sense History is so vast...it's like English Language Arts...departments have different emphases. |
Anonymous
| I had a very strong experience at a SLAC but the one catch for a very small school is there is a limited range of courses based on faculty specialties. But in general yes, schools with small classes taught by tenured professors are best. |
Anonymous
| Reed is good. Grad school placement for history majors is exceptional. At one point I knew like three that were all at the same ivy. |