History Major Looking for College

compmom
Sat, 15 May 2021 15:16:36 +0000

What areas of interest do you have within the broader area of “history”? For instance, I am less interested in political, economic and military history and more interested in the history of ordinary life, which leads to an interest in material culture and preservation etc. At some schools, American Studies may also be of interest.

Another thing to think about is, whose history? I am older and grew up with the history of white men. I was so bored Some schools have made a greater effort at diversifying content of courses, and some are more traditional. Look at curricula and faculty research and publications to get a feel for this.

There ARE jobs in history, especially museum and preservation work. William and Mary, mentioned above, has a good program in historic preservation- I forget if it is undergrad or grad.

Regardless of what you study and where, I agree with @collegemom3717 that internships, volunteering and maybe working in jobs related to what you want to do, will be important. I am an older person but even in my 50’s I did internships or volunteered, with a national historic museum organization, and also with a large project to restore a steeple in an historic meeting house in Boston. As a result I had access to jobs educating children, or giving tours, or doing fundraising- a variety of paths. And you may not want to intern in that direction, rather, if you still want law, you can try to get experience with that path.