History Majors

MomOnALaptop
Sat, 21 Mar 2015 04:21:02 +0000

What juillet said ^^ … plus I’ll share what I’ve been doing with my son, who is also hugely passionate about history. Check out the online course catalogs! I bet you have favorite eras that you’re drawn to; of course you’ll want to study widely, but some colleges (particularly smaller ones) may have strong history departments that focus in particular areas – which is a diplomatic way of saying they also skimp on certain areas and eras big-time. Read the course lists to see if you feel “hey, cool!” or just “yeah that’d be okay.”

Look in particular at the higher level course offerings. If you look at enough catalogs, you’ll notice that some schools might have, say, only one general course on the Middle Ages while another would have separate courses on Early and High Middle Ages plus a bunch of other offerings. One might have only “American History to 1865” while another would have a dedicated course on the Civil War plus maybe a few other related courses.

That’s particularly the case at LACs. For instance, Oberlin is an amazing place, with History courses that look super interesting for the right person, but there’s just not a lot for folks interested in stuff before 1600, the Civil War or WW II. (Courses seem to get into causes of the war to some extent and socio-political context, but European vs Pacific theater? No.) Meanwhile, a quick check of Gettysburg shows that for WW II, you could take a course on WW I, Modern Germany (19th-20th c), a focused course on the atom bomb, a seminar on Nazis, another whole seminar on WW II … total hog heaven for WW II buffs!

Ultimately, you’ll also want to think about the school’s atmosphere. Gettysburg, for instance, has a rep for being dominated by Greek life and on the conservative side. Dunno if that’s true for the History dept, but it gives my son pause, given the small size of the school… for others, it’d be a draw. Starting by looking at major offerings is sort of Step 1 when you look at colleges. Well, that and GPA/SAT fit, of course.

On the whole, larger universities tend to have wider course offerings as well as more “types” of students in terms of personal fit (and a better price tag) … but ask yourself how you’ll avoid getting lost in the crowd. It is absolutely possible to have a very personal experience at a large university and get to know your profs, but it’s easier if the department is smaller (not usually the case with history) and/or if you’re confident enough to take advantage of office hours and talk a lot to your profs (which can be intimidating in a big school at the age of 18.)

When the time comes, you’ll want to visit the schools on your “short list” and see how you feel at different places.

So that’s my two cents. Happy history hunting