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2024 Best History Doctor's Degree Schools

103 Colleges in the United States
721 Doctor's Degrees
$54,296 Avg Early-Career Salary
If you plan on getting your doctor's degree in history, you won't be alone since the degree program is ranked #39 in the country in terms of popularity. As a result, there are many college that offer the degree, making your choice of school a hard one.

In 2024, College Factual analyzed 103 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best History Doctor's Degree Schools ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 721 doctor's degrees in history during the 2020-2021 academic year.

Jump to one of the following sections: * Our Methodology

Choosing a Great History School for Your Doctor's Degree

Best History Doctor's Degree Schools The history doctor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality history program can vary widely even among the top schools. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.

A Great Overall School

The overall quality of a doctor's degree school is important to ensure a quality education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges for a Doctor's Degree ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.

Early-Career Earnings

One measure we use to determine the quality of a school is to look at the average salary of doctorate graduates during the early years of their career. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their doctor's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.

Other Factors We Consider

In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:

Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for history students working on their doctor's degree.

One Size Does Not Fit All

Rankings by Location Check Out Other Locales
More History Rankings Other Ranking Categories

Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best History Doctor's Degree Schools list, to help you choose the best school for you.


 

Best Schools for Doctorate Students to Study History in the United States

The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a doctor's degree in history. Only those schools that rank in the top 15% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.

15 Top Schools for a Doctorate in History

1
UPenn crest
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA
11 Annual Graduates

It's hard to beat University of Pennsylvania if you want to pursue a doctor's degree in history. Located in the city of Philadelphia, UPenn is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.More information about a doctorate in history from University of Pennsylvania

2
Princeton crest
Princeton University
Princeton, NJ
8 Annual Graduates

It's hard to beat Princeton University if you want to pursue a doctor's degree in history. Princeton is a medium-sized private not-for-profit university located in the city of Princeton.More information about a doctorate in history from Princeton University

3
Yale crest
Yale University
New Haven, CT
10 Annual Graduates

It is difficult to beat Yale University if you wish to pursue a doctor's degree in history. Located in the city of New Haven, Yale is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.More information about a doctorate in history from Yale University

4
Harvard crest
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA

Harvard University is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a doctor's degree in history. Harvard is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the medium-sized city of Cambridge.

Doctorate recipients from the history program at Harvard University get $8,803 above the typical college grad in this field when they enter the workforce.

More information about a doctorate in history from Harvard University

5
11 Annual Graduates

Located in the large city of Chicago, UChicago is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.More information about a doctorate in history from University of Chicago

6
Duke crest
Duke University
Durham, NC
10 Annual Graduates

Located in the city of Durham, Duke is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.More information about a doctorate in history from Duke University

7
Georgetown crest
Georgetown University
Washington, DC
16 Annual Graduates

Located in the large city of Washington, Georgetown is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.More information about a doctorate in history from Georgetown University

8
Vanderbilt crest
Vanderbilt University
Nashville, TN
7 Annual Graduates

Vanderbilt is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Nashville.More information about a doctorate in history from Vanderbilt University

9
18 Annual Graduates

Located in the city of New York, Columbia is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.More information about a doctorate in history from Columbia University in the City of New York

10
5 Annual Graduates

Located in the suburb of Notre Dame, Notre Dame is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.More information about a doctorate in history from University of Notre Dame

11
10 Annual Graduates

Northwestern is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the small city of Evanston.More information about a doctorate in history from Northwestern University

12
NYU crest
New York University
New York, NY
11 Annual Graduates

Located in the city of New York, NYU is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.More information about a doctorate in history from New York University

13
Brown crest
Brown University
Providence, RI
5 Annual Graduates

Located in the midsize city of Providence, Brown is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population.More information about a doctorate in history from Brown University

14
Emory crest
Emory University
Atlanta, GA
3 Annual Graduates

Located in the city of Atlanta, Emory is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.More information about a doctorate in history from Emory University

15
14 Annual Graduates

Located in the city of Champaign, UIUC is a public university with a very large student population.More information about a doctorate in history from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Additional Noteworthy Schools

These are some additional schools worth mentioning that are also great but just didn't quite make the cut to earn our top Best History Doctor's Degree Schools award.

Rank College Location
16 University of Virginia - Main Campus Charlottesville, VA
17 University of Michigan - Ann Arbor Ann Arbor, MI
18 University of Wisconsin - Madison Madison, WI
19 University of Southern California Los Angeles, CA
20 University of California - Los Angeles Los Angeles, CA
21 University of California - Berkeley Berkeley, CA
22 University of Minnesota - Twin Cities Minneapolis, MN
23 The University of Texas at Austin Austin, TX
24 Cornell University Ithaca, NY
25 University of California - Davis Davis, CA

History by Region

View the Best History Doctor's Degree Schools for a specific region near you.

Region
Southeast
New England
Rocky Mountains
Plains States
Middle Atlantic
Far Western US
Southwest
Other U.S. Territories
Great Lakes

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One of 0 majors within the History area of study, History has other similar majors worth exploring.

History Concentrations

Major Annual Graduates
General History 660
History and Philosophy of Science and Technology 25
Other History 23
Public/Applied History 8
American History (United States) 5

Notes and References

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