Ranked #20 in popularity, history is one of the most sought-after bachelor's degree programs in the nation. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.
In 2023, College Factual analyzed 393 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best History Bachelor's Degree Schools ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 25,656 bachelor's degrees in history to qualified students.
Choosing a Great History School for Your Bachelor's Degree
The history bachelor'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. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
Quality Overall Is Important
A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
Average Earnings
To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their bachelor's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their bachelor'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:
Major Focus - How much a school focuses on history students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - How many other history students want to attend this school to pursue a bachelor's degree.
Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
Student Debt - How easy is it for history to pay back their student loans after receiving their bachelor's degree.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized history related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for history students working on their bachelor's degree.
Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best History Bachelor's Degree Schools list, to help you choose the best school for you.
In addition to College Factual's rankings, you may want to take a look at College Combat, our unique tool that lets you pit your favorite schools head-to-head and compare how they rate on factors that most interest you.
When you have some time, check it out - you may want to bookmark the link so you don't forget it.
ADVERTISEMENT
Featured History Programs
Learn about start dates, transferring credits, availability of financial aid, and more by contacting the universities below.
Gain a rich foundation of knowledge ranging from early history to modern times with this online bachelor's degree in history from Southern New Hampshire University.
Best Schools for Bachelor’s Students to Study History in the United States
Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a bachelor'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.
Harvard University is a great choice for students pursuing a bachelor's degree in history. Harvard is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the medium-sized city of Cambridge.
History bachelor's degree recipients from Harvard University get an earnings boost of around $20,763 over the average income of history majors.
It is difficult to beat Yale University if you want to pursue a bachelor's degree in history. Located in the medium-sized city of New Haven, Yale is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
History bachelor's degree recipients from Yale University get an earnings boost of around $22,709 over the average earnings of history graduates.
It is hard to beat Princeton University if you want to pursue a bachelor's degree in history. Princeton is a moderately-sized private not-for-profit university located in the small city of Princeton.
Those history students who get their bachelor's degree from Princeton University earn $21,127 more than the standard history student.
It's difficult to beat University of Pennsylvania if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in history. Located in the city of Philadelphia, UPenn is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.
Those history students who get their bachelor's degree from University of Pennsylvania earn $20,732 more than the average history graduate.
Located in the large city of Chicago, UChicago is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the history major at University of Chicago make $10,698 above the standard college grad in this field shortly after graduation.
Located in the large suburb of Notre Dame, Notre Dame is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population.
History bachelor's degree recipients from University of Notre Dame receive an earnings boost of approximately $17,791 above the average income of history majors.
Located in the large city of New York, Columbia is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.
History bachelor's degree recipients from Columbia University in the City of New York earn a boost of about $10,898 above the average income of history majors.
Boston College is a fairly large private not-for-profit college located in the city of Chestnut Hill.
Bachelor's recipients from the history major at Boston College get $15,697 more than the average college graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
Located in the town of Williamstown, Williams is a private not-for-profit college with a small student population.
History bachelor's degree recipients from Williams College get an earnings boost of approximately $10,388 above the typical earnings of history majors.
This section shows the rest of the colleges awarded a Best History Bachelor's Degree Schools badge.
Showing in this list means the college was ranked in the top 15% of the 393 different United States history schools we analyzed.
The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.