2025 Best History Master's Degree Schools in District of Columbia

If you're seeking a Master's Degree in history, you will have fewer peers than average since the major degree program is the #24 one in the country in terms of popularity.As such, your educational options may be more limited than if you were in a more popular field.

For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 2 schools in District of Columbia to determine which ones were the best for history students pursuing a master's degree. Combined, these schools handed out 75 master's degrees in history to qualified students.

What's on this page: * Our Methodology

• Best Master’s Degree Schools List

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 master's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their master's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.

Other Factors We Consider

The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.

• Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to history students as compared to other majors.
• Major Demand - The number of history students who choose to seek a master's degree at the school.
• Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
• Student Debt - How much debt history students go into to obtain their master's degree and how well they are able to pay back that debt.
• Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized history related body.

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

More Ways to Rank History Schools

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

Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study History in District of Columbia

Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a master's degree in history.

Top District of Columbia Schools for a Master's in History

1

Georgetown University
Washington, DC

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

27 Annual Graduates

Any student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in history has to look into Georgetown University. Georgetown is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Washington.More information about a master’s in history from Georgetown University

2

American University
Washington, DC

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

27 Annual Graduates

Any student who is interested in a master's degree in history has to take a look at American University. Located in the city of Washington, The American University is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.More information about a master’s in history from American University

Best History Colleges in the Middle Atlantic Region

Explore all the Best History Schools in the Middle Atlantic Area or other specific states within that region.

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
New York	35	391
Pennsylvania	34	96
New Jersey	32	65
Maryland	32	37
Delaware	24	8

View All Rankings >

History Majors to Study

Major	Annual Graduates
History	75

Most Popular Majors Related to History

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Social Sciences	2,008
Communication & Journalism	570
Theology & Religious Vocations	190
Area, Ethnic, Culture, & Gender Studies	158
Foreign Languages & Linguistics	103
English Language & Literature	55
Philosophy & Religious Studies	52
Family, Consumer & Human Sciences	42
Liberal Arts / Sciences & Humanities	17

Notes and References

• 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.
• Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
• Credit for the banner image above goes to Abraham Ortelius. More about our data sources and methodologies.