Requirements for a Major in History
On July 1, 2004, the Department of History became part of the College of Social Science (CSS), moving from the College of Arts and Letters (CAL). However, all students who became History majors by the end of Spring term 2005 had the option of remaining students in CAL. All students declaring a major in History after May 15, 2005 are required to fulfill the requirements for a major in the College of Social Science. Since the requirements differ, be sure to consult the correct list when planning your program.
CAL Major Requirements | CSS Major Requirements | Frequently Asked Questions
Requirements for a History Major in the College of Arts & Letters
- Completion of the University residency requirements.
- 120 credits (123 if the student has taken MTH 1825).
- Completion of the University Integrative Studies and Mathematics requirements: 27-39 credits.
- Completion of the College of Arts and Letters requirement of a two-year competency in a foreign language: up to 16 credits.
- Completion of the College of Arts and Letters requirement of two cognates of 12 credits each: 24 credits.
- The following requirements of the History major: 33-40 credits
- HST 201 (Historical Methods and Skills)
- Three of the following: HST 140, 150, 202, 203, 205, 206, 209, 210
- Two senior seminars (courses number HST 48x or 492H)
- At least 12 but not more than 19 additional credits in History courses at the 300- or 400-level
- These 33-40 credits must include at least 6 credits in each of the following geographical areas: the United States; Europe; Africa, Asia and/or Latin America
- For History majors enrolled in the College of Education for the purpose of being certified to teach in secondary school, the College of Arts and Letters waives its cognate requirement and substitutes the students' Teacher Education credits and credits in the minor.
- History majors in the Honors College, in addition to the privileges and exemptions that apply to all Honors College students, are not required to take the lower-level survey courses required of other majors. They are encouraged to fulfill their 33-40 credits in History with 300- and 400-level work. Each Honors College student is also required to complete an Honors thesis, which normally involves six credits of independent research under the direction of a professor and the writing of a 50 to 75 page paper. The Honors adviser in History is Professor Linda Cooke Johnson.
Requirements for a History Major in the College of Social Science
- Completion of the University Residency Requirements
- 120 credits (123 if the student has taken MTH 1825)
- Completion of the University Integative Studies and Mathematics requirements: 27-39 credits
- Completion of the College of Social Science Requirements:
- 15 credits in courses in the College of Social Science, of which at least 12 must be in one discipline or on one theme
- 9 credits in courses in the College of Arts and Letters
- 6 credits in courses in the College of Natural Science or approved substitutes
- The following requirements of the History major: 33-56 credits
- Completion of a two-year competency in a foreign language: up to 16 credits
- HST 201 (Historical Methods and Skills)
- Three of the following: HST 140, 150, 202, 203, 205, 206, 209, 210
- Two senior seminars (courses number HST 48x or 492H)
- At least 12 but not more than 19 additional credits in History courses at the 300- or 400-level
- These 33-40 credits must include at least 6 credits in each of the following geographical areas: the United States; Europe; Africa, Asia and/or Latin America
- For History majors enrolled in the College of Education for the purpose of being certified to teach, the College of Social Science does not waive its requirements. Therefore, History majors in Teacher Education must complete their Teacher Education credits and other education requirements (e.g., a teaching minor) in addition to all of the requirements listed above.
- History majors in the Honors College, in addition to the privileges and exemptions that apply to all Honors College students, are not required to take the lower-level survey courses required of other majors. They are encouraged to fulfill their 33-40 credits in History with 300- and 400-level work. Each Honors College student is also required to complete an Honors thesis, which normally involves six credits of independent research under the direction of a professor and the writing of a 50 to 75 page paper. The Honors adviser in History is Professor Linda Cooke Johnson.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. How does my AP history affect my major?
2. What can I do with a degree in history?
3. If I want to teach in elementary or secondary school, what do I have to do?
4. How does my enrollment in the College of Education affect my History major?
5. If I hope to teach in a college or university, do I need to take Teacher Education courses?
7. How do I fulfill the Tier II writing requirement?
8. What courses will be offered during the summer?
9. What Study Abroad programs does the History Department offer?
10. How can I find an internship?
11. Can I specialize in the history of one area of the world?
12. What does "African, Asian or Latin American history" mean?
13. What courses count for which geographic areas?
14. May a course be used to fulfill more than one requirement?
15. Is there an association of undergraduates in this major?
16. Is there an honor society in this major?
17. When and how do I apply for graduation?
1. How does my AP history affect my major?
If you took the AP exam in World History, American History and/or European History and got a grade of 3, 4 or 5, you received 8 credits in the relevant area(s), which means that you got credit for HST 140 and HST 150 (World History), HST 202 and HST 203 (American History) and/or HST 205 and HST 206 (European History). These courses count towards the credits you need to complete your degree in History, with the following exceptions: First, the History major requires twelve credits (three four-credit courses) at the 100- or 200-level, in addition to HST 201. Therefore, even if you received the full 24 credits, only 12 of them can count towards your major. Second, if you also received a grade of 4 or 5 on the AP exam in English or Literature, the combination of that grade plus four of your AP credits in History was probably used to give you credit in IAH 201 or IAH 202. The History credits that were used for IAH 201 or IAH 202 cannot also be used as credits towards the completion of the History major.
If you took the AP exam in World, American and/or European History and got a grade of 2, you received a waiver of the courses in the relevant area(s), which means that your record will show that you have taken HST 140 and HST 150 (World History), HST 202 and HST 203 (American History) and/or HST 205 and HST 206 (European History). You did not, however, get credit for these courses, so you will have to complete the full 33-credit minimum to complete your major in History.
Whether you received credit or merely a waiver for HST 140, 150, 202, 203, 205 and/or 206, you will not be able to repeat these courses at MSU because your record will show that you have already taken them.
2. What can I do with a degree in history?
Briefly, careers for History majors include teacher (elementary, secondary, college, university), lawyer, historic preservationist (in government, business or the non-profit sector), information manager (librarian/archivist/webmaster in government, business or the non-profit sector), historical researcher (in government, business or the non-profit sector), general researcher (in government, business or the non-profit sector), historical museum curator, historical site manager, Federal or state or local government agency staffer (at anything from the likes of the Smithsonian to the intelligence agencies), Federal or state executive or legislative staffer, political operative, diplomat, journalist, genealogist, editor or other worker in publishing, etc.
In addition, please remember that it is not necessary for you to major in something that leads directly to a career. Many majors in liberal arts fields such as history study the subject because they love it and then go on to have long, successful careers in unrelated fields. Liberal arts disciplines give students skills--in reading, researching, writing, coping with masses of facts and making sense of them, presenting their ideas orally as well as in writing, and being interesting, reflective persons--which lead to success in many areas of activity. At least two history majors have become president of the United States (Woodrow Wilson, John F. Kennedy).
Professor Tabuteau has a one-page handout in her office on the subject of careers related to History as a major. You are welcome to come take one.
The office of Career Services and Placement is also a good source of information.
For useful web sites with more detail on these matters, see:
American Historical Society: Careers for History Majors
Organization of American Historians FAQ (First question: Careers for History Majors)
Career information for History Majors, from the City University of New York (CUNY)
"History, It's Our Future," from the University of Scranton
History Links from the Center for Historical Preservation, Middle Tennessee State University
3. If I want to teach in elementary or secondary school, what do I have to do?
To teach in elementary or secondary school, you need to complete the Teacher Education (TE) curriculum. If you plan to teach in secondary school, in order to complete this curriculum you need, in addition to your major, a minor of 20-25 credits. If you plan to teach in elementary school, you have several options, about which you should consult the advising office in the College of Education .
For either elementary or secondary education, you need to be admitted to the College of Education . Students wishing to be admitted to the College of Education normally apply in the Fall term of their sophomore year. The application is due at about the beginning of October. It is a long application, and you must also take a Basic Skills test, so advanced planning is necessary. The College of Education does not consider students whose GPAs are below 2.75, and it does not admit all students with GPAs of 2.75 or above who apply. Indeed, in recent years students who wish to teach History or Social Studies at the secondary level have needed GPAs upwards of 3.5 to be assured of admission.
If you are not admitted in your sophomore year or if you decide late that you would like to teach in elementary or secondary school, you can apply to the College of Education in the Fall term of your junior year. If you are admitted, the College of Education will want you to take TE 301 the following summer in order to bring you back into step with your cohort of TE students. If you are not admitted in your junior year or you decide very late that you would like to teach, you can apply to the College of Education at MSU or to any other university in the state that certifies teachers and do the education part of your training after you graduate from MSU with your degree in History. This is called the "post-baccalaureate" route.
Two TE courses are available to students who have not yet been admitted into the College of Education : TE 150 and TE 250. These courses may be taken in either order. It is wise to try to take both of them before you become a junior if you plan to do your TE courses while you are an undergraduate or before you graduate if you plan to do your TE courses post-baccalaureate.
For further information on the TE program, it is wise to consult the advising office of the College of Education , which is located in 134 Erickson Hall.
4. How does my enrollment in the College of Education affect my History major?
Your enrollment in the College of Education does not affect your History major at all: the major is the same for TE students and non-TE students.
5. If I hope to teach in a college or university, do I need to take Teacher Education courses?
No. Training in teaching is not a formal part of the training of college and university professors.
A seminar is a course whose enrollment is deliberately kept small and which is taught in discussion format. Students do common reading and discuss it in class. Each student also does individualized work (research, bibliographical investigation) and writes a formal paper on it. Students are usually also asked to report to the whole class about their individual work. It is usual in such courses that class participation counts for a good deal of the grade. HST 201, all the courses numbered 48x and 492H are seminar courses, as are all graduate courses in History. These courses are limited in enrollment to twenty to twenty-three students. HST 201 ("Historical Methods and Skills") is the only course required of all History majors. It should be taken early in the student's career and is a prerequisite for the 48x courses ("Seminar in . . ."), which are usually called "400-level studies courses." It is possible to take any course numbered 48x or 492H more than once, provided that, the second time, the course is not being given by the same professor on the same topic. Students may not enroll for more than 12 credits in one HST 48x or 6 credits in 492H. With the permission of your adviser and of the professor teaching the course, it is possible for an undergraduate History major to take a graduate course. Graduate courses may be used to fulfill the requirement for 400-level studies courses.
7. How do I fulfill the Tier II writing requirement?
The courses numbered 48x fulfill the Tier II writing requirement for History majors.
8. What courses will be offered during the summer?
The courses offered in summer school vary from year to year. It is therefore unwise to count on the availability of any particular course in the summer: you should plan your program so that your ability to graduate does not depend on the existence of a particular course in the summer. It is almost certain that no course in African, Asian or Latin American history will be offered in the summer, nor can you be certain that HST 201 or any 48x course will be offered then.
9. What Study Abroad programs does the History Department offer?
The History Department regularly offers several Study Abroad programs in the summer. One is in London, Edinburgh, and Dublin. It includes upper-level English and/or European history courses and sometimes lower-level European history courses or IAH courses. Another is about "Race Relations in South Africa," which takes place in Johannesburg. A third visits Poland. The History Department also jointly sponsors two study-abroad programs. One, a summer program with the School of Music , is on the "History and Culture of the African Diaspora in the Caribbean and the Americas" and is based in Kingston, Jamaica . The other is a spring semester program in Senegal which is co-sponsored with the Department of French, Classics and Italian.
The College of Arts and Letters and the College of Social Science jointly sponsor a Spring semester Study Abroad program (combined Arts and Humanities and Social Science) in the United Kingdom which is led by a member of the History Department and includes courses in History.
The Department of History also participates in a program of internships in Dublin, Ireland .
10. How can I find an internship?
Some internships exist every year: books on these are available in the office of Career Services and Placement. Other internships are offered from time to time: information about many of these is also available from CSP. Some are advertised to advisers. Whenever Professor Tabuteau gets notice of one of these, she puts the news out on her e-mail listserv. If there is a poster, she also posts it outside her office. It is also possible to find an internship for yourself by asking an institution for which you would like to work whether it would be willing to take you on. If you do not need to be paid, it is quite likely that it will be willing to use you, especially if you are offering your services to a museum or similar non-profit humanities organization because such organizations are usually strapped for money and therefore for staff. If you need to be paid, you may have to work harder to find an internship. If you want to take the internship for credit, you should consult with the Department of History's internship coordinator, Prof. Peter Knupfer (knupfer@msu.edu).
11. Can I specialize in the history of one area of the world?
Not entirely. The major requires that you take at least 6 credits in each of three geographic areas of the world: the United States , Europe , and the rest of the world. This means that you may take at most 21 of the minimum 33 credits for the major in one geographic area.
12. What does "African, Asian or Latin American history" mean?
This is the phrase the History Department uses to refer to the whole of the world which is neither the United States nor Europe . It means Africans in Africa, Asians in Asia, and Latin Americans south of the border between the United States and Mexico . The requirement cannot be fulfilled by courses in ethnic American history (such as African American history, Asian American history, Mexican American history). You do not need to take both courses required for the major in the same geographic area.
13. What courses count for which geographic areas?
Usually this is pretty obvious, but students ask questions about certain courses which this section therefore discusses. HST 343 and 344 (Russian history) count as European history. HST 372 and 373 (the history of the Middle East ) may count as either European history or Asian/African history, but not both. HST 383 (The Caribbean) counts as Latin American history. Ethnic American history courses (African American, Asian American, Mexican American, Native American) count as United States history. HST 487 (Seminar in Comparative History) may count for any geographic area depending on what the subject of the particular section is: consult Professor Tabuteau before you sign up if you are planning to use HST 487 to fulfill part of the geographic distribution requirement.
14. May a course be used to fulfill more than one requirement?
Yes. For example, a 400-level seminar may be used to fulfil both the requirement for a seminar and the requirement for a course in a geographic area. Almost all of our courses, in fact, fulfill both a course-level requirement and a geographic-area requirement.
15. Is there an association of undergraduates in this major?
The History Association of Michigan State (H.A.M.S.) is made up of all students interested in history who care to attend its meetings. You do not have to be a History major, and there is no membership fee. Announcements from H.A.M.S. are posted on Professor Tabuteau's listserv.
16. Is there an honor society in this major?
The History honor society is Phi Alpha Theta. There is a chapter in the Department. Membership is by invitation only. You do not need to be a History major to be a member of Phi Alpha Theta, but you must have a certain number of credits in History at Michigan State and you must have a certain GPA in those courses. For further information, consult the Phi Alpha Theta faculty adviser, Prof. Jane Vieth (vieth@msu.edu).
17. When and how do I apply for graduation?
You may apply for graduation either over the web or by going to the Registrar's office and filling out a paper application. You should apply for graduation by the Friday of the first week of the term in which you expect to graduate, except that, if you expect to graduate at the end of the Summer term, you should apply the preceding Spring term. There is no commencement ceremony at the end of Summer term, so students who are expecting to graduate in August are allowed to "walk" at the May ceremony. They are also allowed to "walk" at the following December's ceremony, but almost all such students attend the May ceremony instead.