A Graduate Degree in History

If you love studying history, a graduate degree might be right for you. But becoming a professional historian involves more than just eagerness to learn about the past. Professional historians undergo years of rigorous training, and their work demands a high level of skill and commitment. If you are considering graduate school, start by first assessing your talents and interests.

Professional historians conduct original research to uncover the past, piecing together stories from thousands of bits of information from a myriad of sources. They pore through books, new and old; they analyze unpublished archival materials; they scrutinize pictures and objects; they interview individuals who lived through historic experiences. Do you like to track down odd facts and rare documents, and poke through library collections? Can you spend hours considering the implications of a single text? Are you good at synthesizing diverse information into a coherent narrative? Can you develop cogent, original interpretations? Do you enjoy writing? This is what professional historians do, starting with the first semester of graduate school.

Historians spend a lot of time reading other historians' books, and evaluating their work. Do you enjoy finding out about how other scholars have understood the past? Can you give and receive constructive criticism graciously? Do you feel comfortable in a field that fosters a multiplicity of interpretive stances but also assesses them critically? Historians as a community constantly engage each others' work, and as a graduate student, you will take part in the conversations of the profession.

Most historians end up in positions that involve teaching, whether formally in the classroom, or informally with professional staff or community groups. Are you comfortable speaking in public? Can you talk about history in an engaging, articulate way? Do you like to ask, and answer, questions? Do you like to help others to understand the past? Do you enjoy reading students' papers, and helping them to express their own ideas effectively? Are you patient with persons who may not be as knowledgeable and capable academically as you are? Even as a graduate student, you will teach, presenting history to fellow scholars, students, and community groups.

If you answered "yes" to all of these questions, you're a good candidate to become a professional historian. But it is also important to assess your background, to make sure that you have the skills and knowledge you'll need to succeed in a graduate program, and then later in the profession.

It is not essential that applicants for graduate school in History have a B.A. degree in that field. Many successful historians majored as undergraduates in English, women's studies, political science, or even the natural sciences or fine arts. Historians need to know a lot about the world, so a solid liberal arts and sciences education represents the first step. Your educational background should give you the capacity to read large amounts quickly, and with a sharp analytical eye. You need to be able to grasp the authors' main points and perceive their assumptions and biases on your own. Historians also need to be able to write graceful prose, so your undergraduate education must provide you with an effortless command of grammar, spelling, and the art of composition.

It is important that you have experience in History courses, so that you are familiar with the approaches, methods, and vocabulary of historical study. Indeed, in order to know whether graduate study in History is for you, you need to take at least a few courses, preferably in the area of history you wish to choose as your specialization. You should have demonstrated outstanding ability in your History courses (that means receiving grades of "A"), and your overall academic performance must be good (at KU, we require a GPA of 3.0). You'll need professors who know your work intimately to recommend you for graduate school. If you completed your B.A. years ago and not in the field of History, you can still establish an appropriate record of high performance by taking courses (at the advanced level) through continuing non-degree programs at accredited colleges or by completing other work at a high degree of competence.

Except for the history of the United States, you will need to master foreign languages in order to carry out your work as an historian. (Even U.S. historians need to demonstrate serious study of at least one foreign language.) Professional historians work from primary sources in the original languages, and they read the publications of foreign scholars. Graduate students in non-U.S. fields usually live abroad for weeks or months at a time, gathering their information, interviewing people, and presenting their findings. Some fields require several different languages, and some languages (such as Russian or Chinese) take many years to learn well. For that reason, if you want to specialize in a field other than American history, try to gain maximum reading, speaking, and writing proficiency in the primary language of the country you plan to study. If your undergraduate education did not include much foreign language study, take a year or two to gain a strong base in the language before you apply to graduate school. At KU, we expect students to be able to demonstrate a usable reading knowledge of their primary research language in their first year in the History graduate program. Then you will be able to make progress in your graduate study in History, even while you continue to enhance your linguistic capabilities.

When you are sure that you've acquired the profile necessary for success in graduate school, it's time to look seriously at your options. Before applying to a graduate program at KU (or anywhere else), it's a good idea to research it. Look at the department's website. Who are its current faculty, and do their areas of expertise coincide with your interests? But don't stop there. Read some of the publications of professors you'd like to work with. Do their approaches intrigue you? Would you like, someday, to write books and articles of these sorts? Then contact the professors you might like to work with by email or letter. Are they still taking students? Do your interests sound reasonable to the faculty? What advice can they give you about your career plans? Communicate with current students and recent graduates. Do they feel that they are getting a good education? Do they feel competitive for the jobs they seek?

As you contemplate entering graduate school in History, consider carefully some sobering realities. It takes at least 5-6 years to earn a Ph.D., and often 7-8 years or more, depending upon the program, the field of specialization, the student's level of preparation, and the amount and type of financial support. The number of new Ph.D.'s graduated each year exceeds the number of jobs by a substantial margin, so competition will be stiff. And the pay scale for most historians' jobs (including faculty positions) is low in comparison with other degreed professionals. Even so, most historians don't regret their choice. At the University of Kansas we have a good track record of placing our Ph.D. graduates; over 80% find professional employment. Related data from the NRC 2006 Assesment of Research Doctorate Programs for the University of Kansas provides the median times for earning a doctoral degree at K.U.