Any History degree takers here?

[Ubiquitous]

I start my History degree in either September or October (depending on which University I choose). I don't know many people who have done such a degree, so I would like to get the opinions of those of you who have achieved your History BA/currently studying it now.

[spongyblue]

I was a history major for two semesters. I say only go for it if you have a very clear idea of what it is you want to do career wise. I quit the history bit(and a short while later college all together) because I realized I didn't want to be an academic all my life.

[RedImperator]

I'm a history/political science major right now. I've always found it pretty easy, but I knew a lot of background on the subject before I even entered school. The hardest part will come when it's time to do original research. Then you have to hit the archives, find good secondary sources, and write something meaningful, on a deadline.

[Specialist]

I start my History degree in either September or October (depending on which University I choose). I don't know many people who have done such a degree, so I would like to get the opinions of those of you who have achieved your History BA/currently studying it now.

Like others have said if you don't have a specific plan you should look else where. There's not much to do with a history degree except teaching and more research.

[TrailerParkJawa]

I got an Environmental Studies degree. It not history, but the point is you cant do much with it. So if your primary purpose of going to a university is for an education, then pick what makes you happy.

If your primary purpose, like most peope, for going to university is to get a job. Think about looking elsewhere, or making sure you have a secondary set of skills you can market.

[weemadando]

I'm a history, ancient civs and political science major. 1 semester away from graduation.

[David]

I would of liked to. I nearly aced all of my history exams all through high school and college, but the money is in science, so that's where I'm going.

[J]

It's definitely an interesting field of study provided that you like history, otherwise you might end up bored to tears learning about stuff that seems irrelevant. I studied history as part of my interdisciplinary degree and found that I truly enjoyed it. The research part can be a bit of a pain as RedImperator mentioned, but despite the challenges I found it to be a great learning experience. I also had this really amazing prof which made everything that much better and contributed greatly to my love of history.

[Tsyroc]

Most of the people here have already given you good advice and pretty much said what I'm going to reiterate and add to.

I have a BA in history with a minor in the humanities (artsy fartsy history ) from the University of Arizona.

Part of the reason I got a history degree was because it was something I actually liked. Liking something that I am working on has always made it much easier for me to do it. Basically, you should be able to do well as long as you put in the effort and time. Expect to read and write a lot. Lots of papers and lots of essay tests. Personally I thought all the essay tests usually helped my grade except for a couple instances where I really missed what the Professor was looking for.

Most of the lower division (and some upper) courses aren't too much different than your standard history class. However, since you are in college the professors don't have be so careful or specific about what they teach like a high school teacher might. I found college history courses much more interesting and fun. More work too.


Now, here's a question for you. What are you planning to do with your history degree?

Lots of people use history degrees as an "easy" degree to get before going into Law school and in some cases Medical school (although in the case of Med school you'd have to be very careful about getting all your math & science prerequisites). If you are just planning on getting a bachelors degree you might want to consider working towards teacher certification at the same time. My school had basically two different history degrees. Both were mostly in the history department but one was associated with the school of education in getting people qualified to be teachers.

Currently, I am not working in a field that uses my degree. In fact as a pharmacy technician I am making more money now in a job I learned "on the job" than I would as a teacher in the local school system.

If you don't mind sales a lot of insurance salesmen start out with liberal arts degrees. My uncle has done very well for himself in California selling insurance and he has a Political Science degree. There are jobs out there where they just want someone with a degree but finding one and finding one you like can be extremely difficult.

The U.S. Military is one place that may be interested in a person with any degree but I'd really look into that one a lot before deciding to go to OCS.

Government jobs will also give you credit for having a degree but they can be hard to find or get. It really depends on where you live and they are going to give precedence to people with prior government/military service.

I guess my basic advice about getting a history degree is if you really want to get a history degree but don't necessarilly want to teach high school then I'd suggest planning on going for at least your Masters degree. With that you would be able to teach HS but get paid more or you could teach at a comunity college. In my experience the Masters degree is probably where you really start to become a historian. You still take classes, have even more reading and writing plus working on your thesis, which means more research including more first hand document interpretation/analysis.

In my case, after 4 years I got tired of school and writing. I felt like I should be getting paid for putting in all that effort instead of paying someone else. Plus, even with a Masters degree it was a bit iffy as to where this degree was heading in terms of a career.

[Sea Skimmer]

I've pretty much decided that's what I'm going to go for in collage.

[weemadando]

I was looking at possibly teaching history etc. But then decided that "Hell no. I couldn't do that for the rest of my life." Since then I've been looking into graduate positions in politics. My aim is to go into public relations/"spin doctoring"...

[Coyote]

I'm in the last semester of my History BA and I'm taking History 'cause I love it. I know it is not very marketable but I am interested in self-fulfillment more than money, money, money. I know I will be poor but I can't take it with me anyway...

And history degrees do show an ability to do research-- it can bve helpful in a Communications or Journalism job. That's what I hope to achieve at some point. Again, it helps that I don't have any high dreams about owning my own yacht and private jet. If I wanted that I'd force-feed myself a Business, Computer Science or Engineering degree and be a rich but miserable and self-loathing workaholic for the rest of my life.