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Best Online History Degrees (2026)
Updated September 5, 2026BLS dataCollege ScorecardOn this page
Key takeaway: A history degree trains you to find evidence, read it against its context, and build an argument other people can check. The undergraduate degree is usually a BA; at the graduate level the MA is the working credential for archives, museums, public history, and secondary teaching, and the PhD is the research degree. Most history graduates do not become historians – the occupation is small, with 3,400 people employed in 2024 and about 300 openings a year (BLS Employment Projections, 2024-2034). The degree reaches teaching, archives, curation, records and information work, law, government, and writing. There is no programmatic accreditor for history, so institutional accreditation is the check that matters. In IPEDS 2024, 1,171 institutions reported bachelor’s-or-higher completions in history, and 992 of them reported offering distance-education programs (IPEDS 2024).
The academic core is method. You learn to locate primary sources, judge what a document can and cannot prove, read the existing research on a question, and write a thesis-driven paper with citations that a reader can follow back to the archive. Around that core, programs layer regional and thematic fields, a language or quantitative requirement in some cases, and a senior thesis or capstone. Accredited online programs award the same degree titles as campus programs; browse the best accredited online colleges to compare schools that offer them. To find programs near you, see history programs by state.
Schools Offering History Programs
These accredited schools offer online programs. Request information to compare programs, costs, and formats.
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Every school list on this site is ordered by the BOC Score, computed from the most
recent school-level data published by the U.S. Department of Education (College Scorecard and IPEDS).
To qualify, a school must be currently operating and accredited by an agency recognized by the
U.S. Department of Education. Each eligible school is then scored on five measures, percentile-ranked
against schools at the same credential level:
BOCSCORE
Graduation rate 30%
Median earnings, 10 years after entry 25%
Average net price (lower is better) 20%
Retention rate 15%
Fully online availability 10%
Schools without enough outcome data appear after ranked schools, without a score.
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BOC
Ranked by BOC Score — U.S. Dept. of Education outcome data. Advertising never affects rankings.
History graduates work in classrooms, archives, museums, libraries, government offices, law firms, and publishing. The occupations below are the ones the degree most often feeds. Median annual wages come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program.
Median annual wage for the highest-paying history careers. Source: BLS OEWS. Chart: Best Online College.View the data behind this chart
Highest-paying history careers. Source: BLS OEWS (May 2025 release)
Occupation
Median annual wage
History Teachers, Postsecondary
$83,820
Writers and Authors
$76,910
Historians
$76,750
Secondary School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education
$72,040
Librarians and Media Collections Specialists
$68,270
Archivists
$64,550
Curators
$63,420
Museum Technicians and Conservators
$51,440
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Projected job growth (2024-2034) for history careers. Source: BLS Employment Projections. Chart: Best Online College.View the data behind this chart
Fastest-growing history careers. Source: BLS Employment Projections (2024-2034)
Occupation
Projected job growth (2024-2034)
Curators
7.0%
Museum Technicians and Conservators
5.4%
Archivists
3.8%
Writers and Authors
3.6%
Historians
2.2%
Librarians and Media Collections Specialists
1.7%
History Teachers, Postsecondary
-0.2%
Secondary School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education
-1.6%
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HistoriansSOC 19-3093
$76,750Median annual pay
Median hourly$36.90
Mean annual$81,240
Employment (US)3,450
Pay range (25-75%)$57,290 - $99,990
ArchivistsSOC 25-4011
$64,550Median annual pay
Median hourly$31.03
Mean annual$70,640
Employment (US)7,970
Pay range (25-75%)$50,680 - $83,020
CuratorsSOC 25-4012
$63,420Median annual pay
Median hourly$30.49
Mean annual$71,560
Employment (US)12,150
Pay range (25-75%)$48,870 - $83,080
Museum Technicians and ConservatorsSOC 25-4013
$51,440Median annual pay
Median hourly$24.73
Mean annual$57,410
Employment (US)12,310
Pay range (25-75%)$41,050 - $67,640
History Teachers, PostsecondarySOC 25-1125
$83,820Median annual pay
Mean annual$96,580
Employment (US)18,790
Pay range (25-75%)$63,920 - $112,090
Secondary School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical EducationSOC 25-2031
$72,040Median annual pay
Mean annual$76,320
Employment (US)1,065,210
Pay range (25-75%)$59,980 - $92,570
Writers and AuthorsSOC 27-3043
$76,910Median annual pay
Median hourly$36.98
Mean annual$86,090
Employment (US)47,940
Pay range (25-75%)$58,230 - $101,950
Librarians and Media Collections SpecialistsSOC 25-4022
$68,270Median annual pay
Median hourly$32.82
Mean annual$72,840
Employment (US)133,790
Pay range (25-75%)$56,310 - $84,480
Source: BLS OEWS, May 2025.
Read the employment counts before the wages, because they decide how realistic a path is. Historians had a median annual wage of $76,750 – the 10th percentile at $42,730 and the 90th at $131,810 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025 OEWS). It is a small occupation: 3,400 employed in 2024, projected to grow 2.2 percent through 2034, with about 300 openings per year (BLS Employment Projections, 2024-2034). Postsecondary history teaching pays the highest median on this list, $83,820 – the 10th percentile at $48,410 and the 90th at $162,160 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025 OEWS), but employment is projected to decline 0.2 percent through 2034 across 24,600 positions, with 1,700 openings a year (BLS Employment Projections, 2024-2034), and those jobs generally require a PhD.
The larger doors are elsewhere. Secondary school teachers, the occupation that hires the most history majors, had a median annual wage of $72,040 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025 OEWS) and 66,200 openings a year even though total employment is projected to fall 1.6 percent (BLS Employment Projections, 2024-2034). Curators had a median of $63,420 with 7.0 percent projected growth, archivists $64,550 with 3.8 percent growth, museum technicians and conservators $51,440 with 5.4 percent growth, and librarians and media collections specialists $68,270 with 1.7 percent growth (Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025 OEWS; BLS Employment Projections, 2024-2034). Writers and authors, a common destination for history graduates who keep writing, had a median of $76,910 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025 OEWS). Individual outcomes vary by employer, geography, specialization, and experience.
Quick Answers
What is a history degree?
A history degree is training in evidence. You learn to find primary sources, read them against the conditions that produced them, weigh them against what other researchers have argued, and write a documented case for a claim. Coursework is organized by region, period, and theme, but the transferable skill is the method: locating material, evaluating it, and writing something defensible about it.
Is history a useless major?
No, but it is an indirect one. History does not map to a single licensed occupation the way nursing or accounting does, so the major does not place you by itself. What it does is build research, writing, and argument at a level many employers pay for, and it is a standard undergraduate route into law, teaching, archives, museums, government, and publishing. The graduates who struggle are usually the ones who never paired the degree with a specific credential or a body of applied work.
Do you need a graduate degree to work in history?
For most history-specific jobs, yes. Archivists and curators are typically hired with a master’s, historians employed under that title usually hold a graduate degree, and postsecondary history teaching generally requires a PhD. Secondary teaching requires a state license rather than a graduate degree in history. Outside those roles, the bachelor’s stands on its own as a general four-year credential.
Can you become a teacher with a history degree?
Yes, and it is the most common outcome. Public school teaching requires a state teaching license in addition to the subject degree, earned either through a licensure track built into the undergraduate program or through a post-baccalaureate or master’s route afterward. Check your state’s requirements before you assume a history major alone qualifies you. See the education program guide for how licensure programs are structured.
Is there a programmatic accreditor for history?
No. There is no recognized programmatic accreditor for history degrees. Verify that the institution holds accreditation from a recognized institutional accreditor through the U.S. Department of Education database. If you plan to add a teaching license, confirm the education unit is approved by your state board; if you plan to work in archives, many employers prefer a library and information science degree accredited by the American Library Association.
What you’ll study
History curricula generally have three layers, and the middle one is what separates a history degree from reading history books.
The first layer is coverage. Surveys of United States, European, and world history establish a chronology and a vocabulary. These are the courses most people picture, and they are the smallest part of the major after the first year.
The second layer is method and historiography. Methods courses teach you to work with primary sources: how to read a census schedule, a court record, a newspaper, a photograph, or a diplomatic cable, and how to tell what each one is evidence of. Historiography courses teach you to read the existing research on a question and place your own argument inside that conversation. This is where the degree earns its reputation for producing careful writers. Expect long research papers with footnotes, not multiple-choice exams.
The third layer is field depth and the capstone. You choose fields by region, period, or theme – early America, modern Europe, East Asia, the Atlantic world, war and society, gender, public history – and finish with a senior thesis or seminar paper built on primary research. Some programs require reading knowledge of a foreign language for fields where the sources are not in English. At the bachelor’s level, expect roughly 120 credits with the major concentrated in the last two years.
Public history is worth naming separately. It is the applied track: archives, museums, historic preservation, digital collections, oral history, and interpretation for a general audience. If archives or museums are the goal, a program with a public history track and a required internship is a materially different offer from one without.
Online formats handle history well because the work is reading, research, and writing. The constraint is source access. See how online history degrees work for what to verify about library and database access before you enroll.
Careers for history graduates
The paths split into a few shapes, and they are not equally open.
Teaching is the largest. Secondary school social studies is the single biggest employer of history majors, with 66,200 openings a year (BLS Employment Projections, 2024-2034), and it runs through state licensure rather than through the history department alone. Postsecondary history teaching is the opposite: high median pay at $83,820 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025 OEWS), a PhD requirement, and a shrinking number of positions.
Collections work covers archivists, curators, museum technicians, and librarians. These are real careers with real hiring, usually gated by a master’s degree, and often entered through internships and volunteer processing work during the degree. If this is the target, look at the library science program guide alongside history.
Research, analysis, and writing roles hire history graduates for the method rather than the subject: policy research, legal work, compliance, records management, intelligence analysis, editorial work, and content research. Law school remains a common destination, and history is a well-established pre-law major. For the government and policy version of this path, compare political science.
Accreditation – confirm recognized institutional accreditation through the U.S. Department of Education database. There is no programmatic accreditor for history, so this is the check that matters.
Methods and thesis – confirm the major requires a methods course and a research paper built on primary sources, not only survey coursework. Ask to see the capstone requirement in the catalog.
Library and database access – online students need the same digitized primary sources, journal databases, and interlibrary loan service as campus students. Ask what is included.
Fields actually offered online – a catalog can list twenty fields and rotate three of them online. Ask which upper-division fields run remotely, and how often.
Applied track – if archives, museums, or preservation is the goal, look for a public history concentration with an internship, and ask how online students are placed.
Licensure, if you plan to teach – confirm the program leads to your state’s social studies license, or that a named post-baccalaureate route does. See elementary education if younger grades are the aim.
History or a related field? Choose history for evidence, context, and change over time. Choose political science for institutions, power, and policy in the present. Choose library science if organizing and providing access to collections is the job rather than researching them. Choose education if teaching is the destination and the subject is secondary. Choose liberal arts if you want a broader humanities degree with history inside it, or journalism if the work is reporting on the present.
