A bachelor’s in history is almost always a BA, roughly 120 credits, with the major concentrated in the junior and senior years. The difference between programs is not the survey courses. It is whether the upper division makes you do original research: a methods course, a historiography course, and a capstone paper built on primary sources you located yourself.
This page explains how the major is structured, which choices during the degree actually change what you can do afterward, and what to compare across online programs.
Quick answers
Can I get a bachelor’s degree in history entirely online?
Yes. 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). History adapts to online delivery well, because the work is reading, research, and writing rather than lab or studio time.
What degree title should I expect?
Most commonly a BA in History. You will also see titles such as History with a public history concentration, Social Science with a history emphasis, and Secondary Education with a history or social studies content major. The last of those is a different degree: it is a licensure program with history coursework inside it, not a history major with education electives.
How many credits is a bachelor’s in history?
Approximately 120 semester hours, typically four years full-time. The major itself is usually 30 to 45 of those credits, which leaves substantial room for a minor, a second major, or a licensure sequence.
Do I have to learn a foreign language?
Sometimes. Programs with strong non-United States fields often require reading knowledge of a language relevant to the sources, and graduate programs frequently require it. Check the catalog rather than assuming, and check whether the language requirement can be met online.
Does the bachelor’s alone qualify me for archives or museum work?
Usually not for professional positions. Archivists and curators are typically hired with a master’s degree. The bachelor’s is where you build the internship record and processing experience that make a graduate application competitive. See the library science program guide for the credential most archives employers recognize.
Is history a good pre-law major?
It is one of the established ones. Law school admission does not require a specific major, and history’s demands – close reading of documents, argument from evidence, long written work under deadline – resemble the first year of law school more than most majors do. It is not an advantage by itself; the grades and the entrance exam still decide.
At a Glance
- Common degree titles: BA in History, History with a public history concentration, Secondary Education with a social studies content major
- Typical duration: 4 years full-time
- Credits: Approximately 120 semester hours, with roughly 30 to 45 in the major
- Core skills: Primary-source research, historiography, evidence-based argument, long-form documented writing
- Accreditation: No programmatic accreditor for history; verify institutional accreditation
For a full map of this program area, start here: History Program Guide
Schools to compare
How We Rank Schools
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.
Advertising never affects these rankings. Read the full methodology.
Graduation rate
93%
Median earnings, 10 yrs after entry
$102,772
Avg net price
$12,116/yr
TuitionContact school for pricing
Key stats
- Retention rate: 98%
- Programs offered: 64
Source:IPEDS · College Scorecard
Graduation rate
97%
Median earnings, 10 yrs after entry
$124,080
Avg net price
$13,807/yr
TuitionContact school for pricing
Key stats
- Retention rate: 98%
- Programs offered: 100
Source:IPEDS · College Scorecard
Acceptance rate
11%
Graduation rate
93%
Median earnings, 10 yrs after entry
$92,446
Avg net price
$13,481/yr
TuitionIn‑state$16,347
Out‑of‑state$50,547
Key stats
- Retention rate: 97%
- Programs offered: 127
Source:Accreditor: Western Association of Schools and Colleges Senior Colleges and University Commission · IPEDS · College Scorecard
Graduation rate
98%
Median earnings, 10 yrs after entry
$110,066
Avg net price
$6,128/yr
TuitionContact school for pricing
Key stats
- Retention rate: 98%
- Programs offered: 47
Source:IPEDS · College Scorecard
Acceptance rate
7%
Graduation rate
95%
Median earnings, 10 yrs after entry
$82,735
Avg net price
$14,398/yr
TuitionIn‑state$67,832
Out‑of‑state$67,832
Key stats
- Retention rate: 97%
- Programs offered: 40
Source:Accreditor: New England Commission on Higher Education · IPEDS · College Scorecard
Graduation rate
96%
Median earnings, 10 yrs after entry
$88,665
Avg net price
$17,716/yr
TuitionContact school for pricing
Key stats
- Retention rate: 97%
- Programs offered: 38
Source:IPEDS · College Scorecard
TuitionContact school for pricing
Key stats
- Retention rate: 97%
- Programs offered: 28
Source:IPEDS · College Scorecard
Graduation rate
96%
Median earnings, 10 yrs after entry
$143,372
Avg net price
$20,111/yr
TuitionContact school for pricing
Key stats
- Retention rate: 99%
- Programs offered: 53
Source:IPEDS · College Scorecard
The main undergraduate pathways
Standalone history major (BA)
The direct route. You complete surveys, choose fields by region and period, take methods and historiography, and write a capstone. This is the version that prepares you for graduate work in history, and the one that most clearly builds the research and writing record employers can see. The thing to verify is that the capstone is a research paper from primary sources, not a reflective essay or a literature review.
History with a public history concentration
The applied version. Public history coursework covers archival principles, museum interpretation, historic preservation, digital collections, and oral history, and it usually requires an internship. If archives, museums, or preservation is the goal, this concentration plus a graduate degree is the standard route, and the internship is often what gets you the first job. Ask directly how an online program places remote students in internships, because this is where thin programs are exposed.
History as a content major inside a teaching license
If secondary teaching is the plan, many students take a social studies or history content major bundled with a state-approved licensure sequence: educational psychology, methods of teaching social studies, assessment, and a supervised student teaching placement. The placement is in-person even in an online program. Confirm the program leads to licensure in your state, not just in the state where the school sits. See the education program guide for how these programs are built.
History paired with a second field
History pairs efficiently because the major leaves credits free. Common pairings are political science for government and policy work, library science coursework for collections, journalism for writing and reporting, and economics or statistics for research roles that want quantitative evidence alongside documentary evidence.
Typical coursework in a bachelor’s program
| Course Topic |
What You Learn |
| United States History Surveys |
Chronology, major interpretive debates, and the vocabulary of the field |
| World and Regional Surveys |
Europe, East Asia, Latin America, Africa, or the Atlantic world, depending on faculty |
| Historical Methods |
Finding, evaluating, and citing primary sources; building a research question |
| Historiography |
How interpretations of a topic changed, and why arguments win or lose |
| Thematic Fields |
War and society, gender, labor, migration, religion, science and technology |
| Public History |
Archives, museums, preservation, oral history, and digital collections |
| Research Seminar |
A long documented paper on a question you chose, supervised across a term |
| Senior Thesis or Capstone |
Original primary-source research presented at a defensible standard |
Skills you may build
- Locating primary sources in physical and digital archives, and knowing what each source can prove
- Reading a document against the conditions that produced it rather than at face value
- Summarizing an existing body of research accurately, including the parts that undercut your argument
- Writing long, documented prose on a deadline, with citations a reader can verify
- Building a chronology from incomplete evidence and stating your uncertainty plainly
- Presenting a contested subject to a general audience without flattening it
Prerequisites and course sequencing
Surveys usually come first, methods in the sophomore or junior year, and the seminar or thesis last. Before you enroll, confirm:
- Whether the methods course is required, and in which term it runs
- Which upper-division fields are offered online, and on what rotation
- Whether a foreign language is required for the fields you want
- Whether the capstone is a research paper, and who supervises it for online students
- Whether a public history internship is required, and how remote students are placed
If you are trying to finish faster, compare accelerated history programs. Compression is easier on surveys than on the research seminar, which needs weeks of source work before a draft exists.
Transfer credits and degree planning
Transfer credit is the largest single lever on time and cost at this level, because general education and the introductory surveys transfer readily. Confirm:
- The maximum number of transfer credits accepted
- The minimum grade required for a course to transfer
- Whether credits apply to the major or only to general electives – surveys usually transfer, upper-division seminars often do not
- Residency requirements, meaning a minimum number of credits completed at the institution
- Whether credit by exam covers the survey sequence
See Affordable Online History Degrees for more on managing total program cost.
Accreditation and program quality checks
There is no 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 a teaching license is part of the plan, the education unit must be approved by your state; many are also accredited by the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation. If archives are the plan, the graduate credential most employers recognize is a library and information science degree accredited by the American Library Association.
Membership in a historical association is not accreditation and does not evaluate degree programs. Institutional accreditation, plus state approval for any licensure track, are the checks that matter.
Building a record while you study
The major produces a transcript. What employers and graduate programs read is the work. Practical habits:
- Keep a clean copy of every substantial research paper, so you have a writing sample ready
- Take the methods course seriously and early; it is the course that makes the later ones possible
- Volunteer or intern with a local archive, museum, historical society, or records office, even part-time
- Learn one applied skill the field pays for: archival description standards, digital collections tools, geographic information systems, or basic statistics
- If teaching is the goal, start the licensure sequence early rather than discovering the student teaching requirement in your final year
Bachelor’s vs a master’s in history
A bachelor’s is the general four-year credential plus research training. It is enough for teaching with a license, for entry-level research, records, and government work, and for law school. It is generally not enough for professional archives, curation, or any job with historian in the title.
An online master’s in history is the working credential for archives, museums, public history, and community college teaching, and the entry point to doctoral study. Postsecondary history teaching at four-year institutions generally requires a PhD, and that occupation is projected to decline 0.2 percent through 2034 (BLS Employment Projections, 2024-2034).
Compare degree options:
Data verified: September 5, 2026.
Salary, employment, and tuition figures on this page are sourced from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (OEWS May 2025; Employment Projections 2024–2034) and the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard (2023 cohort). The source agency and data year are cited inline with every statistic.
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