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Major Requirements

To graduate with a Bachelor's degree with a major in History students must take twelve distinct history courses organized as follows:

For Geographic Concentrators

TWO Undergraduate Seminars:

These may focus on any region, topic, or time period, regardless of concentration.

SIX courses in your geographic concentration:

FOUR additional courses outside your area of concentration.

* No more than one 100-level course may be applied towards the major requirements.

For Global History Concentrators

Two Undergraduate Seminars: One 393 "Approaches to History" seminar and one 395 "Research Seminar." These may focus on any region, topic, or time period, regardless of concentration.

Global students must also take History 250-1 and History 250-2 plus (2) courses inside the Global concentration. 

* While the Department offers 250-1 and -2 every year, the quarters in which they are offered are not fixed and may vary from year to year.  Global concentrators should take these classes as soon as possible to avoid conflicts during senior year.

Six additional courses outside global history, with two each in three geographic areas of concentration or three each in two geographic areas of concentration.

A full list of course descriptions and their minor concentrations can be found in our catalog.

Notes and Restrictions

  1. At least two of the courses must be in fields other than modern European or US history (e.g. courses in European history before 1800 or in African, Asian, Middle Eastern, or Latin American history).
  2. Students may apply only one first-year seminar—101, 102, or 103—toward the major requirements. Otherwise any 200- or 300-level course may be counted toward the major, including seminars numbered 392, 393, 394, 395, and 398.
  3. Students may apply their 393 and 395 required seminars inside or outside their concentration as they see fit so long as they complete twelve distinct history courses.
  4. No AP courses or online courses may be counted toward the history major.
  5. Courses taken abroad may be counted toward the major requirements with approval from a faculty advisor.
  6. The 393 seminar should be taken as soon as possible after declaration of a history major, and should normally precede the 395 seminar.
  7. Students applying to the 398 senior thesis seminar should plan to complete both the 393 and the 395 seminar before the end of their third year.
  8. WCAS does not permit double-counting between the History major and most other majors. The History major itself has no double-counting provision.

  9. All courses toward the major/minor must be taken for a letter grade, no P/NP.

Up to Two of the Following may be Counted Toward the History Major