Requirements for a Professional Degree in History
- For careers in history, you must know and complete the necessary requirements.history image by Ewe Degiampietro from Fotolia.com
A professional degree is an academic degree that will prepare the holder for her profession. This is done by emphasizing competency skills along with theory and analysis. The degree designates the completion of the program. These degrees can be awarded as undergraduate or graduate entry degrees such as Bachelors, Masters or Doctorate. Specific requirements for a professional degree in history may vary by institution, but most follow the same basic guidelines. - Individuals with a professional degree in history have several options for their career. Popular careers are history professor or historian. History majors are also prepared to work in law schools, libraries, museums and historical societies, and in the editing and marketing of books.
Historians and history professors have to meet specific educational requirements for their professions. One such requirement is a Bachelors degree with a concentration in history, though many hold a Ph.D. specializing in a certain topic or era. - For a Bachelors in history, students are typically required to take no less than a total of 120 semester hours, also referred to as credit hours, of courses. If more credit hours are required, it is generally due to courses that are required as electives, and not necessarily for the individual's degree.
General education requirements are about 40 percent of the courses for a Bachelors degree in history, whereas history core requirements and history electives are about 47 percent. The other 13 percent are free electives, which are not related to history coursework. - Various classes are required in order to achieve a professional degree in history. General education requirements include courses in Communication, Humanities, Computer Science, Mathematics and Social Sciences. Other courses may include World Languages, Fine and Performing Arts and World Civilization.
History core classes and electives require that students take at least one course for a specific geographical area, as well as pre-1800 courses such as Medieval History. Other required courses include European History, American History and Non-Western History. A Senior Seminar is also mandatory for students in their senior year. - History majors have other requirements, including the writing of an essay using significant resources from primary sources. The essay should interpret and analyze the material that was found using this research. This essay is usually 20 to 25 pages long, and is completed in one of the required seminary courses.
Students seeking an area of concentration may select a variety of areas, including regional areas of concentration, such as World History or Thematic Areas of Concentration, such as Economic History. For students with no area of concentration, at least two upper level classes are required, along with two seminars.
