History at Harvard University

What traits are you looking for in a history school? To help you decide if Harvard University is right for you, we've gathered the following information about the school's history program.

Harvard is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts and approximately 30,391 students attend the school each year. Of the 1,618 students who graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University in 2021, 118 of them were history majors.

Want to know more about the career opportunities in this field? Check out the Careers in History section at the bottom of this page.

Harvard History Degrees Available

• Bachelor’s Degree in History
• Master’s Degree in History
• Doctorate Degree in History

Harvard History Rankings

The following rankings from College Factual show how the history progam at Harvard compares to programs at other colleges and universities.

Note: Rankings don't always give a complete picture of a school's strengths and weaknesses, so it's a good idea to extend your research and also look at other factors when trying to decide if the school is right for you.

Bachelor’s Degree Overall Quality & Other Notable Rankings

The history major at Harvard is not ranked on College Factual’s Best Colleges and Universities for History. This could be for a number of reasons, such as not having enough data on the major or school to make an accurate assessment of its quality.

Ranking Type	Rank
	1
Most Popular History Schools	8
Best History Bachelor’s Degree Schools	9

In 2021, 42 students received their master’s degree in history from Harvard. This makes it the #11 most popular school for history master’s degree candidates in the country.

There were 18 students who received their doctoral degrees in history, making the school the #1 most popular school in the United States for this category of students.

History Student Demographics at Harvard

Take a look at the following statistics related to the make-up of the history majors at Harvard University.

Harvard History Bachelor’s Program

For the most recent academic year available, 31% of history bachelor's degrees went to men and 69% went to women. The typical history bachelor's degree program is made up of only 43% women. So female students are more repesented at Harvard since its program graduates 26% more women than average.

Prospective students may be interested in knowing that this school graduates 16% more racial-ethnic minorities in its history bachelor's program than the national average.*

The following table and chart show the race/ethnicity for students who recently graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor's in history.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Students
Asian	12
Black or African American	18
Hispanic or Latino	13
White	53
International Students	14
Other Races/Ethnicities	8

Harvard History Master’s Program

For the most recent academic year available, 57% of history master's degrees went to men and 43% went to women.

Of the students who received a history master's degree from Harvard, 64% were white. This is typical for this degree on the natiowide level.

The following table and chart show the race/ethnicity for students who recently graduated from Harvard University with a master's in history.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Students
Asian	2
Black or African American	2
Hispanic or Latino	3
White	27
International Students	5
Other Races/Ethnicities	3

Harvard also has a doctoral program available in history. In 2021, 18 students graduated with a doctor's degree in this field.

Concentrations Within History

If you plan to be a history major, you may want to focus your studies on one of the following concentrations. The table shows all degrees awarded in this field awarded for all degree levels at Harvard University. A concentration may not be available for your level.

Concentration	Annual Degrees Awarded
History	178

Related Majors

• Family, Consumer & Human Sciences
• Communication & Journalism
• Area, Ethnic, Culture, & Gender Studies
• Psychology
• Education

Careers That History Grads May Go Into

A degree in history can lead to the following careers. Since job numbers and average salaries can vary by geographic location, we have only included the numbers for MA, the home state for Harvard University.

Occupation	Jobs in MA	Average Salary in MA
High School Teachers	26,420	$80,020
Managers	8,660	$131,450
History Professors	1,030	$97,350
Museum Technicians and Conservators	580	$56,100
Curators	520	$68,240

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• National Center for Education Statistics
• O*NET Online
• Image Credit: By Elisa.rolle under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.