History at Harvard University

If you plan to study history, take a look at what Harvard University has to offer and decide if the program is a good match for you. Get started with the following essential facts.

Harvard is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts and approximately 30,391 students attend the school each year. In the 2020-2021 academic year, 118 students received a bachelor's degree in history from Harvard.

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

Each year, College Factual ranks history programs across the country. The following shows how Harvard performed in these rankings.

Note: While rankings may be a good starting point when you're researching a school, they don't necessarily highlight all of a school's strengths. Don't forget to check out the other details that are available for a school to see if it has what you're looking for in a program.

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
Best Value History Schools	169

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.

How Much Do History Graduates from Harvard Make?

The median salary of history students who receive their bachelor's degree at Harvard is $50,411. This is 75% higher than $28,881, which is the national average for all history bachelor's degree recipients.

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

The history program at Harvard awarded 118 bachelor's degrees in 2020-2021. About 31% of these degrees went to men with the other 69% going 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

The history program at Harvard awarded 42 master's degrees in 2020-2021. About 57% of these degrees went to men with the other 43% going 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.

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.