Majors and Minors: The Undergraduate Program
The Department of History offers programs of study leading to the
B.A. degree, and the B.A. degree with honors (and, on the graduate
level, to the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees). The department also offers a
minor in history. Non-majors are welcome in all history courses,
except where restrictions are noted, and often become enthusiastic,
successful students of history while pursuing other interests. The
history concentration is valuable not only for those considering
the historian’s vocation, but also for those pursuing careers in
law, secondary school teaching, politics, and communications, among
others.
The department also offers 16 clusters for non-majors to fulfill the
social science divisional requirement in the Rochester Curriculum.
These clusters consist of carefully selected sets of courses, and
include both geographical (e.g., American history) and topical (e.g.,
War and Revolution) groupings.
The department offers a wide range of courses in its undergraduate
program encompassing social, economic, cultural, intellectual,
political, and psychological approaches to historical problems and
periods. Most 100- and 200-level courses in the department are
accessible to students with little preparation in history. In addition,
the faculty offers 300-level seminars and courses designed for
concentrators or other students interested in exploring more
specialized historical problems (200-level courses designated with a
“W” and all 300W courses fulfill the upper level writing
requirement).
Please talk to an adviser on making changes to a major program, on special opportunities in the major (honors, internships, etc.), and on opportunities for further study and work after graduation.
Students concentrating in history will each have a faculty adviser. The choice of that adviser will be based on a student's particular interests in history and will be made in consultation with the Director of Undergraduate Studies. The adviser will help prospective majors plan their programs. In addition, advisers are a resource for information on courses, on making changes to a major program, on special opportunities in the major (honors, internships, etc.), and on opportunities for further study and work after graduation. See also Honors Program and Internships and Careers to learn more.