Undergraduate History Major

Do you love history? We know you do, and we'd love to have you as a history major. But we also know that you have many academic career paths to follow. While you pursue those goals, you can still study the past via the history minor.

Our minor is a highly flexible collection of 18 semester hours. Two of those courses will need to be at the lower division and two at the upper division while the other two are elective.

A minor in our program will give you valuable reading, writing, speaking and analytical skills that will help you excel in just about any career or program of study. You will also find that many of our courses will help you meet NIU requirements for writing-infused upper-division courses and human diversity coursework, and they will help you complete many of the PLUS Pathways. Getting a minor in history requires no prerequisite coursework, so you may choose and take courses in any order. You will find a great variety of courses available, so you can explore just about any historical interest you have. Check out our current course list to see what's being offered now.

A history degree has long been a way to prepare for a career as a lawyer. As you study history, you develop the same skills needed to study and practice law: research, reading, analysis, organization, argumentation and written and oral presentation. We realize that law school can seem daunting due to time and cost. Luckily, NIU is here to help. Along with other programs at Northern, we have partnered with the College of Law to offer an accelerated path to a law degree that is more efficient in both time and money.

In this program, your last year of undergraduate studies will be your first year of law school. As a result, you will finish both your bachelor's degree and your J.D. degree in six years, instead of seven. Even better, you will pay undergraduate tuition for that fourth year, saving you thousands of dollars.

The Department of History's Accelerated Law program entered the undergraduate catalog in the Fall of 2018, but you can begin your journey now. Contact Erin Reid, CLAS pre-law advisor, at prelaw@niu.edu for more information.

There are two options available to history majors who wish to graduate with honors. One option is to apply for admission to the University Honors Program. The other is to apply for the Department of History's internal honors program. Students can be in either or both of these programs.

The departmental honors program is open to students with a cumulative GPA of 3.00 and 3.50 in the major. Apply (or be nominated) through the director of undergraduate studies (ehall4@niu.edu); your application is reviewed by the department's undergraduate committee.

The program's basic requirements are:

• A minimum of 18 semester hours of history honors courses (including the honors section of the Senior Thesis, HIST 495H)
• A grade of B or better in HIST 495H
• Maintenance of the GPA requirements stated above