Finishing up a B.S. degree this fall. Looking for a decent college, with reasonable tuition that offers a Master's in History via distant learning. I've been searching with not to much luck. Anyone know of any that meet the criteria?

Thanks in advance,

Mike

Get in touch with CSU-Dominguez Hills (CA) @ 310-516-3743. Great way to get a fully accredited MA in History. Excellent program. I did it in 2 years while working full time so it can be done.No campus visits, helpful staff, reasonable fees,one of the best MA plans in the country!

A lot depends on what you want to do with an advanced degree and where your field of intrest in history lays.

If your future plans including teaching at the community college level then a resident course of instruction is inperative as most include time as a teaching assistant where you teach one or two sections of freshman History. If you intend to teach history at a 4 year college or university and have a chance at a tenure-track position, then the PhD is the absolute minimum. But beware that there is a surplus of History professors holding the PhD and many temporary instructors holding a doctorate, after teaching part-time with zero benefits quit after a while to teach high school social studies.

If public history is your intended specialty, then you need internship time at either an archives office or museum.

However, if you want the masters degree purely for personal enrichment and growth, then a purely distance program should be sufficient.

One of the largest disclipline areas with distance opportunities is military history.

Here's a list of universities offering programs in Military History. Some offer distance learning programs, others do not.

Hope this helps some.

Good luck!

Mark Wood
BA (History/Economics), MA (Economics), PhD student (History & Philosophy of Science)

Thanks guys! I want to teach at the CC level but it definitely seems there's no shortage of teachers in this area.

Mark,

Ae you a full time student or part-time? How difficult is a Phd program is this area?

Thanks,

Mike

Mr. Mahoney,

A successful candidate for a History and Philosophy of Science should have a solid undergraduate background in not only history, philosophy (including logic) but should have a good grasp of the scientific discliplines of which history that he or she intends to study. This includes as many rigorous lab based courses as possible One should have studied as much as possible up to and including intrigal and multivariate calculus if possible.

And since much of the scientific literature has been written abroad, a good handle of either French and/or German is necessary plus one of the ancient languages such as Greek and/or Latin.

The successful candidate for the PhD program should also hold a MA or MS degree, preferably in History or Philosophy.

So, as you can see, the program has a lot of rigorous prerequisits, many which would not be taken by the average undergrad History major.

Up until the end of the Spring 07 semester, I had been taking 9 units (3/4 time) including teaching a 3 unit freshman Western Civilization section as a TA. Unfortunately, due to cuts in the budget, the University of California at Davis eleminated the program. I hope to be transfering to the University of California at Berkeley next Spring. I also intend on spending 6 months to a year in Italy - either Rome or Florence - doing research for my disertation.

I really have no vocational goals for this degree except to write about science for the popular audience. Teaching is very political at the college and university level and as mentioned, contains a surplus of PhDs. If you are willing to be a "Road Scholar" - that is, spend 5 to 10 years as an adjunct professor of History, teaching at as many as 3 different local or not so local colleges, without benefits or even your own office, you may land a tenure track position, if you are patient and lucky.

This link to a Wikipedia page contains some information and a small list of schools offering programs in the History and Philosophy of Science.

Good luck to you!

Mark Wood

Mark,

Thanks a lot for the information! My head started to hurt after reading your post!
It's definitely more in depth than I assumed.

Good luck with your studies!

Mike

I considering a Masters in Military History from Norwich University. It can be done online and NU has a very good reputation.

Mike,

The big difference between the undergrad years and grad school is, while you are an undergrad, in order to achieve a "broad" education, you are required to study from a prescribed list of general education and courses in your major. In graduate school, for the most part, you get to study what YOU are interested in (for the most part).

And I agree with LRSDRANGER in that Norwich University has a pretty good reputation and is worth looking into.

Again, good luck!

Mark

The president of Norwich is/used to be in Coast Guard Reserves.

RC,

Looked up Norwich U on line. Couldn't find prices for post-grad courses. Anyone know?

Thanks,

Mike

CWO (and others),

I'm currently in the Norwich Program, and while I can say that it has been a very worthwhile course, I can also tell you to prepare to spend long hours in front of the computer screen or with the weekly reading.

Right now the course is $657/hr, or $7884/sem. While TA does cover a some of this, it is by no means all of it. I know that UoP or some of the other degree-mill schools are considerably less expensive, but I think that the Norwich program has been worth it, and will continue to be so in the long run.

Feel free to email me at uscgdwo03@aol.com if you have any specific questions regarding the admissions process or the program on a whole - or just ask here, I check the boards fairly often.

Guys,

Thanks for the help. I've been searching and Sam Houston State University has an online Masters in History plus they give the in-state tuition rate for military folks. Only issue is I've got to take the GRE and score a minimum of 1000 prior to acceptance. Anyone got any intel on this school?

TX

Do not know about online learning with GREs, but if you are doing resident work, most and I stress most, schools will let you in even with lower GREs on a special status and take your money. If you do not keep your grades up, then they wash you out and they have had your money. If you keep your grades up, you change status to a regular student and continue onwards. This happened to me for my first masters.

I want to also stress what Mark said about teaching above the secondary school level. Nowadays in history you must have a Ph.D., even at the CC level. When I went through the Ph.D. program, it was presumed if you received even a "B" in your program, the chances were very slim in getting a tenure track position. You can work for years without tenure, but as Mark pointed out, no benefits and very low pay.

If you want to teach history, you might consider a private secondary school. Many will take a masters. Even though I do not think you need the state teaching credentials for a private school, I would recommend getting them.

Again, Mark had it right: getting into teaching history above the secondary school level is, at best, very difficult. Not only must you keep high grades, much depends on what school you attend and who you study under, as one of the duties of your major professor is to help get you a position. (Traditionally, that is the duty of a major professor.)

There are, however, a number of things you can do with a history degree without teaching, and Mark hit upon some of them.

Good luck.

I'm finishing up my BA in History through AMU and they have a Grad History degree. I believe tuition is $275/credit and you pay for books. I'm pleased with AMu so far - might want to check it out.

Oh, and one other thing. The program that you eventially enroll in should be both reading and writing intensive. That is, besides the textbook (if any) of each class, there should be a heavy load of additional readings and papers (both research and essays) as part of the class load.

The more rigorous classes are what attract the most positive attention of you, the student, for graduate school admissions departments and potential employers.

A good reason why so many graduates of various history programs wear glasses or contacts.

quote:

Originally posted by M_Wood51:
That is, besides the textbook (if any) of each class, there should be a heavy load of additional readings and papers (both research and essays) as part of the class load.

I believe this is true of any "social science" Masters program. Each of my CJ courses had numerous books (not textbooks) along with the aforementioned research papers, journal articles, and other source materials. While only taking two courses a semester, I had to read for at least two hours practically every night.

In my experience, the level of reading, writing, researching, and citing (APA, MLA, etc.) is what separates graduate study from undergraduate study. The education is really in the reading and researching and how you apply this knowledge through writing.

History was my minor and I would love to earn a Masters in it, but I don't believe my wife is too keen on me starting another degree program any time soon since I just graduated