History Major

Being a SUNY Cortland history student means you will learn what makes people tick. Sure, most of them are dead, but the dead tell some fantastic stories. Are you ready to listen?

Career Potential

  • Professional schools such as law, journalism and library science
  • Museums
  • Government (National Park Service, federal agencies, public policy)
  • Heritage tourism
  • Documentarians and Digital storytellers
  • Business
  • Non-profit agencies and organizations

What Do Historians Become?

  • Visionaries
    Learn to see and make sense of the past. Historians breathe life into old documents.
  • Entrepreneurs
    Cultivate the ability to overcome research obstacles, to think on your feet, to adapt. Historians are enterprising. 
  • Problem-Solvers
    Ask the right questions and develop a plan of attack to find answers. Historians solve problems. They develop work-arounds when research trails dry up. They learn to overcome and persevere. 
  • Project Managers
    Take charge of a large research project. Learn to break it in manageable chunks and develop strategies for gathering evidence, organizing your interpretation, and presenting conclusions in ways that convince skeptics. 

Special Features

  • History Club
    Students at Crop Walk
  • Study abroad programs
  • Internships
  • History honors society
  • Individualized research projects

Get Involved

College is more than a classroom. Enhance your experience with extracurricular opportunities.

Student Club

History Club

  • Plan movie nights, community events and field trips to historic sites.

Honor Society

Phi Alpha Theta

Next Steps

Contact Us

Office: Old Main, Room 212-B
Phone: 607-753-2723
Fax: 607-753-5598

Fast Facts

History faculty and majors showed their theatrical talents when together they performed historic one acts for SUNY Cortland’s Transformations.

Twenty students and faculty kayaked, canoed and paddle boarded at Camp Huntington in Raquette Lake during the department’s annual student-faculty retreat.

Type of Degree

Bachelor of Arts (B.A.)
Credit Hours: 120

Excellence

We recognize excellence in our students with awards and scholarships.

  • Walter Hanchett Award – Highest G.P.A. for a Senior History Major
  • Outstanding Paper in Historical Methods
  • Leonard F. Ralston Award – Highest G.P.A. for a Junior History Major
  • Outstanding Senior Seminar Paper

See all scholarship opportunities

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