University of Pittsburgh

Undergraduate Program

Requirements for the Major

The major consists of 30 credits. See distribution below. Qualified history majors are encouraged to apply for the departmental honors program. In addition, all students should consider the options of study abroad, applying for internships, and acquiring foreign language and computing skills to enhance their degrees.

Students should consult the A&S Bulletin for more details.

The major consists of 30 credits, distributed as follows:

At least one history course in each of the following categories: 12 credits
  • Pre-1500 (see select list*)
  • U.S. survey (HIST 0600, 0601, 0670, or 0671)
  • European survey (HIST 0100, 0101, 0200, or 1240)
  • One course in African or Middle Eastern, Asian, East European, Latin American, or Russian history
One required seminar for majors (HIST 1000 OR 1001) 3 credits
Four history courses to form a concentration 12 credits
Majors must take four courses beyond the core courses. These courses will be selected by the student with the undergraduate advisor to form a focused area of study. Such areas may be chronological, geographic, or thematic and normally should be declared during the junior year.
One elective history course 3 credits
Total 30 credits

NB: Fifteen of the 30 credits must be from upper-level (1000 level) undergraduate courses. Students must maintain an overall QPA of 2.0.

For an idea of the content of some of our undergraduate courses, click here for the course syllabus