History Department

Programs and Course Descriptions

Faculty

The History Program

The History Department offers a Master’s Degree program and a sequential Master’s and Doctoral Degree program.

The Doctoral program is for students wishing to earn both an M.A. and Ph.D. at William & Mary. Students will receive instruction in teaching techniques and have opportunities to serve as Teaching Assistants and to teach their own courses under the supervision of faculty. Ph.D. students receive full funding (tuition, fees, and stipend) for six years.

The Master’s program is a small and intensive program where students earn their M.A. in one year. Applicants to the M.A. program may apply for apprenticeships in archives and manuscript collections, editing scholarly books and William and Mary Quarterly articles, various aspects of public history, and digital humanities.

Students who begin the M.A./Ph.D. program with a William & Mary Master’s Degree in hand will go directly to the second year of the M.A./Ph.D. program.

Admission

William & Mary uses an online application system. Applicants must submit official transcripts, three letters of recommendation, and a writing sample. Submission of GRE scores is optional. If English is not your first language, your Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or International English Language Testing System (IELTS) scores are required and must be sent directly to William & Mary by the Educational Testing Service or IELTS. The TOEFL/IELTS requirement can be waived for applicants who have received a degree from a college or university in which English is the primary language of instruction. A transcript is required as evidence of successful instruction in English as a primary language. For full consideration, completed applications must be submitted by December 5 for Fall admissions for the M.A. and Ph.D. programs. Applications submitted after the program’s deadline may be evaluated if space is available. Minimum requirements for admission include an overall academic average of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale and the completion of 24 semester hours of work in history. Additional hours in history and course work in a language other than English are highly recommended.

Part-time students are not eligible for financial support.

Programs and Course Descriptions

Programs

Courses

History

Description of Courses

Courses listed in this catalog are not offered every academic year.

Unless otherwise noted, all courses are graded using standard grading [A, B, C, D, F] scheme (See Grading and Academic Progress in the section entitled Graduate Regulations) and may not be repeated for credit (See Repeated Courses requirements in the section entitled Graduate Regulations).

History GRAD

GRAD 999 - Continuous Enrollment