History Major degree completion worksheets and catalog information

Requirements for a History Major (without Secondary Certification)

Students majoring in history are required to complete at least 39 credit hours, including a course in writing history (HST 200 - Writing History), any three 200-level foundation courses, six 300-level electives, two junior seminars, and the Capstone.

Requirements for a History Major (with Secondary Teaching Certification)

Students majoring in history with secondary teaching certification are required to complete at least 39 credit hours, including a course in writing history (HST 200 - Writing History), the four World (HST 203 - World History to 1500 A.D. and HST 204 - World History since 1500) and American (HST 205 - American History to 1877 and HST 206 - American History since 1877) foundation courses, and the Capstone. Students pursuing teacher certification must also take SST 310 and six 300-level electives in history.

B.A. or B.S. Degree Requirements

Students planning to enter a program of graduate study in history should earn a B.A. degree. Candidates for the B.A. degree must demonstrate third-semester proficiency in a foreign language, either by completing successfully a 201-level language course or by passing a proficiency examination in the language chosen.

History and social studies majors will have the opportunity to complete a B.S. degree. The B.S. option is designed to give students training in scientific analysis that they can apply to their careers in teaching and historical research. A B.S. in history can be fulfilled by taking the following courses. Please note that STA 215 is a prerequisite for HST 290 (or ED 370 if student is majoring in group social studies or fulfilling requirements for a Secondary Certification).

Students who choose to earn a B.S. degree must complete the following cognate sequence: STA 215, HST 290, HST 400

Students who choose to earn a B.S. degree with Secondary Certification must complete the following cognate sequence: STA 215, EDT 370, HST 290

History minor (nonteaching) worksheet and catalog information

Students who minor in history must complete at least 20 credit hours, including:

HISTORY 200

Additional Courses

The remaining six history courses must be selected and meet the following requirements: 

• No more than 3 credits can be taken at the 100-level 
• No more than 6 credits can be taken at the 200-level (exclusive of HST 200) 
• At least 9 credits must be taken at the 300- or 400-level 

Minors must maintain a GPA of at least 2.0 (cumulative) in courses in the department. 

Students may also count up to 3 credit hours of HST 490: History Internship. We encourage students to take advantage of the various faculty-led, semester and year-long study abroad opportunities offered by Grand Valley State University. History courses taken abroad may count toward the major or minor if granted prior permission by the Department of History chairperson.

Transfer students seeking a minor in history must complete at least six credits from among the Grand Valley history offerings listed in categories 1, 2, and 3.

History minor (teaching) worksheet and catalog information

To complete requirements for the teachable minor, students are required to take two (2) courses that fulfill General Education requirements from the Social Studies core and eight (8) courses that make up the teachable minor. Two elective courses are chosen from HST 211 and the department’s upper division course offerings (301-399). One of these two electives must be either European or Non-Western history; the other may be in any area of history. HST 211 counts as a Non-Western history course.

*NOTE: If you are planning a social studies major with an emphasis in history as well as a history minor, please work with your social studies advisor to ensure that you have enough unduplicated credits. In order to meet state certification requirements for nonduplication of credits in the major and the minor (36 unduplicated in a group Major and 20 unduplicated in the Minor), you may only use two history courses from the social studies major toward the history minor. 

Courses required of all minors:

• Taken in fulfillment of general education SBS requirements: GPY 235

• Taken as part of the history minor: HST 200, HST 203, HST 204, HST 205, HST 206, PLS 206, SST 310Additional Courses

Two (2) electives, at least one in European or Nonwestern History:

HST 3__ ___________
HST 3__ ___________
OR

HST 211

Minors seeking teacher certification must maintain a GPA of at least 3.0 in the minor. 

Students may also count up to 3 credit hours of HST 490 - History Internship. We encourage students to take advantage of the various faculty-led, semester and year-long study abroad opportunities offered by Grand Valley State University. History courses taken abroad may count toward the major or minor if granted prior permission by the Department of History chairperson.

Transfer students seeking a minor in history must complete at least six credits from among the Grand Valley history offerings listed in categories 1, 2, and 3.

History of Science minor worksheet and catalog information

In today’s technological society no person can be considered to be truly educated unless he or she has an understanding of the role of science in the world. The history of science program offers students the opportunity to go beyond the accumulation of scientific facts and to gain an understanding of the historical roots of science and technology as well as the interaction between scientific history and social, literary, economic, and political history. Thus, scientists can understand the history of their discipline as a part of the progress of human civilization. Nonscientists, on the other hand, can see that science is not a frightening series of facts and formulas that appeared from the chaos, fully developed in the brain of an Einstein or a Newton.

In this regard, the history of science is no different from any other branch of intellectual history. However, because new scientific theories by their very nature render earlier theories obsolete and worthless (at least to practicing scientists), interest in scientific history has been a relatively recent phenomenon.

Requirements for a Minor in History of Science

A student choosing history of science as a minor program must complete 20 hours of study in the history of science, normally including HSC 201, 202, 399, and related courses from other units. Courses not regularly offered may be available through independent study. Such a minor is not recognized as a “teachable minor.”