What a Master’s Degree in History Entails
Higher Education Articles December 8, 2015If you have an interest in history and historical events, learn if acquiring a Master’s degree in History can quench your thirst of knowing about the past. Also, expect to learn about possible career options you can choose from, the job growth rate for this profession and other important details.
Important Details about Master’s Degrees in History
If you did an undergraduate in a social science field, and you also love writing, taking a Master’s degree program in History can be extremely easy for you. The graduate degree is often offered in various study programs such as history, archeology or museum studies.
Taking this graduate degree will enable you to gain skills that could help you land a job in archiving, historical research or in museum curating. To learn more about a Master’s degree in History, look at the table below:
| Career | Archivist | Curator | Historian |
| Education details | A Master’s degree | A Master’s degree | Master’s or doctorate degree |
| Estimated job growth rate | 17% up to 2022 | 13% up to 2022 | 6% up to 2022 |
| Median salary (2014) | $52,000 | $56,000 | $61,000 |
Possible Careers to Join
After completing a Master’s degree program in History, you can easily get any job that deals with collecting historical research for commercial or educational use. Some of these professions are described below.
Archivist
If you enroll for a Master’s degree in history and archival studies, or simply a Master’s degree program that offers archival studies, you can easily get employed to be an archivist. Archival studies mainly focus on the fundamentals of practice and theories found in archival studies. A program in this area can also help you learn about the history of archiving and recording, both of which are important skills to have once you start looking for employment.
What Archivists Do
Archivists mainly take care of historically important records and documents. They also look after historically important films, video recordings and photographs. The main reason archivists have to undergo advanced training before getting employed is because most of the materials that they take care of are extremely important and have to preserved for years.The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) estimate that an average archivist earned $52,930 in 2014 or an hourly pay of $25.34.
Curator
To be a curator, you should pursue a Master’s degree program that offer studies in archeology, museum studies or art history. Usually, a Master’s degree in museum studies can help you learn the functions and importance of museum in this digital era. On an advanced level, these studies can teach you specific curator duties like administration, museum education and collection management duties.
Curators often work in zoos, museums, botanical gardens, historical sites or in natural sites. They handle the purchase, selling or loaning of important objects.
Salary details
The BLS estimates an average salary earned by curators was $56,690 in 2014.
Historian
Finally, after pursuing a Master’s degree program in History, you can get employed to work as someone who studies, interprets and analyzes past historical events. Historians often get employed by private clients, governments or museums.
