MAJOR GUIDE · 2026
Best Colleges for History: Ranked by Graduate Salary, Not Prestige
— ranked by salary, not prestige.
We rank by what graduates actually earn — not by reputation surveys.
01
The ranking
sortable · by salary outcomes| Rank | School | Salary | Accept | ROI | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ① | Brown University | $62,000 | 5.2% | REACH | |
| ② | Columbia University | $62,000 | 4.2% | REACH | |
| ③ | Cornell University | $62,000 | 8.2% | REACH | |
| 04 | Dartmouth College | $62,000 | 6.2% | REACH | |
| 05 | Duke University | $62,000 | 6.8% | REACH | |
| 06 | Harvard University | $62,000 | 3.5% | REACH | |
| 07 | Johns Hopkins University | $62,000 | 7.6% | REACH | |
| 08 | New York University (NYU) | $62,000 | 9.4% | REACH | |
| 09 | Northwestern University | $62,000 | 7.1% | REACH | |
| 10 | Princeton University | $62,000 | 4.5% | REACH | |
| 11 | Stanford University | $62,000 | 3.9% | REACH | |
| 12 | UCLA | $62,000 | 9.0% | REACH | |
| 13 | University of Chicago | $62,000 | 4.8% | REACH | |
| 14 | University of Pennsylvania | $62,000 | 5.9% | REACH | |
| 15 | Yale University | $62,000 | 4.5% | REACH | |
| 16 | Georgetown University | $58,000 | 13.1% | REACH | |
| 17 | Tufts University | $58,000 | 10.1% | REACH | |
| 18 | UC Berkeley | $58,000 | 11.7% | REACH | |
| 19 | USC | $58,000 | 10.0% | REACH | |
| 20 | Georgia Tech | $54,000 | 16.5% | MATCH | |
| 21 | University of Michigan | $54,000 | 17.9% | MATCH | |
| 22 | University of North Carolina | $54,000 | 18.7% | MATCH | |
| 23 | University of Virginia | $54,000 | 16.9% | MATCH | |
| 24 | Texas A&M University | $50,000 | 29.1% | MATCH | |
| 25 | UC Irvine | $50,000 | 25.6% | MATCH | |
| 26 | UC San Diego | $50,000 | 24.5% | MATCH | |
| 27 | UC Santa Barbara | $50,000 | 27.8% | MATCH | |
| 28 | University of Florida | $50,000 | 24.0% | MATCH | |
| 29 | UC Davis | $46,000 | 41.6% | SAFETY | |
| 30 | University of Illinois | $46,000 | 43.7% | SAFETY |
Data source: IPEDS, College Scorecard.