However, we strongly recommend that all prospective majors, including those who had A.P. European or American history in high school, take one of the seminars for first-year students. Thereafter we ask each student majoring in History to structure his or her major within a set of general requirements. Each student is expected to gain considerable depth and sophistication in the history of a civilization or region such as East Asia, Europe, Latin America, or the United States. The student is also asked to do coursework in the history of two other cultural areas. Every major takes part in our junior year colloquium on the methods and traditions of historical study.
All majors take at least one research seminar in their junior or senior year.
These seminars concentrate on the student's own research and the evaluation of his or her research and writing by the rest of the class. Finally, the senior comprehensive exercise gives the student the opportunity to reflect upon the central questions of his or her major either in a senior thesis or an interpretive essay. Most members of the History faculty are fluent in at least one other language besides English, and several are native speakers of other languages. The department strongly encourages students to gain mastery of other languages and enthusiastically supports their travel and study in other countries. Many History majors participate in programs sponsored by Carleton or by the Associated Colleges of the Midwest that are located in the Czech Republic, France, Switzerland, Japan, India, Sri Lanka and Italy.