2023-2024 Undergraduate & Graduate Catalog
History Minor
Requirements for a Minor in History (non-teaching)
Students who minor in history must complete at least 20 credit hours, including:
Additional Courses
The remaining six history courses must be selected and meet the following requirements:
- No more than three credits can be taken at the 100-level
- No more than six credits can be taken at the 200-level (exclusive of HST 200)
- At least nine 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 three credit hours of HST 490 - History Internship. We encourage students to take advantage of the various semester- and year-long study abroad opportunities led by Grand Valley faculty members. History courses taken abroad may count toward the major or minor if granted prior permission by the Department of History chairperson.
Students may count HSC 201 or HSC 202 toward HST 200-level courses, and they may count HSC 399 toward HST 300-level courses.
Transfer students seeking a minor in history must complete at least six credits from among the Grand Valley history offerings at the 300- or 400-level.
Requirements for a Minor in History (teaching)
To complete requirements for the teachable minor, students are required to take two courses that fulfill general education requirements from the social studies core and eight courses that make up the teachable minor. Two elective courses are chosen from HST 211 and the department's upper-division courses (HST 301- HST 399). One of these two electives must be either European or non-Western history; the other course 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. 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.
Required Courses
Required to be taken in fulfillment of general education SBS requirements:
Required to be taken as part of the history minor:
- HST 200 - Introduction to the Study of History (3 credits)
- HST 203 - World History to 1500 A.D. (3 credits)
- HST 204 - World History since 1500 (3 credits)
- HST 205 - American History to 1877 (3 credits)
- HST 206 - American History since 1877 (3 credits)
- PLS 206 - American Constitutional Foundations (3 credits)
- SST 310 - Teaching Social Studies: Secondary (3 credits)
Additional Courses
Require two electives, at least one in European or non-Western history:
HST 3_ _ - ___________
HST 3_ _ - ___________
OR
HST 211 - History of Islamic Civilization (3 credits)
Minors seeking teacher certification must maintain a GPA of at least 3.0 in the minor.
Students may also count up to three credit hours of HST 490 - History Internship. We encourage students to take advantage of the various semester- and year-long study abroad opportunities led by Grand Valley faculty members. 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 one, two, and three.