Prospective applicants must hold at least a Bachelor degree from an accredited institution. Undergraduate work should include a focus on the Humanities, but no specific major is required. Some language preparation is highly desirable. The Department of History recruits and admits all students to the Ph.D. track, the Department does not grant stand-alone or terminal Master degrees. Have earned at least a 3.0 GPA on a 4.0 scale in your undergraduate degree. The TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language). A department code is not necessary, but you can use 5101 if needed. Any score below 600 (paper-based), 250 (computer-based) or 80 (Internet-based) is questionable. The IELTS (International English Language Testing System) does not have or use institution codes. The minimum acceptable IELTS score is 7.0.

Scores from the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) are required from all Ph.D. applicants. We are not able to waive this requirement. Applications received without a GRE score will not be considered. The Notre Dame Graduate School requires the GRE General Test, which includes verbal, analytical writing, and quantitative examination sections. When added together, an applicant's combined Verbal plus Quantitative GRE score must be over our 300 minimum in order for their application to be reviewed.