History at Georgetown University

A Georgetown history degree commands a surprisingly high starting salary of nearly $50,000—60% above the national median for history majors and ranking in the 95th percentile nationwide. But here's the DC reality check: that salary lands in just the 60th percentile locally, trailing both American and George Washington University history grads. Georgetown's elite admissions (13% acceptance rate, 1494 SAT average) and D.C. location create strong career network effects, yet the program doesn't dominate its immediate competition the way you might expect from a school of this caliber.

The debt picture offers genuine relief: Georgetown history graduates leave with just $16,640 in median debt, roughly one-third of their first-year earnings and substantially below both national and D.C. medians. That 0.33 debt-to-earnings ratio means manageable monthly payments that won't derail other financial goals—a critical advantage for a humanities degree that rarely leads to six-figure salaries.

The major asterisk here is the small sample size (under 30 graduates tracked), which means one or two outliers could be skewing these numbers significantly. Even with that uncertainty, Georgetown's combination of low debt and above-average earnings makes this a defensible choice for a genuinely passionate history student who understands they're optimizing for intellectual development rather than earning potential. Just don't assume the Georgetown name alone will deliver premium outcomes in D.C.'s competitive job market.