Massachusetts Hall at Harvard University
Old Chapel at the University of Massachusetts Amherst with the W. E. B. Du Bois Library in the background
There are 114 colleges and universities in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that are listed under the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education .[ 1] These institutions include fourteen research universities , twenty-one master's universities , and thirty-four special-focus institutions . Eighty-five of Massachusetts' post-secondary institutions are private, of which five are for-profit . Thirty of the state's post-secondary institutions are public, a number which excludes the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , which was founded by the Morrill Land-Grant Acts , but later became a private institution.[ 2] [ 3] [ 4]
Harvard University is the state's oldest post-secondary institution, having been founded in 1636.[ 5] Boston University is the state's largest institution of higher learning in terms of enrollment, having 32,603 students in the fall of 2013 while Conway School of Landscape Design is the state's smallest college with an enrollment of 18.[ 6] [ 7] [ 8] The University of Massachusetts Amherst is the state's largest public university, with an enrollment of 28,518 students.[ 9] Massachusetts is also home to a number of internationally recognized universities, including Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which are ranked among the top ten universities in the world.[ 10] [ 11] [ 12]
The University of Massachusetts Amherst is the state's sole public land-grant university , and is the flagship institution of the University of Massachusetts system.[ 13] There are also eleven Catholic post-secondary institutions, including Boston College , the College of the Holy Cross , and Stonehill College . There are also two Judaic post-secondary institutions in Massachusetts, including Brandeis University and Hebrew College . The state has four medical schools, Boston University School of Medicine , Harvard Medical School , the University of Massachusetts Medical School , and Tufts University School of Medicine . There are nine law schools, which are accredited by the American Bar Association , including Boston College Law School , Harvard Law School and the University of Massachusetts School of Law .[ 14] One hundred and seven of Massachusetts post-secondary institutions are officially recognized by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC), while most are accredited by multiple higher education accreditation agencies .
A tree map depicting the relative size of Massachusetts post-secondary institutions by share of total degrees awarded across the state. Data from the 2014
NCES IPEDS report published by the
Department of Education [ 15]
^ "Institution Lookup" . Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education . Archived from the original on 12 July 2016. Retrieved 5 January 2016 .
^ Kneeland, Samuel (March 1859). "Committee Report:Conservatory of Art and Science" (PDF) . Massachusetts House of Representatives, House No. 260. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 June 2010. Retrieved 29 September 2014 .
^ Stratton, Julius Adams; Mannix, Loretta H. (2005). "The Land-Grant Act of 1862". Mind and Hand: The Birth of MIT . MIT Press . pp. 251–276. ISBN 978-0-262-19524-9 .
^ "Morrill Act:Primary Documents of American History" . Library of Congress . 2016. Archived from the original on 16 February 2016. Retrieved 10 February 2016 .
^ "About Harvard" . Harvard University . Archived from the original on 20 August 2014. Retrieved 20 August 2014 .
^ "Timeline" . Boston University . Archived from the original on 10 March 2015. Retrieved 20 August 2014 .
^ "College Navigator - Boston University" . U.S. Department of Education National Center for Education Statistics. Archived from the original on 2014-05-12. Retrieved 2014-05-12 .
^ "College Navigator - Conway School of Landscape Design" . U.S. Department of Education National Center for Education Statistics. Archived from the original on 2014-05-19. Retrieved 2014-05-18 .
^ "College Navigator - University of Massachusetts-Amherst" . U.S. Department of Education National Center for Education Statistics. Archived from the original on 2014-08-20. Retrieved 2014-08-20 .
^ "Best Global Universities Rankings" . US News . 29 October 2015. Archived from the original on 22 October 2016. Retrieved 29 December 2015 .
^ "World University Rankings" . Times Higher Education . 30 September 2015. Archived from the original on 31 October 2016. Retrieved 8 January 2016 .
^ "Top 200 universities in the world - the table" . The Guardian . 15 September 2015. Archived from the original on 17 January 2016. Retrieved 8 January 2016 .
^ "Map of Land-Grant Colleges and Universities" (PDF) . United States Department of Agriculture , Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 August 2014. Retrieved December 9, 2016 .
^ "ABA-Approved Law Schools by Year" . American Bar Association . Archived from the original on October 20, 2021. Retrieved August 20, 2014 .
^ "The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System" . Archived from the original on 2021-02-04. Retrieved 2016-07-21 .