This is a list of colleges and universities in metropolitan Boston. Some are located within Boston proper while some are located in neighboring cities and towns, but all are within the 128/95/1 loop. This is closer to the "inner core" definition of Metropolitan Boston, which excludes more suburban North Shore, South Shore and MetroWest regions. Although larger institutions may have several schools, some of which are located in cities other than that of the main campus (such as Harvard Medical School and Tufts University School of Medicine), each institution is listed only once and location is determined by the site of each institution's main campus. Three universities—Harvard and MIT in Cambridge, as well as Tufts in Somerville—make up the "brainpower triangle" of greater Boston, a region defined by universities that have a large local and national influence. [1]
There are a total of 44 institutions of higher education in the defined region, including three junior colleges, 11 colleges that primarily grant baccalaureate and master's degrees, eight research universities, and 22 special-focus institutions. Of these, 39 are private ventures while five are public institutions (four are run by the state of Massachusetts and one is operated by the city of Quincy).
In 2023, enrollment at these colleges and universities ranged from 33 students at Boston Baptist College to 36,624 students at Boston University. The first to be founded was Harvard University, also the oldest institution of higher education in the United States, while the most recently established institution is Sattler College. All but five of these schools are accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE).
Suffolk County is located in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, in the United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 797,936, making it the fourth-most populous county in Massachusetts. The county comprises the cities of Boston, Chelsea, and Revere, and the town of Winthrop. The traditional county seat is Boston, the state capital and the largest city in Massachusetts. The county government was abolished in 1999, resulting in Suffolk County now functioning only as an administrative subdivision of state government and a set of communities grouped together for some statistical purposes. Suffolk County is located at the core of the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH Metropolitan Statistical Area as well as the greater Boston-Worcester-Providence, MA-RI-NH-CT Combined Statistical Area.
Tufts University is a private research university in Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts, United States, with additional facilities in Boston and Grafton, as well as Talloires, France. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. Tufts remained a small liberal arts college until the 1970s, when it transformed into a large research university offering several doctorates.
The University of Massachusetts is the five-campus public university system in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The university system includes six campuses, a satellite campus in Springfield and 25 smaller campuses throughout California and Washington with the University of Massachusetts Global.
Emmanuel College is a private Roman Catholic college in Boston, Massachusetts. The college was founded by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur as the first women's Catholic college in New England in 1919. In 2001, the college officially became a coeducational institution. It is a member of the Colleges of the Fenway consortium. In addition to the Fenway campus, Emmanuel operates a living and learning campus in Roxbury, Massachusetts.
The College of the Holy Cross is a private Jesuit liberal arts college in Worcester, Massachusetts. It was founded by educators Benedict Joseph Fenwick and Thomas F. Mulledy in 1843 under the auspices of the Society of Jesus. Holy Cross was the first Catholic college in New England and is among the oldest Catholic institutions of higher education in the United States.
Worcester State University (WSU) is a public university in Worcester, Massachusetts. The fourth largest of the Commonwealth’s nine Universities, WSU enrolls 4500 undergraduates and nearly 900 graduate students in more than 80 undergraduate majors and minors and 39 graduate programs.
The South Shore of Massachusetts is a geographic region stretching south and east from Boston toward Cape Cod along the shores of Massachusetts Bay and Cape Cod Bay. It is subject to varying descriptions including municipalities in eastern Norfolk and Plymouth counties. The South Shore is an affluent area. The median income of the region as of 2020 is $104,691. The median home value of the region as of 2020 is $574,831.
Greater Boston is the metropolitan region of New England encompassing the municipality of Boston, the capital of the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the most populous city in New England, and its surrounding areas. The most stringent definition of the region, used by the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, consists of most of the eastern third of mainland Massachusetts, excluding the Merrimack Valley and most of Southeastern Massachusetts, though most definitions include much of these areas and portions of southern New Hampshire.
The Tufts University School of Medicine is the medical school of Tufts University, a private research university in Massachusetts. It was established in 1893 and is located on the university's health sciences campus in downtown Boston. It has clinical affiliations with numerous doctors and researchers in the United States and around the world, as well as with its affiliated hospitals in both Massachusetts, and Maine.
The New England Association of Schools and Colleges, Inc. is an American educational organization that accredits private and public secondary schools, primarily in New England. It also accredits international secondary schools and, less frequently, high schools in other U.S. states.
Quincy College (QC) is a public community college in Quincy, Massachusetts. It is an open admission school that offers associate degrees, bachelor degrees, and certificate programs. It was founded in 1958 and enrolls approximately 3,500 students at campuses in Quincy and Plymouth, Massachusetts.
Hellenic College Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology (HCHC) is a private Orthodox Christian liberal arts college and seminary in Brookline, Massachusetts. Its mission is to educate individuals for life and service in the Orthodox Christian community; this includes men preparing for the priesthood of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese and other Orthodox Christian entities, as well as men and women for leadership roles in the church or within secular society. HCHC includes a graduate school of theology (seminary) for clerical training and education, and several undergraduate and certificate programs in business, education, literature, and other secular professions. The institution was founded in 1937 as Holy Cross Theological School in Pomfret, Connecticut, but was moved to Brookline, Massachusetts in 1947.
Bay Path University is a private university in Longmeadow, Massachusetts. Bay Path offers both all-women bachelor's degree programs and co-educational graduate programs.
Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (MCPHS) is a private university focused on health- and life-sciences education, with campuses in Boston, Massachusetts, Worcester, Massachusetts, and Manchester, New Hampshire, as well as online programs. The university provides traditional and accelerated programs of study focused on professional education in pharmacy and the health sciences.
Massachusetts Bay Community College (MassBay) is a public community college in Norfolk and Middlesex Counties. Founded in 1961, MassBay currently serves more than 4,400 full-time and part-time students on its three locations: Wellesley, Ashland, and Framingham. MassBay offers more than 70 degree and certificate programs aimed at helping students transfer to a four-year college or university or towards direct placement into a career. Massachusetts Bay Community College is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education.
Newbury College was a private college in Brookline, Massachusetts, originally founded in 1962.
Greenfield Community College (GCC) is a public community college in Greenfield, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1962 and is one of Massachusetts's 15 community colleges. The main campus, which comprises two buildings, is located in Greenfield, Massachusetts on a 107-acre property near the junction of Interstate 91 and Route 2. The school operates a satellite campus for its practical nursing program in Northampton, Massachusetts. GCC students hail from Hampshire, Franklin, and Worcester Counties in Western Massachusetts, as well as southern Vermont and New Hampshire. Many of GCC's transfer students continue on at one of Hampshire County's Five Colleges, or to one of 14 Massachusetts State Universities. GCC is the largest source of transfer students to Smith College.
North Shore Community College is a public community college in Massachusetts with campuses in Danvers and Lynn. The college offers over 80 associate degree and certificate programs to approximately 10,000 students a year from the 26 cities and towns along the coastal region from north metropolitan Boston to Cape Ann. North Shore Community College is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education.
Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It has an area of 48.4 sq mi (125 km2) and a population of 675,647 as of the 2020 census, making it the third-largest city in the Northeastern United States after New York City and Philadelphia. The larger Greater Boston metropolitan statistical area has a population of 4.9 million as of 2023, making it the largest in the New England division and the eleventh-largest in the country.