Graduate school may be a critical step in your higher education, whether you are interested in expanding your knowledge, learning a specialization, or earning advanced credentials required by your profession. The best graduate schools in Massachusetts offer advanced degrees, such as master’s and doctoral degrees, as well as opportunities for independent research, mentorships, and professional networking.
Some of the most talked about universities in Massachusetts are its private schools, including Boston University, Harvard University, Northeastern University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which also happen to be the largest. Tuition for these prestigious schools runs between $50,000 and $54,000. Students here have access to some of the top programs in the country in fields such as biology, literature, law, education, engineering, and religious studies. The alumni from New England schools are equally as impressive, including Martin Luther King Jr., Bill Gates, and Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Find college admissions consultants in your state.
The public higher education institutes also boast top-notch programs, allowing students to pursue associate, bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in fields like mathematics, social work, medicine, and economics. The University of Massachusetts Amherst, the state’s largest public university, offers tuition around $16,000 and serves over 28,000 students. Additionally, students who are interested in attending a religiously affiliated school have 17 options to choose from, most of which feature high graduation rates for their students. For future dental, medical, or mental health professionals, Massachusetts also offers loan forgiveness programs for those working in underserved communities.
As the port of destination for the Mayflower, home to the Plymouth colony, and site of the Salem Witch Trials, Massachusetts looms large in United States history, but this most populous New England state isn’t just for history buffs. The Bay State is also known for its delicious cuisine, beautiful coastlines, and devout sports fans. Not to mention, it has over 100 colleges for students to choose from.
Find a program that’s right for you and explore the best schools Massachusetts has to offer.
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The people affiliated with a school are ultimately what make it great. This is why influence gets at the heart of what is truly best in education. At the undergraduate level, the best colleges and universities are those with the highest concentration of influence. Our Concentrated Influence metric adjusts overall influence by size of undergraduate student body, thus allowing smaller schools to compete with larger schools so long as they have proportionately as strong influential faculty and alums.
But at the graduate level, the combined influence score of a college or university’s top academic influencers is the best indicator of academic excellence. Overall influence, and not influence controlled by other variables, thus becomes the best gauge of academic excellence at the graduate level. Where smaller size is an advantage at the undergraduate level (hence Concentrated Influence), graduate studies benefit from a large and vibrant community of graduate students, who promise to become the new generation of academic influencers.
If you are serious about finding the best graduate schools, you should be asking where the most influential professors are teaching, and whether their graduates themselves are advancing the school’s reputation for academic excellence. Most ranking sites rely on an opaque combination of reputation surveys and arbitrary performance metrics. Influence, as measured by our InfluenceRanking engine, provides a ranking that is free from bias, insulated from manipulation, and reflective of real-world educational outcomes.
Find out more about our methodology here.
Less There are 23 doctorate-granting universities in Massachusetts, 20 of which satisfy our criteria. The best graduate schools below are composed of both private and public schools that satisfy the following four conditions:
Tuition + fees
$52K
Acceptance
5%
Graduation
98%
Student body
25K
Median SAT/ACT
1515/34
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Harvard University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$54K
Acceptance
7%
Graduation
96%
Student body
14K
Median SAT/ACT
1540/35
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Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$56K
Acceptance
20%
Graduation
89%
Student body
33K
Median SAT/ACT
1425/32
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Boston University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$59K
Acceptance
16%
Graduation
94%
Student body
10K
Median SAT/ACT
1465/33
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Tufts University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$57K
Acceptance
33%
Graduation
89%
Student body
7K
Median SAT/ACT
1435/31
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Brandeis University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$16K
Acceptance
65%
Graduation
83%
Student body
28K
Median SAT/ACT
1290/29
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University of Massachusetts Amherst’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$54K
Acceptance
20%
Graduation
90%
Student body
23K
Median SAT/ACT
1465/33
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Northeastern University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$58K
Acceptance
26%
Graduation
92%
Student body
13K
Median SAT/ACT
1420/32
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Boston College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$54K
Acceptance
37%
Graduation
87%
Student body
3K
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Smith College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$47K
Acceptance
47%
Graduation
75%
Student body
3K
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Clark University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$16K
Acceptance
75%
Graduation
69%
Student body
15K
Median SAT/ACT
1235/26
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University of Massachusetts Lowell’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$52K
Acceptance
59%
Graduation
89%
Student body
7K
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Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$52K
Acceptance
58%
Graduation
90%
Student body
5K
Median SAT/ACT
1320/29
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Bentley University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$40K
Acceptance
86%
Graduation
60%
Student body
6K
Median SAT/ACT
1115/23
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Suffolk University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$42K
Acceptance
83%
Graduation
79%
Student body
5K
Median SAT/ACT
1200/26
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Simmons University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$29K
Acceptance
84%
Graduation
60%
Student body
4K
Median SAT/ACT
1105/23
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Lesley University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$38K
Acceptance
89%
Graduation
64%
Student body
3K
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Western New England University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$39K
Acceptance
63%
Graduation
73%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1120/23
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Springfield College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$34K
Acceptance
70%
Graduation
79%
Student body
5K
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Endicott College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$37K
Acceptance
69%
Graduation
44%
Student body
3K
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American International College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$15K
Acceptance
80%
Graduation
49%
Student body
13K
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University of Massachusetts Boston’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$14K
Acceptance
76%
Graduation
52%
Student body
7K
Median SAT/ACT
1090/21
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University of Massachusetts Dartmouth’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
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