The Hardest Colleges to Get Into in Massachusetts

Massachusetts is home to more than 75 four-year public and private, not-for-profit colleges that award bachelor’s degrees. In fact, Massachusetts ranks 7th among the states with the most colleges in the US. Massachusetts boasts several of the best colleges in the nation in terms of their academics, such as Harvard, MIT, and the Berklee College of Music. With so many colleges to potentially apply to, choosing the right college in Massachusetts can be difficult. It should be noted that the vast majority of colleges in Massachusetts are private, not-for-profit schools rather than public schools.

Depending on how good your high school grades are, how good your standardized test scores on either the SAT or ACT are, and how good your work in other important areas, such as extracurriculars and leadership positions, is, then you may want to apply to an academically competitive college. Massachusetts is home to dozens of very selective colleges that you might want to consider, especially if you live in Massachusetts and would like to attend a college that’s in your home state. 

In order to help you identify some of the top Massachusetts colleges to apply to, BrokeScholar analyzed all the schools in the state that are four-year institutions, including both public colleges and private, not for-profit colleges, that award bachelor’s degrees or higher. Sourcing the latest data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) as well as from individual college websites, we analyzed and ranked all colleges in Massachusetts in terms of how difficult they are to gain acceptance to. (See the methodology section for more details).

Read on to find out the hardest colleges to get into in Massachusetts.

What Are the Hardest Colleges to Get into in Massachusetts?

Based on our analysis of Massachusetts’s 70-plus four-year colleges, the hardest college to get into in the Bay State has an undergraduate acceptance rate of just 4%. In fact, two colleges in Massachusetts are tied for having an undergraduate admission rate of 4%. That equates to roughly 19 out of every 20 applicants to these schools not being accepted. That’s an astonishingly competitive acceptance rate, both for Massachusetts and the US as a whole. Compare that 4% acceptance rate to the average undergraduate acceptance rate for the study overall, 66%.  

After conducting our analysis of the hardest colleges to get into in Massachusetts, we trimmed down the colleges to a top-15 list. This list is composed of a solely private, not-for-profit colleges. While it’s common for private colleges to rank among the hardest colleges to get into, not having a single public college is unusual. Compare Massachusetts to the hardest colleges to get into in Michigan, where a public, four-year college ranks No. 1.

Looking at our analysis of all four-year Massachusetts colleges, the overall average graduation rate was an impressive 70%. That average graduation rate for all colleges in Massachusetts is easily one of the highest rates state-wide in the US. Equally impressive, the average graduation rate of the schools that make up the top 15 hardest colleges to get into in Massachusetts equals 93%. The No. 1 hardest college to get into in Massachusetts has a graduation rate of 97% — which is the second highest rate in the state, behind only the specialized Laboure College of Healthcare’s graduation rate of 100%.

Below you’ll find a list of the 15 hardest colleges to get into in Massachusetts, listed in order of lowest acceptance rate to highest acceptance rate. Also included in the breakdown below are costs of tuition and required fees (though required fees does not include room and board).

Based on our analysis, the hardest college to get into in Massachusetts is a tie between Harvard University and MIT, which both have an undergraduate acceptance rate of a mere 4%. Out of the 15 hardest colleges to get into in Massachusetts, 10 colleges have acceptance rates of less than 20%. This is very different from, say, the hardest colleges to get into in Ohio, where the most selective college has an acceptance rate of 25%. 

Beyond Harvard University and MIT, the top-15 list is filled with very competitive, with none of them have acceptance rates of 50% or higher. Here’s detailed breakdown of the hardest colleges to get into in Massachusetts:

1. Harvard University

Total number of applicants: 57,786

Harvard University acceptance rate: 4%

Tuition and required fees: $57,461

Undergraduate student gender breakdown: 51% Female - 49% Male

Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University  is a private Ivy League research university, founded in 1636 as Harvard College and making it the oldest institution of higher learning in the US, not to mention one of the most respected and top-ranked universities in the world. With an undergraduate population of over 9,500, Harvard University received a remarkable 57,786 applications in the 2021-2022 academic year. Of that, only 4% — less than 1 in 20 people — were accepted. This makes Harvard tied with No. 2 MIT as the hardest colleges to get into in Massachusetts. Harvard also boasts a graduation rate of 97%, which bests MIT’s respective graduation rate of 96%.

2. MIT

Total number of applicants: 33,240

MIT acceptance rate: 4%

Tuition and required fees: $57,590

Undergraduate student gender breakdown: 48% Female - 52% Male

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, not far from Harvard. Founded in 1861, MIT has played a critical role in the development of modern technology and science and is easily one of the most esteemed and highly ranked academic institutions in the world. Given all that, it shouldn’t be surprising that MIT is tied with Harvard for having the most selective undergraduate admission rate of 4%. What’s more impressive is that 86% of those accepted choose to enroll, so declining an admission to MIT is a rarity. MIT also sports a graduation rate of 96%. And for all this, MIT actually has more affordable tuition and required fees than many of the other hardest colleges to get into in Massachusetts, at approximately $57,590 per academic year.

MIT offers degrees on the bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral level. According to NCES data, the most popular study fields to earn a degree in include:

• Bachelor’s degrees: 359 awarded in Computer Science; 133 awarded in Mechanical Engineering; 70 awarded in Mathematics, General; 50 awarded in Physics, General; and 48 awarded in Bioengineering and Biomedical Engineering.
• Master’s degrees: 599 awarded in Management Science; 250 awarded in Computer Science; 205 awarded in Systems Engineering; 112 awarded in Mechanical Engineering; and 74 awarded in Electrical and Electronics Engineering.
• Doctoral degrees: 49 awarded in Computer Science; 48 awarded in Electrical and Electronics Engineering; 45 awarded in Mechanical Engineering; 39 awarded in Chemistry, General; and 37 awarded in Physics, General.

3. Amherst College

Total number of applicants: 13,999

Amherst College acceptance rate: 7%

Tuition and required fees: $64,100

Undergraduate student gender breakdown: 51% Female - 49% Male

Amherst College is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts, founded back in 1821 and is the third oldest institution of higher education in Massachusetts. With an undergraduate acceptance rate of only 7%, fewer than 9 applicants in 10 get accepted to Amherst College. The school has an undergraduate population of over 1,900, making it one of the smaller schools on our list of the hardest colleges to get into in Massachusetts. Amherst is entirely composed of undergraduates and thus awards only bachelor’s degrees. These include 35 majors to choose from, according to the college’s departments page. Some of the most popular fields of study in which to earn a bachelor’s degree, according to NCES data, include:

• Bachelor's degrees: 40 awarded in Mathematics, General; 34 awarded in Econometrics and Quantitative Economics; 31 awarded in Research and Experimental Psychology, Other; 30 awarded in Computer Science; and 25 awarded in Political Science and Government, General.

4. Williams College

Total number of applicants: 12,452

Williams College acceptance rate: 8.5%

Tuition and required fees: $61,770

Undergraduate student gender breakdown: 52% Female - 48% Male

Williams College is a private liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Founded in 1793, it is the second-oldest institution of higher education in Massachusetts after Harvard. Williams College often competes with Amherst College in terms of being the best liberal arts colleges in Massachusetts, as well as the US in general. With an undergraduate acceptance rate for the Class of 2026 of 8.5%, Williams College is just a tad more accepting of applicants than Amherst College. However, Williams College has Amherst College beat in terms of graduation rates, with the former having a 94% graduation rate to the latter’s 92%.

Williams College awards two levels of degrees, bachelor’s and master’s degrees. With an undergraduate population of over 2,100 and a total student population of over 2,200, Williams College is primarily an undergraduate school. However, this small size allows for an excellent student-to-teacher ratio of 6 to 1, which means students receive lots of attention from their instructors during their studies.

5. Tufts University

Total number of applicants: 31,198

Tufts University acceptance rate: 11%

Tuition and required fees: $65,222

Undergraduate student gender breakdown: 55% Female - 45% Male

Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts, originally founded in 1852 as Tufts College. Initially a small liberal arts college, Tufts is now classified as a "Research I university", which denotes the highest level of research activity. Its highly selective 11% undergraduate acceptance rate attests to its well-known academic excellence, not to mention its 94% graduation rate. 

Tufts University has an undergraduate population of nearly 6,700 and a total student population of over 13,000, which means there’s a great deal of graduate students who attend the college. It should thus come as no surprise that Tufts has a vast academic structure of multiple subsidiary schools and colleges, including one of the best veterinary schools in the US:

• School of Arts and Sciences
• Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
• Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
• Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine
• School of Dental Medicine
• School of Engineering
• The Fletcher School
• Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy
• School of Medicine
• School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University
• Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life
• University College

6. Wellesley College

Total number of applicants: 7,663

Wellesley College acceptance rate: 16%

Tuition and required fees: $61,920

Undergraduate student gender breakdown: 99% Female - 1% Male

Wellesley College  is a private women's liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Established in 1870 by Henry and Pauline Durant as a female seminary, it is a member of the original Seven Sisters Colleges, an unofficial grouping of elite current and former women's colleges in the northeastern United States. To this day, Wellesley College is overwhelmingly a women’s college, with an undergraduate gender breakdown of 99% female to 1% male. With an undergraduate acceptance rate of 16%, Wellesley College is one of the most highly selective colleges in Massachusetts. It also boasts an exceptional graduation rate of 92%.

Wellesley College is solely comprised of undergraduate students, with a little over 2,400 of them. As such, it only awards bachelor’s degrees. According to NCES data, the most popular fields of study to earn a degree in include:

• Bachelor’s degrees: 80 awarded in Econometrics and Quantitative Economics; 42 awarded in Computer and Information Sciences, General; 39 awarded in Research and Experimental Psychology, Other; 36 awarded in Biology/Biological Sciences, General; and 34 awarded in Neuroscience.

7. Olin College of Engineering

Total number of applicants: 907

Olin College acceptance rate: 18%

Tuition and required fees: $60,766

Undergraduate student gender breakdown: 52% Female - 48% Male

The Olin College of Engineering, or officially Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, is a private college focused on engineering and located in Needham, Massachusetts. What’s unique about Olin is that the college covers half of each admitted student's tuition through the Olin Scholarship. This is a major boon to students attending Olin College considering its cost of tuition and required fees is in excess of $60,000 per academic year. But that cost buys you one of the best engineering educations in the country. Hence why Olin College has an undergraduate admission rate of just 18%, not to mention an incredible graduation rate of 97%.

8. Northeastern University

Total number of applicants: 75,244

Northeastern University acceptance rate: 18%

Tuition and required fees: $60,892

Undergraduate student gender breakdown: 54% Female - 46% Male

Northeastern University is a private research university with its main campus in Boston and is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity", making it one of top research colleges in Massachusetts alongside Tufts University. Though it’s a private, not-for-profit college, it has a sizeable undergraduate population of more than 15,700 students; it has a total student population of over 28,000. With an undergraduate acceptance rate of 18%, Northeastern University is tied with Olin College as one of the hardest colleges to get into in Massachusetts. However, Olin College bests Northeastern when it comes to graduation rates, with the former having a 97% graduation rate to the latter’s 91%, which is still excellent.

Northeastern University awards degrees ranging from bachelor’s degrees to doctoral degrees. According to NCES data, some of the most popular fields of study to earn a degree in include:

• Bachelor’s degrees: 874 awarded in Business/Commerce, General; 415 awarded in Computer and Information Sciences, General; 240 awarded in Mechanical Engineering; 148 awarded in Econometrics and Quantitative Economics; and 140 awarded in Computer Engineering, General.
• Master’s degrees: 619 awarded in Computer Software Engineering; 318 awarded in Engineering, General; 294 awarded in Computer and Information Sciences, General; 262 awarded in Engineering, Other; and 175 awarded in Electrical and Electronics Engineering.
• Doctoral degrees: 193 awarded in Law; 102 awarded in Pharmacy; 91 awarded in Physical Therapy/Therapist; 34 awarded in Electrical and Electronics Engineering; and 17 awarded in Computer Engineering, General.

9. Boston College

Total number of applicants: 39,846

Boston College acceptance rate: 19%

Tuition and required fees: $64,666

Undergraduate student gender breakdown: 53% Female - 47% Male

Boston College is a private Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, and founded in 1863. Boston College is very popular among high school students, with the college receiving nearly 40,000 applicants a year. Less than 1 in 5 applicants, however, get accepted to Boston College. The school has a graduation rate of 91%, which is superb for a college in general, but actually puts it on the lower end of the top 15 hardest colleges to get into in Massachusetts — that’s how competitive the list is. Although Boston College offers excellent academics, it comes at a hefty price, with the cost of tuition and required fees amounting to nearly $65,000 a year. So, you’ll definitely want to apply to college scholarships if you want to go here but need help with the price tag. 

10. Boston University

Total number of applicants: 75,778

Boston University acceptance rate: 19%

Tuition and required fees: $62,360

Undergraduate student gender breakdown: 58% Female - 42% Male

Boston University is a private research university in, not surprisingly, Boston, Massachusetts. The university was founded in 1839 by Methodists, with its original campus being in Newbury, Vermont, before moving to Boston in 1867. Boston University is bigger than its fellow private, not-for-profit Boston-headquartered Boston College: BU has an undergraduate population of over 18,000, while that of BC is just around 10,000. BU also receives more applicants per year, with nearly 76,000 for the 2021-2022 academic year. Of those nearly 76,000 applicants, only 19% were accepted — the same undergraduate acceptance rate as BC. However, Boston College does beat Boston University when it comes to graduation rates: The former’s graduation rate is 91% while the latter’s rate is 89%.

11. Babson College

Total number of applicants: 7,104

Babson College acceptance rate: 22%

Tuition and required fees: $54,944

Undergraduate student gender breakdown: 43% Female - 57% Male

Babson College is a private business school in Wellesley, Massachusetts, the same locale as Wellesley College. Founded in 1919, Babson College’s primary focus is on entrepreneurship education. And this can be seen in which majors are pursued and degrees awarded. According to NCES data, the following were the  most popular fields of study to earn a degree in:

• Bachelor’s degrees: 607 awarded in Business Administration and Management, General, which was all the bachelor’s degrees conferred that academic year.
• Master’s degrees: 298 awarded in Business Administration and Management, General; 34 awarded in Management Sciences and Quantitative Methods, Other; 33 awarded in Business Administration, Management and Operations, Other; and 30 awarded in Financial Mathematics.

12. Smith College

Total number of applicants: 6,064

Smith College acceptance rate: 30%

Tuition and required fees: $58,768

Undergraduate student gender breakdown: 100% Female - 0% Male

Smith College is a private liberal arts women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith, opening its doors in 1875. It is the largest member of the historic Seven Sisters colleges, of which previously mentioned Wellesley College is also a member. To this day, Smith College remains solely a women’s college, unlike some other Seven Sisters colleges that went on to become coed over the years. Smith College remains a popular college to apply to, with more than 6,000 applicants a year, and accepts only 30% of them, so you’ll really want to perfect your college application if you’re interested in it.

13. Brandeis University

Total number of applicants: 9,796

Brandeis University acceptance rate: 39%

Tuition and required fees: $62,322

Undergraduate student gender breakdown: 59% Female - 41% Male

Located in Waltham, Massachusetts, Brandeis University is a private research university that was founded in 1948 as a non-sectarian, coed school sponsored by the Jewish community, and named after Louis Brandeis, the first Jewish US Supreme Court Justice. With an undergraduate population of nearly 3,600 and a total student population of over 5,500, Brandeis University is a solid sized private college. With an undergraduate acceptance rate of 39%, Brandeis University rejects roughly three out of five applicants, making it one of the hardest colleges to get into in Massachusetts. Its graduation rate of 88% is also better than the study’s overall average of 70%.

Brandeis University offers 44 different undergraduate majors and a comparable number of minors; it offers 44 master’s degree programs; and 18 doctoral degree programs. Another bonus of Brandeis University is that they grant credit for AP credits earned in high school.

14. College of the Holy Cross

Total number of applicants: 6,498

Holy Cross acceptance rate: 43%

Tuition and required fees: $58,360

Undergraduate student gender breakdown: 54% Female - 46% Male

College of the Holy Cross is a private, Jesuit liberal arts college in Worcester, Massachusetts, west of Boston. Established in 1843, Holy Cross is the oldest Catholic college in New England and one of the oldest in the United States. College of the Holy Cross is solely for undergraduates, having a population of a little over 3,000 students. As such, the college only awards bachelor’s degrees but it still maintains robust academic programs. When it comes to choosing a major, College of the Holy Cross offers 44 majors, many of them being Student Designed (SD) Programs. According to NCES data, some of the most popular fields of study to earn a degree in include:

• Bachelor’s degrees: 131 awarded in Economics, General; 102 awarded in Psychology, General; 88 awarded in Political Science and Government, General; 54 awarded in English Language and Literature, General; and 52 awarded in Biology/Biological Sciences, General.

15. The New England Conservatory of Music

Total number of applicants: 952

New England Conservatory of Music acceptance rate: 43%

Tuition and required fees: $55,910

Undergraduate student gender breakdown: 45% Female - 55% Male

The New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) is a private music school in Boston and is the oldest independent music conservatory in the United States as well as among the most respected in the world. Naturally, as a college specializing in music, NEC has a small student body, with a little over 420 undergraduates and a total student population of over 800 students. Though its graduation rate of 83% is the lowest of the top 15 hardest colleges to get into in Massachusetts, it is still well above the 70% average graduation rate for the study overall. Programs of study at NEC include:

• Brass
• Collaborative Piano
• Composition
• Conducting
• Contemporary Musical Arts
• Jazz
• Music History & Musicology
• Music Theory
• Percussion
• Piano
• Professional Chamber Music Programs
• Strings
• Voice & Opera
• Woodwinds

The Bottom Line on the Hardest Colleges to Get Into in Massachusetts

One of the traits that stands out most about the top 15 hardest colleges to get into in Massachusetts is that they are all private, not-for-profit colleges. Not a single public college or university came close to making this list for Massachusetts. The most selective public college in Massachusetts is the University of Massachusetts (UMass) at Amherst, which has an undergraduate acceptance rate of 66%. The least selective of our top 15 colleges still has an acceptance rate of only 43%, much less than UMass's admission rate.

Of course, by having private, not-for-profit colleges dominate the top-15 list, it means that the hardest colleges to get into in Massachusetts tend to have expensive tuitions. Tufts University, for example, has a cost of tuition and required fees in excess of $65,000 per academic year. Boston College and Amherst College aren't far behind, and 9 colleges out of the 15 have tuition and fees totaling more than $60,000 a year. These schools are not cheap.

Thus, when it comes to the hardest colleges to get into in Massachusetts, it doesn't really matter if you're an in-state resident or not, because the tuition rates will be the same. Fortunately, BrokeScholar has a massive library of college scholarships and student discounts that can help reduce the financial burden on students. Scholarships and student discounts are important because the cost of tuition and required fees do not include the costs of room and board as well as other non-mandatory fees you may encounter in your college experience.

Methodology

In order to identify the hardest colleges to get into in Massachusetts, we analyzed 78 colleges and universities in Massachusetts that fit the following criteria:

• Are four-year public or four-year private, not-for-profit institutions

• Offer bachelor's degree programs (at a minimum)

These 78 colleges and universities were sourced from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), as was data on their respective undergraduate populations, undergraduate acceptance rates, total number of applicants, and undergraduate student gender breakdown. The costs of tuition and required fees were sourced from individual college websites and reflect costs for either the 2022-2023 academic year or 2023-2024 academic year if the latter was available.