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Emerson College Data & Information Overview

89 awards Ranking Badges
Great Price Value for Your Money
45% Acceptance Rate
Want the scoop on Emerson College? We’ve put together a comprehensive report on the school that covers what majors Emerson offers, how the school ranks, how diverse it is, and much more.
All you need to do to learn more about a stat is click on its tile, and you’ll be taken to another page that analyzes that data more closely. Also, you can use the links below to scroll to any section of this page.

How Well Is Emerson College Ranked?

#179 Best Colleges in Nation
#17 Best Colleges in MA
Journalism Highest Ranked Major
Quality Badge

2024 Rankings

College Factual analyzes over 2,000 colleges and universities in its annual rankings and ranks them in a variety of ways, including most diverse, best overall quality, best for non-traditional students, and much more.

Emerson College was awarded 89 badges in the 2024 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is journalism.

Explore Best Ranked Schools for You

Explore the best ranked schools for the programs you are most interested in.

Overall Quality

Emerson landed the #179 spot in College Factual's 2024 ranking of best overall colleges in the United States. The higher ed experts analyzed 2,217 colleges and universities across the nation to determine this ranking. This puts it in the top 10% of all schools in the nation.

Emerson is also ranked #17 out of 63 schools in Massachusetts.

See all of the rankings for Emerson College.

Is It Hard to Get Into Emerson?

45% Acceptance Rate
72% Of Accepted Are Women
28% Submit SAT Scores

Acceptance Rate

If you're applying to Emerson College you'll face some tough competition, since the school's acceptance rate is only 45%. Definitely don't wait until the last minute to submit your application, since applying early may be in your favor.

Average Test Scores

About 28% of students accepted to Emerson submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 620 and 710. Math scores were between 580 and 690.

SAT Reading and Writing Scores for Emerson College  ( 620 to 710 )
200
800

SAT Math Scores for Emerson College  ( 580 to 690 )
200
800
Emerson received ACT scores from 12% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT Composite scores ranged between 28 and 32.

ACT Composite Scores for Emerson College  ( 28 to 32 )
1
36

Learn more about Emerson College admissions.

Emerson College Faculty

13 to 1 Student to Faculty
37% Full Time Teachers

Student to Faculty Ratio

The student to faculty ratio at Emerson College is about average at 13 to 1. This ratio is often used to gauge how many students might be in an average class and how much time professors will have to spend with their students on an individual level. The national average for this metric is 15 to 1.

Percent of Full-Time Faculty

Another measure that is often used to estimate how much access students will have to their professors is how many faculty members are full-time. The idea here is that part-time faculty tend to spend less time on campus, so they may not be as available to students as full-timers.

The full-time faculty percentage at Emerson College is 37%. This is lower than the national average of 47%.

Full-Time Faculty Percent  37 out of 100
0
100

Retention and Graduation Rates at Emerson College

87% Freshmen Retention
79% On-Time Graduation Rate

Freshmen Retention Rate

The freshmen retention rate of 87% tells us that most first-year, full-time students like Emerson College enough to come back for another year. This is a fair bit higher than the national average of 68%. That's certainly something to check off in the good column about the school.

Freshmen Retention Rate  87 out of 100
0
100

Graduation Rate

Students are considered to have graduated on time if they finish their studies within four years. At Emerson the on-time graduation rate of first-time, full-time students is 79%. That is great when compared to the national average of 33.3%

On-Time Graduation Rate  79 out of 100
0
100

Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Emerson College.

Emerson College Undergraduate Student Diversity

3,626 Full-Time Undergraduates
25.8% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
62.9% Percent Women

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 3,708 undergraduates at Emerson with 3,626 being full-time and 82 being part-time.

How Much Does Emerson College Cost?

$45,171 Net Price
51% Take Out Loans
$49,528 Total Student Loans
The overall average net price of Emerson is $45,171. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group. See the table below for the net price for different income groups.

Net Price by Income Group for Emerson

$0-30 K $30K-48K $48-75 $75-110K $110K +
$34,171 $38,632 $37,774 $45,320 $50,810

The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.Note that the net price is typically less than the published for a school. For more information on the sticker price of Emerson, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.

Student Loan Debt

It's not uncommon for college students to take out loans to pay for school. In fact, almost 66% of students nationwide depend at least partially on loans. At Emerson, approximately 51% of students took out student loans averaging $12,382 a year. That adds up to $49,528 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at Emerson is 3.2%. This is significantly lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, which is a good sign that you'll be able to pay back your student loans.

Get more details about paying for Emerson College.

How Much Money Do Emerson Graduates Make?

$56,676 Avg Salary of Grads
High Earnings Boost
Although some majors pay more than others, students who graduate from Emerson with a bachelor's degree go on to jobs where they make an average salary of $56,676 in their early years. That's great news for Emerson students since it is 33% more than the average college graduate's salary of $42,485 per year.

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See which majors at Emerson College make the most money.

Location of Emerson College

Massachusetts State
3,626 Full-Time Undergraduates
Large City Campus Setting
Located in Boston, Massachusetts, Emerson College is a private not-for-profit institution. Boston is a great location for students who prefer city over country life.

Get more details about the location of Emerson College.

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Contact details for Emerson are given below.

Contact Details
Address: 120 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02116-4624
Phone: 617-824-8500
Website: www.emerson.edu/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/EmersonCollege
Twitter: http://twitter.com/EmersonCollege

Emerson College Majors

16 Majors With Completions
1,005 Undergraduate Degrees
458 Graduate Degrees
During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 16 majors graduated from Emerson College. Of these students, 1,005 received undergraduate degrees and 458 graduated with a master's or doctor's degree. The following table lists the most popular undergraduate majors along with the average salary graduates from those majors make.

Most Popular Majors Bachelor’s Degrees Average Salary of Graduates
Film, Video & Photographic Arts 356 $28,409
Writing Studies 133 $30,525
Drama & Theater Arts 118 $22,766
Journalism 114 $38,675
Marketing 84 $44,510
Public Relations & Advertising 51 $42,632
Communication & Media Studies 41 $38,439
General Business/Commerce 40 NA
Other Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies 35 NA
Teacher Education Subject Specific 15 NA

Learn more about the majors offered at Emerson College along with which ones have the highest average starting salaries.

Online Learning at Emerson

26% Take At Least One Class Online
15% Take All Classes Online

Online learning is becoming popular at even the oldest colleges and universities in the United States. Not only are online classes great for returning adults with busy schedules, they are also frequented by a growing number of traditional students.

In 2020-2021, 1,534 students took at least one online class at Emerson College. This is a decrease from the 2,242 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year Took at Least One Online Class Took All Classes Online
2020-2021 1,534 889
2019-2020 2,242 780
2018-2019 493 348
2017-2018 129 85
2016-2017 49 24

Learn more about online learning at Emerson College.

If you’re considering Emerson College, here are some more schools you may be interested in knowing more about.

Curious on how these schools stack up against Emerson? Pit them head to head with College Combat, our free interactive tool that lets you compare college on the features that matter most to you!

Notes and References

Footnotes

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

References

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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