Bentley University Overview

Bentley University is a private not-for-profit institution situated in Waltham, Massachusetts. The city atmosphere of Waltham makes it a great place for students who enjoy having lots of educational and entertainment options.

What Is Bentley University Known For?

• The 1% student loan default rate at Bentley is better than the national rate of 10.1%. That's a good sign that you may be able to pay off student loans easier than your peers at other schools can.
• The highest award offered at Bentley is the doctor's degree.
• For the 2017-2018 academic year, 66% of the faculty were full-time.
• A student who earns a bachelor's degree from Bentley makes roughly $86,900 a year. This is 113% more than their peers from other colleges and universities.
• It takes the average Bentley student 4.1 years to graduate. This is pretty good when compared to the national rate of 4.4 years.

Bentley University Rankings

Bentley is ranked #27 out of 2,320 schools in the nation for overall quality on our 2021 Best Colleges list. This puts it in the top 5% of all schools in the nation. Out of the 63 colleges in Massachusetts, it is ranked at #5.

Our rankings are based on an outcomes-based approach rather than subjective ones used by other media outlets. As such, we utilize data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and the College Scorecard, among other sources. Visit our rankings and methodology section to learn more.

Bentley has also been awarded the following overall awards by our latest rankings.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#15	Best Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#17	Best Graduate Certificate Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#18	Best Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Program Level Awards

These are highlights of some of the most noteworthy awards granted to specific programs at Bentley.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#1	Best Business/Corporate Communications Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#1	Best Human Computer Interaction Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#1	Best Sustainability Science Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#2	Best Liberal Arts / Sciences & Humanities Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#2	Best Liberal Arts General Studies Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#2	Best International Studies Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#3	Best Multi / Interdisciplinary Studies Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#6	Best Marketing Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#7	Best Accounting Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#9	Best Business, Management & Marketing Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Awards From Around the Web

The following table lists some notable awards Bentley has earned from around the web.

Rank	Ranking Name	Source
#1	Best Colleges for Business, Management & Marketing	College Factual
#1	Best Colleges for Other Business, Management & Marketing	College Factual
#1	Best Colleges for Accounting	College Factual
#1	Best Colleges for Management Sciences & Quantitative Methods	College Factual
#4	Best Colleges for Liberal Arts / Sciences & Humanities	College Factual
#20	Best Business Schools	Business Degree Central

Where Is Bentley University?

Contact details for Bentley are given below.

	Contact Details
Address:	175 Forest St, Waltham, MA 02452-4705
Phone:	781-891-2000
Website:	www.bentley.edu
Facebook:	https://www.facebook.com/bentleyuniversity
Twitter:	https://twitter.com/bentleyu

How Do I Get Into Bentley?

You can apply to Bentley online at: www.bentley.edu/undergraduate

Admission Requirements for Bentley

Submission	Required?
High School GPA	recommended
High School Rank	recommended
High School Transcript	required
College Prep Program	required
Recommendations	required
SAT or ACT Scores	required
TOEFL	required

How Hard Is It To Get Into Bentley?

You'll need to do what you can to make your application stand out if you plan to apply to Bentley. The school screens its applicants carefully and has a fairly low acceptance rate of 44%. So, don't just throw your admission packet together at the last minute!

Approximately 59% of accepted students are men and 41% are women. The acceptance rate for men is 42%, and the acceptance rate for women is 48%.

Average Test Scores

About 66% of students accepted to Bentley submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 590 and 670. Math scores were between 620 and 710.

Bentley received ACT scores from 39% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT English scores ranged between 26 and 32. Math scores were between 27 and 31. Composite scores were between 27 and 31.

Can I Afford Bentley University?

The overall average net price of Bentley is $52,484. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group.

The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.

Student Loan Debt

Almost 66% of college students who graduated with the class of 2018 took out student loans, but that percentage varies from school to school. At Bentley, approximately 50% of students took out student loans averaging $7,319 a year. That adds up to $29,276 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at Bentley is 0.9%. 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.

Bentley University Undergraduate Student Diversity

There are 4,228 undergraduate students at Bentley, with 4,177 being full-time and 51 being part-time.

There are also 1,086 graduate students at the school.

Gender Diversity

Of the 4,177 full-time undergraduates at Bentley, 59% are male and 41% are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

The racial-ethnic breakdown of Bentley University students is as follows.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	367
Black or African American	144
Hispanic or Latino	309
White	2,395
International Students	688
Other Races/Ethnicities	274

Geographic Diversity

Massachusetts students aren't the only ones who study at Bentley University. At this time, 33 states are represented by the student population at the school.

Over 95 countries are represented at Bentley. The most popular countries sending students to the school are China, India, and Venezuela.

Online Learning at Bentley University

In 2017-2018, 53 students took at least one online class at the school.

The following chart shows how the online learning population at Bentley has changed over the last few years.

This school is the 34th most popular in Massachusetts for online learning according to the online graduations recorded by the Department of Education for the academic year 2017-2018.

Online Growth Rankings of Bentley

The average growth rate over the last four years of online students at Bentley University was 699.6%. This is the #120 largest growth rate of all schools that are only partially online. This refers to all students at Bentley regardless of major.

The following table shows the 1-year growth rate of Bentley majors that offer at least one online course. This table only includes majors with positive growth.

Major	1-Year Growth Rate
Multi / Interdisciplinary Studies	4%

The table below shows how the average growth rate over 4 years at Bentley ranks compared to all other partially online schools that offer a specific major. Note that the majors may or may not be offered online at Bentley.

Major	Growth Rate Rank
Taxation	#1
Human Computer Interaction	#1
Finance & Financial Management	#2
Multi / Interdisciplinary Studies	#4
Business Administration & Management	#32
Business, Management & Marketing	#40

When we speak of partially online, we are referring to schools whose online population is less than 50% of its total student body. Mostly online refers to those with online populations greater than or equal to 50%.

Bentley University Undergraduate Concentrations

The table below shows the number of awards for each concentration.

Major	Bachelor’s	Graduate Certificate	Master’s	Doctor’s	TOTAL
Accounting	194	27	113	0	334
Business Administration & Management	169	2	105	6	282
Finance & Financial Management	235	8	31	0	274
Management Sciences & Quantitative Methods	24	12	163	0	199
Other Business, Management & Marketing	119	0	0	0	119
Marketing	114	0	0	0	114
Liberal Arts General Studies	86	0	0	0	86
Computer Information Systems	33	0	45	0	78
Taxation	0	13	49	0	62
Business/Managerial Economics	44	0	0	0	44
Human Computer Interaction	0	0	43	0	43
Applied Mathematics	0	0	30	0	30
Business/Corporate Communications	24	0	0	0	24
Information Technology	23	0	0	0	23
Mathematics	11	0	0	0	11
General Sales & Marketing	10	0	0	0	10
International Studies	8	0	0	0	8
Communication & Media Studies	6	0	0	0	6
Public Policy	4	0	0	0	4
General English Literature	1	0	0	0	1
Sustainability Science	1	0	0	0	1
Romance Languages	0	0	0	0	0
Public Health	0	0	0	0	0
History	0	0	0	0	0
Legal Support Services	0	0	0	0	0
Philosophy	0	0	0	0	0
TOTAL	1,106	62	579	6	1,753

References

*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.

• College Factual
• National Center for Education Statistics
• Image Credit: By Rob1646 under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.