Emerson College Overview

Emerson College is a private not-for-profit institution located in Boston, Massachusetts. The location of Emerson is great for students who prefer living in an urban area.

What Is Emerson College Known For?

• The 2% student loan default rate at Emerson 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 Emerson is the master's degree.
• In 2017-2018, 45% of the faculty were full-time.
• After graduation, Emerson bachelor's degree recipients go on to jobs where they make $46,600 a year. That's about 14% more than their peers at other schools.
• It takes the average Emerson student 4.1 years to graduate. This is pretty good when compared to the national rate of 4.4 years.

Emerson College Rankings

According to our 2021 analysis, Emerson is ranked #256 out of 2,320 schools in the nation that were analyzed for overall quality. This puts it in the top 15% of all schools in the nation.

These rankings may look different from those published by other outlets, because we use an outcomes-based approach rather than a subjective one. We get our data from a number of places, including the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and the College Scorecard. For more information, check out our rankings and methodology page.

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

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#110	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 Emerson.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#1	Most Popular Film, Video & Photographic Arts Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#2	Best Publishing Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#7	Best Film, Video & Photographic Arts Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#8	Best Visual & Performing Arts Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#10	Most Popular Drama & Theater Arts Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#16	Most Popular Visual & Performing Arts Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#20	Most Popular Communication & Journalism Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#23	Most Popular English Language & Literature Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#27	Best Communication Sciences Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#29	Best Drama & Theater Arts Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Awards From Around the Web

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

Rank	Ranking Name	Source
#4	Best Colleges for Journalism	College Factual
#5	Best Colleges for Film, Video & Photographic Arts	College Factual
#12	Best Colleges for Marketing	College Factual
#14	Best Colleges for Communication & Journalism	College Factual
#19	Best Colleges for Visual & Performing Arts	College Factual
#125	Best Colleges for Business, Management & Marketing	College Factual

Where Is Emerson College?

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

How Do I Get Into Emerson?

You can apply to Emerson online at: www.commonapp.org

Admission Requirements for Emerson

Submission	Required?
High School GPA	recommended
High School Rank	recommended
High School Transcript	required
College Prep Program	required
Recommendations	required
SAT or ACT Scores	considered but not required
TOEFL	required

How Hard Is It To Get Into Emerson?

Emerson has a fairly low acceptance rate of 46%, which makes it more selective than most schools. Take time to make sure you submit all the requested materials and you prepare the application in full. You don't want to get denied right off the bat due to an incomplete application!

Approximately 32% of accepted students are men and 68% are women. The acceptance rate for men is 45%, and the acceptance rate for women is 47%.

Average Test Scores

About 69% 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 700. Math scores were between 580 and 660.

Emerson received ACT scores from 41% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT English scores ranged between 26 and 33. Math scores were between 23 and 28. Composite scores were between 26 and 30.

Can I Afford Emerson College?

The overall average net price of Emerson is $59,446. 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 Emerson, approximately 52% of students took out student loans averaging $12,481 a year. That adds up to $49,924 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at Emerson is 1.8%. 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.

Emerson College Undergraduate Student Diversity

There are 3,878 undergraduate students at Emerson, with 3,827 being full-time and 51 being part-time.

There are also 1,052 graduate students at the school.

Gender Diversity

Of the 3,827 full-time undergraduates at Emerson, 39% are male and 61% are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

The racial-ethnic breakdown of Emerson College students is as follows.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	194
Black or African American	138
Hispanic or Latino	500
White	2,270
International Students	506
Other Races/Ethnicities	219

Geographic Diversity

Massachusetts students aren't the only ones who study at Emerson College. At this time, 41 states are represented by the student population at the school.

Over 70 countries are represented at Emerson. The most popular countries sending students to the school are China, Taiwan, and India.

Online Learning at Emerson College

In 2017-2018, 129 students took at least one online class at the school.

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

This school is the 47th most popular in Massachusetts for online learning according to the online graduations recorded by the Department of Education for the academic year 2017-2018.

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

Major	1-Year Growth Rate
English Language & Literature	16%
Writing Studies	16%

The table below shows how the average growth rate over 4 years at Emerson 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 Emerson.

Major	Growth Rate Rank
Journalism	#17
Writing Studies	#70
English Language & Literature	#138
Communication & Journalism	#188

Emerson College Undergraduate Concentrations

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

Major	Bachelor’s	Master’s	TOTAL
Film, Video & Photographic Arts	460	0	460
Writing Studies	123	47	170
Marketing	108	60	168
Drama & Theater Arts	102	12	114
Journalism	66	19	85
Communication & Media Studies	39	25	64
Communication Sciences	18	40	58
Teacher Education Subject Specific	12	32	44
Publishing	0	39	39
Public Relations & Advertising	32	2	34
Business/Corporate Communications	0	20	20
Other Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies	18	0	18
Radio, Television & Digital Communication	2	10	12
General Business/Commerce	1	0	1
Music	1	0	1
Graphic Communications	0	0	0
TOTAL	982	306	1,288

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 McDonald & Gill under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.