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.
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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.
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?
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.
Can I Afford Emerson College?
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 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
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.
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