What Are the Most Popular Colleges in Massachusetts

Massachusetts is home to more than 100 degree-granting colleges and universities packed into a state smaller than many single counties out west, so “popular” can mean several different things depending on what a family is actually asking. Are you asking which schools enroll the most students, which ones show up most often on a college list, or which ones carry the name recognition that makes relatives nod approvingly at Thanksgiving? Each question has a different answer, and conflating them is one of the most common mistakes we see when families start building a list. Below, we break Massachusetts colleges down by enrollment size, by the elite liberal arts consortium that anchors much of the state’s reputation, and by the kind of campus environment each option offers, and we tackle the misconception that trips up more families than any other: the idea that popularity and selectivity are the same thing.

Massachusetts Colleges at a Glance

Why Is “Popular” the Wrong Place to Start?

Families often arrive at the college search anchored to a short list of household names: Harvard, MIT, Boston College, Boston University. That instinct is not wrong, but it skips a more important diagnostic step. Before asking which schools are popular, a student should ask which environment will let them do their best work.

Part of why Massachusetts and the broader Northeast feel so competitive is historical accident rather than inherent difficulty. The perception exists largely because the Ivy League and many of the most selective colleges in the country are located there, and because the Ivies are among the oldest schools in the nation. That history created a feedback loop: older schools built reputations first, those reputations drew more applicants, and the applicant pressure came to be read as proof of superiority. But the Northeast has so many strong colleges that the idea of regional competitiveness is not fully legitimate, because the supply of high-quality options is enormous.

The practical implication is that a student who assumes “most popular” equals “best fit” risks overlooking dozens of strong Massachusetts options that would serve them better. Some students who could get into Harvard or MIT are not well served by them, because the atmosphere is intensely competitive and building relationships with professors can be difficult. A student who thrives with more faculty access and a smaller, non-urban environment might be far better served at Amherst, Williams, or Wellesley College than at a more famous research university.

Which Massachusetts Colleges Enroll the Most Students?

If popularity is measured the way most people mean it, by how many students actually attend, Massachusetts has a clear hierarchy. According to recent enrollment data, Boston University enrolls roughly 37,700 total students, making it the largest institution in the state. Northeastern University follows with about 32,600, and UMass Amherst ranks third with about 31,700 total, though UMass Amherst leads the state in undergraduate enrollment specifically, with roughly 23,900 undergraduates.

Scale alone does not tell the whole story. A student comparing Boston University’s 18,000 students (double that with grad students) to Williams College’s roughly 2,000 undergraduates is not comparing two versions of the same experience. They are comparing two fundamentally different models of higher education, and the right choice depends entirely on which model suits the student. Our guide to the difference between a research university and a liberal arts college walks through what actually changes day to day.

What Is the NESCAC, and Why Does Massachusetts Anchor the “Little Ivies”?

No conversation about popular and prestigious Massachusetts colleges is complete without the New England Small College Athletic Conference, better known as the NESCAC. Technically it is a Division III athletic conference, but the name has come to mean something much bigger in admissions. When people invoke the NESCAC, they are really thinking about eleven highly selective, generally liberal arts schools, sometimes called the “Little Ivies,” known for small classes and a focus on undergraduate education.

The eleven NESCAC schools are Amherst, Bates, Bowdoin, Colby, Connecticut College, Hamilton, Middlebury, Trinity College, Tufts, Wesleyan, and Williams, and three of them, Amherst, Tufts, and Williams, are in Massachusetts. All are on the smaller side and mostly undergraduate, with enrollment ranging from about 1,700 students up to roughly 6,900 undergraduates at the largest, which is Tufts.

The philosophy binding these schools together goes beyond athletics. NESCAC schools share a commitment to undergraduate education and a broad, liberal-arts-style curriculum, one where students learn not just a discipline but how to think, analyze, read, and communicate. Those skills are meant to be transferable across a wide range of fields and careers.

Within that shared philosophy, individual schools carve out real differences. Tufts and Trinity are the only two NESCAC colleges that grant their own engineering degree. At Tufts, engineering is a separate school from the College of Arts and Sciences, while Trinity offers it as a path within the college itself. For students looking beyond the conference, it can help to research the best engineering schools in the US to see how these programs compare to larger technical institutes. Tufts stands out in other ways too. Its affiliation with the School of the Museum of Fine Arts gives students interested in art a strong studio education alongside access to a research university, and students can earn a dual degree across the two in a five-year program. That multi-school structure sets Tufts apart from the other NESCAC schools, most of which function as a single academic entity. Curriculum flexibility is another differentiator: Amherst and Hamilton both have open curriculums, with minimal requirements outside a student’s major, so students largely design their own path.

Location is where the NESCAC schools diverge most sharply, and families often underweight it. Tufts sits just outside Boston with easy access to the city, and Trinity is located in Hartford, Connecticut, also a city environment. The rest are in smaller college town or rural settings although each should be visited as they have their own distinct social atmosphere. In general, less urban locations tend to feel like tighter communities, because what surrounds campus is often just the school and a small town, so what happens on campus is largely what makes up a student’s world.

How Do You Match a Massachusetts School to Your Student?

The right way to use popularity data is as a starting filter, not a final answer. Here is how we walk students through it.

Step 1: Diagnose the environment, not the name. The best move is to go window shop and figure out where you would be happiest, by visiting a small liberal arts college out in the countryside, an urban school with no cohesive campus, and a large university like UMass that sits in a small town of its own. A student who has physically walked all three has a far more accurate read on fit than one relying on rankings. Our breakdown of the academic elements of a good college fit is a useful framework for that self-assessment.

Step 2: Separate “selective” from “right.” Not every student is built to fight for attention at a hyper-selective school, and that is not a deficiency. A student who could get into a highly selective school should still apply if they have genuinely fallen for it, since rejection is a normal part of the process. A list where a student gets into every single school usually means the list was not built well.

Step 3: Weigh scale against access. A student drawn to Boston University’s 37,000-student energy and urban internship pipeline is optimizing for something entirely different than a student drawn to Williams College’s 2,000-person rural campus in Western Mass. Neither is more “popular” in any meaningful sense. They are popular with different kinds of students.

Step 4: Use the NESCAC as a shorthand, not a shortcut. If a student loves the small-class, discussion-heavy model that Amherst, Williams, and Tufts represent, the NESCAC list is a useful starting point for finding similar schools outside Massachusetts, such as Bowdoin, Colby, or Middlebury. But the conference label should not substitute for visiting campuses and testing fit directly.

What Mistakes Do Families Make Chasing “Popular” Schools?

• Assuming the most-applied-to school is the best fit. High application volume reflects brand recognition, not compatibility with any individual student’s learning style. Use campus visits and structural details, like curriculum flexibility or class size, to evaluate fit before application volume.

• Treating selectivity as a proxy for happiness. Some students who get into Harvard or MIT either should not go or find the competitive atmosphere makes it hard to get faculty attention. Weigh temperament, specifically whether a student thrives on competition or needs direct faculty access, before defaulting to the most selective option.

• Overlooking the urban-rural variable. Two NESCAC schools that may look close on a map, like Tufts and Amherst, offer almost opposite daily experiences because one sits just outside Boston and the other is in a smaller college town. Treat campus setting as a primary filter, equal in weight to academics.

• Building a list entirely of reach schools. If a student applies to five of the most selective schools and expects to get into all of them, the list was not built well. Balance a handful of reaches, including popular Massachusetts names if they genuinely fit, with realistic and likely options that still match the student’s needs.

Is a Massachusetts School Right for You

Massachusetts’ most popular colleges depend entirely on how you define popular. By raw enrollment, Boston University, Northeastern, and UMass Amherst lead the state. By selectivity and prestige, the conversation shifts to Harvard, MIT, and the state’s three NESCAC members, Amherst, Tufts, and Williams, along with Wellesley College, BC and BU. By cultural cachet, most families default to whichever names appear most in the news, without testing whether that school’s environment, whether an open curriculum, an urban setting, or a tight rural community, actually matches how their student learns and lives best.

The families who navigate this well resist the urge to chase a name and instead build a list grounded in campus environment, academic structure, and honest self-assessment. If you are trying to figure out which Massachusetts schools, or which schools anywhere in the Northeast, actually fit your student rather than just sound impressive on a bumper sticker, our team at Great College Advice can walk through your student’s learning style, target list, and campus visit plan together.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the largest college in Massachusetts? By total enrollment (including grad students), Boston University is the largest, with roughly 38,000 students followed by Northeastern at about 32,600 and UMass Amherst at about 31,700. UMass Amherst leads the state in undergraduate enrollment specifically, with around 23,000 undergraduates with BU and Northeastern each having just under 20,000.

What are the “Little Ivies,” and which are in Massachusetts? The “Little Ivies” are highly selective liberal arts schools most associated with the NESCAC, an eleven-member Division III conference known for small classes and a focus on undergraduate education. Three NESCAC members are in Massachusetts: Amherst, Tufts, and Williams.

Is a more popular or more selective college automatically better? No. Application volume reflects name recognition, and selectivity reflects demand, neither of which measures fit. The better question is which environment, in terms of size, setting, and academic structure, lets a particular student do their best work.

Which NESCAC schools offer engineering? Tufts and Trinity are the only two NESCAC colleges that grant their own engineering degree. At Tufts, engineering is a separate school; at Trinity, it is a path within the college. Students set on engineering often also compare these programs to larger technical institutes.

How different are urban and rural Massachusetts colleges day to day? Very. A school just outside Boston, like Tufts, gives students constant access to a major city, while a college town or rural campus like Amherst or Williams creates a tighter, more self-contained community where most of student life happens on campus. Treat setting as a primary decision factor, not an afterthought.