The region of New England -- which includes Vermont, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Maine -- is home to 157 colleges, universities and other institutions that offer graduate education. To help students find the grad school that meets their educational needs, this article compares a few of the region's universities using NCES statistics.
Highly Ranked Schools in New England
Highly rated schools typically earn their ranks because the offer a superior quality of education, which can be attractive for prospective graduate students. For New England students, their region is home two of the highest rated and most famous schools in the country Harvard University in Cambridge, MA (#3) and Yale University in New Haven, CT (#3). The following New England schools are public and private schools that ranked high on the 2022 U.S. News and World Report list of the best national schools.
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA (#2)
- Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH (#12)
- Brown University in Providence, RI (#13)
- University of Connecticut in Storrs, CT (#67)
- University of Massachusetts in Amherst, MA (#67)
Largest Schools in New England
Whether you are looking for a greater variety of academic courses or networking opportunities, you may be interested in going to a larger school. Using the NCES statistic for student population we can compare schools by size. Here are the largest schools in the area that offered graduate degrees in 2021.
- Southern New Hampshire University (145,533 enrolled students)
- University of Connecticut (26,876 enrolled students)
- Harvard University (31,345 enrolled students)
- University of Massachusetts-Amherst (32,045 enrolled students)
- Boston University (36,104 enrolled students)
Lowest Tuition
Prospective grad students who may feel overwhelmed by the cost of advanced education should look into financial aid options, such as loans, scholarships and assistantships. It may also help to look into schools with lower graduate tuition rates. The following universities had the lowest 2021-2022 in-state graduate tuition among the compared schools, according to the NCES.
- Framingham State in Framingham, MA ($1,680 in-state)
- Westfield State University in Westfield, MA ($1,890 in-state)
- Bridgewater State University in Bridgewater, MA ($1,675 in-state and out-of-state)
- Salem State University in Salem, MA ($2,520 in-state)
- Western Connecticut State University in Danbury Haven, MA ($7,674 in-state)
Highest Graduation Rate
Of the profiled universities, those below have some of the highest undergraduate-graduation rates, according to the NCES. Data on full-time undergrads who entered programs in fall 2013 and finished them within 150% of normal time was used to determine these rates. While not directly tied to graduate-graduation rates, these graduation stats offer a way to gauge the educational quality offered by colleges and universities.
- Harvard University (97% undergraduate-graduation rate)
- Yale University (97% undergraduate-graduation rate)
- Brown University (96% undergraduate-graduation rate)
- Williams College (95% undergraduate-graduation rate)
- Dartmouth College (95% undergraduate-graduation rate)
Here, we discussed a few factors to consider when looking for graduate schools in New England to either help you get started or refine your search.
