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Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts Data & Information Overview

38 awards Ranking Badges
Fair Price Value for Your Money
91% Acceptance Rate
If you want to know more about Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, such as what majors does it offer, how diverse it is, how well it ranks, and more, this is your one-stop resource.
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How Well Is Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts Ranked?

#1,643 Best Colleges in Nation
#60 Best Colleges in MA
General Biology Highest Ranked Major

2024 Rankings

College Factual recognizes the best colleges and universities in its annual rankings. These rankings include categories for best overall colleges, best colleges for each major, best value schools, and much more.

Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts was awarded 38 badges in the 2024 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is general biology.

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Overall Quality

MCLA is ranked #1,643 out of 2,217 schools in the nation for overall quality on College Factual's 2024 Best Colleges list. This is an improvement over the previous year, when MCLA held the #1,650 spot on the Best Overall Colleges list.

MCLA also holds the #60 spot on the Best Colleges in Massachusetts ranking.

See all of the rankings for Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.

Is It Hard to Get Into MCLA?

91% Acceptance Rate
63% Of Accepted Are Women

Acceptance Rate

With an acceptance rate of 91%, MCLA has a fairly liberal admissions policy. However, don't just assume you'll get in! Put together a good application and make sure you include all requested documents and materials.

Learn more about Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts admissions.

Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts Faculty

9 to 1 Student to Faculty
65% Full Time Teachers

Student to Faculty Ratio

At MCLA, the student to faculty ratio is an excellent 9 to 1. That's much better than the national average of 15 to 1. This indicates that many classes will probably be small, and students will have ample opportunites to work closely with their professors and classmates.

Percent of Full-Time Faculty

In addition to the student to faculty ratio, some people look at what percentage of faculty members are full-time as a sign of how much time professors will be able to spend with their students. This is because part-time teachers may not be be on campus as much as their full-time counterparts.

The full-time faculty percentage at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts is 65%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Full-Time Faculty Percent  65 out of 100
0
100

Retention and Graduation Rates at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts

63% Freshmen Retention
52% On-Time Graduation Rate

Freshmen Retention Rate

The freshmen retention rate tells us what percentage of first-year, full-time students choose to continue on to their sophomore year at a particular school. The rate at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts is 63%, which is about average when compared to the national rate of 68%.

Freshmen Retention Rate  63 out of 100
0
100

Graduation Rate

The on-time graduation rate for someone pursuing a bachelor's degree is typically four years. This rate at MCLA for first-time, full-time students is 52%, which is better than the national average of 33.3%.

On-Time Graduation Rate  52 out of 100
0
100

Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.

Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts Undergraduate Student Diversity

931 Full-Time Undergraduates
25.6% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
61.3% Percent Women

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 1,076 undergraduates at MCLA with 931 being full-time and 145 being part-time.

How Much Does Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts Cost?

$15,627 Net Price
97% Take Out Loans
$19,536 Total Student Loans
The overall average net price of MCLA is $15,627. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group. See the table below for the net price for different income groups.

Net Price by Income Group for MCLA

$0-30 K $30K-48K $48-75 $75-110K $110K +
$12,317 $10,413 $16,502 $18,614 $19,391

The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.Note that the net price is typically less than the published for a school. For more information on the sticker price of MCLA, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.

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 MCLA, approximately 97% of students took out student loans averaging $4,884 a year. That adds up to $19,536 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at MCLA is 3.4%. 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.

Get more details about paying for Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.

How Much Money Do MCLA Graduates Make?

$47,107 Avg Salary of Grads
High Earnings Boost
The pay for some majors is higher than others, but on average, students who graduate with a bachelor's degree from MCLA make about $47,107 a year during their first few years of employment after graduation. This is good news for future MCLA graduates since it is 11% more than the average college graduate's salary of $42,485 per year.

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See which majors at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts make the most money.

Location of Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts

Massachusetts State
931 Full-Time Undergraduates
Town Campus Setting
Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts is a public institution situated in North Adams, Massachusetts. North Adams is a great place for students who enjoy small town life.

Get more details about the location of Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.

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Contact details for MCLA are given below.

Contact Details
Address: 375 Church Street, North Adams, MA 01247-4100
Phone: 413-662-5000
Website: https://www.mcla.edu/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/MCLA/82654875561
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MCLA_EDU

Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts Majors

22 Majors With Completions
284 Undergraduate Degrees
32 Graduate Degrees
During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 22 majors graduated from Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. Of these students, 284 received undergraduate degrees and 32 graduated with a master's or doctor's degree. The following table lists the most popular undergraduate majors along with the average salary graduates from those majors make.

Most Popular Majors Bachelor’s Degrees Average Salary of Graduates
Business Administration & Management 39 $31,172
Other Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies 35 $34,231
General English Literature 30 $24,617
General Psychology 23 $28,438
Computer Information Systems 18 $64,895
Sociology 15 $31,798
Allied Health Professions 15 NA
Health Sciences & Services 14 NA
General Visual & Performing Arts 14 $20,169
History 13 NA

Learn more about the majors offered at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts along with which ones have the highest average starting salaries.

Online Learning at MCLA

31% Take At Least One Class Online
4% Take All Classes Online

Online learning options are becoming more and more popular at American colleges and universities. Online classes are great for students who have busy schedules or for those who just want to study on their own time.

In 2020-2021, 310 students took at least one online class at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. This is a decrease from the 957 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year Took at Least One Online Class Took All Classes Online
2020-2021 310 40
2019-2020 957 80
2018-2019 349 103
2017-2018 344 100
2016-2017 483 123

Learn more about online learning at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.

If you’re considering Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, here are some more schools you may be interested in knowing more about.

Curious on how these schools stack up against MCLA? Pit them head to head with College Combat, our free interactive tool that lets you compare college on the features that matter most to you!

Notes and References

Footnotes

*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.

References

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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