College profile
Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts
MA · Public · Fringe town · 1,543 applicants 2023
A parent's read
- The payoff holds even at full price: roughly 5× over a decade. With no aid at all — the full in-state ~$26,026/yr — a decade of median earnings (~$48,102/yr) still runs about 5× the four-year cost. This payoff doesn't depend on qualifying for anything. (Out-of-state costs more.)
- Ask the submit question deliberately. This college is test-optional — but at many such colleges, applicants who submit strong scores are admitted at meaningfully higher rates. “Optional” is a strategy decision, not a pass.
Composed from this page's data — every claim is backed by a number in the sections below.
Parent/student verdict
AccessibleAccessible for most applicants. Affordable — net price averages ~$16,068/yr among aid recipients. Major value play for in-state residents.
Best for
- In-state residents (tuition ~$12,436 — major value play)
- Families wanting a small liberal-arts experience
Verdict is composed from this college's structured data (admit rate, SAT bands, net price with aid and at full price, Carnegie classification, scholarship grids) using transparent rule thresholds — not a chat-bot's opinion.
What are your child's odds here?
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Institutional snapshot
What kind of college is this?
Source: federal IPEDS Admissions 2023 for scores + admit rate; federal College Scorecard (20260606 vintage) for earnings + outcomes. SAT/ACT bands are the 25th–75th percentile of enrolled submitters.
Outcomes & cost
What graduates actually earn, finish, and owe.
Federal College Scorecard data. Earnings are median annual income measured years after entering. Debt is for federal-aid borrowers only (cash-pay students aren't counted).
The real cost
What Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts actually costs
Which side your family lands on isn't set by any national income line — it's set by Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts's own aid decision: the gap between its price and your family's finances.
Your odds + estimated cost across your whole college list, side by side.
The payoffTen years of typical graduate pay minus four years of cost — how many dollars ahead a typical graduate runs by year ten. Check both the full-price and with-aid versions to see which applies to you; median pay reflects who a college admits and what they study as much as the college itself., both ways
+$377K ahead at full price +$417K with aidSource: College Scorecard (average net price among Title IV first-time, full-time undergraduates who received aid) and each college's published cost of attendance. We don't show the federal net-price-by-income brackets: their categories were fixed in 2008 and never adjusted, and none of the averages is your family's own number — the full story. Payoff = (10-yr median earnings × 10) − (4 years of cost), in dollars — how far ahead a typical graduate runs by year ten; medians travel with the students a college admits and the majors they choose as much as with the college itself. Full price is the published cost of attendance, largely in-state for publics; earnings are 10 years after enrollment, all majors combined.
What students study here
Most popular majors at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts
Top 5 fields of study by bachelor's degrees awarded (most recent IPEDS Completions). Use this to see what Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts actually graduates — not just what it markets.
What those majors earn here
Median earnings 4 years after entry, by major — Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts's own graduates, not national averages.
| Major (CIP) | 4-yr earnings |
|---|---|
| Computer and Information Sciences, General. | $87,671 |
| Business Administration, Management and Operations. | $53,753 |
| Biology, General. | $52,808 |
| Psychology, General. | $49,826 |
| Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies, Other. | $47,162 |
| Sociology. | $44,136 |
| Arts, Entertainment, and Media Management. | $42,983 |
| English Language and Literature, General. | $39,955 |
Sources: IPEDS Completions (C2023_a; bachelor's-level first majors, 2-digit CIP family — share is of the top 5 only) · College Scorecard program-level outcomes (PP-FOS). Full college-vs-major comparison: /college-outcomes →
Student body & economic mobility
Who attends here — and what the campus adds.
Opportunity Insights data. It measures two things at once: how many lower-income students a college enrols, and how many of them reach the top earnings quintile later. A high rate says the college does both — it does not establish that the campus caused the earnings, because the students it admits differ from the students it doesn't. Read it as a signal about access and destination, not as proof of value added.
Full leaderboards: /college-mobility →
AI program signal
AI + computing education at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts
Full multi-lens comparison: /ai-colleges →
Alternatives to Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts
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Feeder high schools
Which high schools send graduates to Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts?
Enrolled — from the schools' matriculation lists
3 high schools publish a numbered matriculation list — where their graduates actually enrolled, counted, in the school's own School Profile — and name Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts on it. Between them they printed 3 enrolled graduates. Ranked by graduates per class year enrolling at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, from each school's own published list: the number that school printed, divided by the class years its list covers. The published total and the school's own years label are shown beside every school, so a one-year list and a five-year list can sit on the same page. A list whose class years we cannot read is not divided by a guess — it is listed below with its total instead.
Admitted — from the schools' acceptance lists
1 high schools publish a numbered list of college acceptances — where their graduates were admitted, not where they enrolled — and name Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts on it. Between them they printed 1 admissions. Ranked by admissions per class year to Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, from each school's own published acceptances list: the number that school printed, divided by the class years its list covers. Admits are counted at each college a student was admitted to, the same way the UC Reach Score counts a student admitted to three UC campuses three times — so this is a count of admissions, not of students. The published total and the school's own years label are shown beside every school, and a list whose class years we cannot read is listed below with its total rather than divided by a guess.
All 4 feeder schools, ranked →
Counted from each school's own published document, linked on that school's page. A high school that is not here does not publish a numbered list we could read — that is all absence means, and it says nothing about its graduates. Where a school publishes both, the two lists are shown separately: an acceptances list is not a list of enrollments, and the two are never added together.
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At a glance
JSON · Using this page with an AI assistantMassachusetts College of Liberal Arts is a public four-year college in MA. It admitted 92% of applicants (1,543 applied, 2023). Test policy: Test-optional.
Cost: about $16,068 a year on average with aid, $26,026 a year at full price for in-state students.
Median earnings ten years after entry: $48,102 a year. Payoff, meaning ten years of that pay minus four years of cost: $416,748 ahead with aid, $376,916 ahead at full price.
Highest median earnings four years after the degree, by program: Computer and Information Sciences, General ($87,671); Business Administration, Management and Operations ($53,753); Biology, General ($52,808).
Economic mobility (Opportunity Insights): 8% of students came from families in the bottom fifth of income, and 18% of those reached the top fifth as adults.
High schools that publish a numbered matriculation list and name Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts: 3, 3 enrolled students between them — ranked by graduates per class year, most often All Saints Academy (0.2 per class year, 1 over 5 class years, CLASSES 2022-2026); The Cambridge School Of Weston (0.2 per class year, 1 over 5 class years, Classes of 2022-2026); Vermont Academy (0.2 per class year, 1 over 6 class years, Matriculation List (2021-2026)). Each figure is the number that school printed divided by the class years its own list covers; the totals and years are shown. These are the schools that publish such a list, not every school that sends students; full list: https://highschoolreach.com/leaderboards/feeder-schools/massachusetts-college-of-liberal-arts.
High schools that publish a numbered list of college acceptances naming Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts: 1, 1 admissions between them — ranked by admissions per class year, most often Key School (0.2 per class year, 1 over 6 class years, 2021 - 2026, counted column "Acceptances 2021–2026"). Admits are counted at each college, so this counts admissions, not students. These are a different set of documents from the matriculation lists above and the two are never added together; full list: https://highschoolreach.com/leaderboards/feeder-schools/massachusetts-college-of-liberal-arts.
Machine-readable version of this page: https://highschoolreach.com/colleges/massachusetts-college-of-liberal-arts.json