We Are Fueling Innovation
UMass Amherst provides a world-class, accessible education. We drive positive change for the people of Massachusetts—and beyond—preparing students to take on tomorrow’s challenges and producing bold, impactful research. For 10 years, UMass Amherst has been ranked as a top public university. At No. 26, we are the only public university in New England to place in the top 30.
Attracting High-Achieving Students
As the reputation of the flagship campus continues to grow, first-year undergraduate applications have increased by more than 25 percent over the past 10 years. UMass Amherst received over 50,000 first-year applications for fall 2024, the most in our history. The number of early action applications has more than doubled over the past decade.
The average GPA of first-year students entering the university is 4.05.
An Increasingly Diverse Student Body
ALANA (African American, Latino/a, Asian/Pacific Islander, and Native American) Domestic Students
First Generation
Pell Grant Recipients
(undergraduate student body, fall 2023)
Putting Students on a Trajectory for Success
Students Returning for
a Second Year
Students Graduating within
Six Years
of Undergraduates Obtain a Career Outcome Related to Their Field of Study
Supplying Talent
UMass Amherst provides premier talent for 1,400-plus companies and organizations, including Accenture, Amazon, Apple, Baystate Health, Biogen, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Dell Technologies, Google, HubSpot, Intel, Marriott International, MassMutual, Merck, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company, and Vertex Pharmaceuticals.
Top-Ranked Faculty
ALANA (African American, Latino/a, Asian/Pacific Islander, and Native American)
Female
New Tenure-System Faculty Hired in the Past Five Years
Revolutionary Research
Research Expenditures (FY23)
Public Research University in New England
Non-Medical School R&D Expenditures
Public University in New England in NSF Awards
Research Awards (FY24)
Active Patents
of the world’s Most Highly Cited Researchers
(Clarivate Analytics, 2024)
UMass Amherst is the No. 1 public research university in New England in non-medical R&D expenditures, and holds a Carnegie Classification as a doctoral university with "very high research activity," which is the highest designation available.
The university’s research is a major contributor to the innovation economy through leadership in advanced materials and manufacturing, applied life and health sciences, data and computational science, the arts and creative economy, climate science and sustainability, and equity and inclusion.
UMass Flex is a student-centric learning model dedicated to providing students with a dynamic learning environment that adapts to their evolving needs. Students can take classes while participating in internships, service learning, and international experiences, or just be where life needs them to be while still being a UMass student.
Driving Massachusetts Forward
of the Undergraduate Student
Body is from Massachusetts
of Alumni Remain in Massachusetts,
Fueling the State's Innovation Economy
Return on State Investment
Educating More Students
UMass Amherst alone enrolls more first-year students from Massachusetts than do the commonwealth's eight top private universities (as ranked by U.S. News & World Report) combined.
Producing STEM Graduates
UMass Amherst awards more undergraduate STEM degrees than any other college or university in the commonwealth, public or private.
Highlights
UMass Amherst Places in Top 25 in Princeton Review’s 2025 Green Colleges Ranking
For the ninth consecutive year, UMass Amherst has been recognized in the The Princeton Review’s 2025 Guide to Green Colleges, ranking in the top 25 among the nation’s most environmentally responsible higher educational institutions.
UMass Amherst Astronomer Leads Science Team Helping to Develop Billion-Dollar NASA Satellite Mission Concept
Alexandra Pope, science lead for the PRIMA space telescope, is on the team developing a next-generation space probe that will explore evolution of the universe.
UMass Amherst Launches $600 Million Fundraising Campaign to Expand Educational Access and Progress for the Common Good
"Accelerate: The Campaign for UMass Amherst,” aims to support three major commitments: revolutionizing access to higher education; growing investment in cutting-edge research, teaching, and creative endeavors; and magnifying the university’s impact on the common good.
Facilities and Campus Services Complete More than 9,300 Summer Projects on Campus
During the summer in 2024, Facilities and Campus Services staff addressed needed improvements in preparation for the fall semester, completing over 9,300 individual projects, from small general maintenance jobs to major improvements impacting accessibility, classroom technology, and student wellness.
UMass Amherst Celebrates Start of Construction on $43 Million School of Public Health and Health Sciences Hub
The building will serve as the heart of SPHHS, featuring team-based classrooms, seminar and conferencing facilities, and collaboration space.
UMass Amherst Welcomes Over 5,300 First-Year Students to Campus
The class of 2028 is the most diverse in the university's history.
Martín Espada to Receive Mass Humanities 2024 Governor’s Award in the Humanities
The acclaimed poet and professor of English will receive this award that honors a select few individuals who have made a tremendous impact on the commonwealth through their work in the humanities.
New Pancreatic Cancer Treatment Proves Effective in Shrinking, Clearing Tumors
Eight of nine mice tested had tumor improvements—including two that saw their tumors completely cleared.
UMass Sustainable Engineering Laboratories (SEL) Building Design Wins Grand Prize in Embodied Carbon Reduction Challenge
The SEL building design was recognized in the New Constructions category of the Embodied Carbon Reduction Challenge, a collaboration between the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) and Built Environment Plus (BE+) aimed at promoting the reduction of carbon in building projects across the state.
Six UMass Faculty Members Selected As 2024–25 U.S. Fulbright Scholar Award Recipients
Established by Congress in 1946, the Fulbright Program is the U.S. government’s flagship program of international educational and cultural exchange. The Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program enables faculty members and administrators to teach, conduct research, and carry out professional projects in more than 135 countries around the world.
EPA Awards UMass Amherst Nearly $6.4M to Help Shrink the Steel Industry's Carbon Footprint
The researchers aim to make greenhouse gas data more transparent, trustworthy, and available.
UMass Amherst Awarded $2.1M to Advance the Science of Engagement in Community-Academic Research Partnerships
The study aims to advance the meaningful participation of underrepresented populations in health research.
UMass Amherst to Join $90M U.S. National Science Foundation Large-Scale Research Infrastructure for Education
The platform brings together institutions, digital learning, and a world-class team to enable research studies to inform efficacy, improvement, and innovation in teaching and learning.
UMass Researchers Awarded $12M to Shrink Society's Carbon Footprint with AI and Other Computer Science Tools
The initiative aims to connect previously siloed decarbonization efforts.
UMass Amherst Astronomer Leading International Effort to Understand Evolutionary Secrets of the Universe
European Space Agency’s Euclid satellite releases first unprecedented wide-view, deep-scale, near-infrared views in search for dark matter and dark energy.
New Computer Vision Tool Wins Prize for Social Impact
DISCount, created at UMass Amherst, derived from two very different needs: counts of damaged buildings in crisis zones and bird flock sizes.
UMass Amherst Researchers Join $26 Million Quantum Computing Effort to Build the Internet of the Future
UMass is leading the core effort to design architectures and protocols for quantum networking for the National Science Foundation’s Center for Quantum Networks.
UMass Amherst Team Awarded $5.5M to Accelerate Research Translation Efforts of Campus Researchers
U.S. National Science Foundation funding supports capacity building and infrastructure to accelerate translation of fundamental academic research into tangible solutions that benefit the public.
Mellon Foundation Awards UMass Amherst $2.65 Million to Expand Slavery North Initiative
Led by founding director Charmaine A. Nelson, provost professor of art history, Slavery North is a one-of-a-kind academic and cultural destination where scholars, thinkers, and artists research and build community that transforms society’s understanding of the neglected histories of trans-Atlantic slavery in Canada and the U.S. North. This is the largest Mellon grant awarded to UMass Amherst to date.
UMass Amherst Recognized as Top-Producing Institution for Fulbright U.S. Student and Scholars Program
UMass Amherst is one of only 12 institutions recognized for both the Fulbright U.S. Student Program and the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program this year. It is the only institution in Massachusetts—and one of only three in New England—to receive this distinction.
UMass Amherst to Launch $11.9 Million Academic Center for Reliability and Resilience of Offshore Wind
The U.S. Department of Energy has selected UMass Amherst to establish and lead the Academic Center for Reliability and Resilience of Offshore Wind (ARROW), a new multimillion-dollar national center of excellence to accelerate reliable and equitable offshore wind energy deployment across the nation and produce a well-educated domestic offshore wind workforce.
UMass Amherst Ranks Among Top 20 Institutions in the Nation for Online Programs
UMass Amherst’s online education programs have been recognized as among the best in the nation in the U.S. News and World Report’s 2024 rankings. Placing at No. 2 among public and private colleges and universities was the Isenberg School of Management’s online undergraduate program in business.
UMass Amherst Generates $2.9 Billion in Economic Impact for Massachusetts
The commonwealth’s flagship campus delivers a 7-to-1 return on state investment.
UMass Amherst Partnering with Indigenous Communities to Launch $30M NSF Center for Braiding Indigenous Knowledges and Science
The five-year, $30 million international science and technology center based at UMass Amherst will focus on addressing the impacts of climate change, the threats to cultural places, and the shift in our food systems.