Overview
The University of Massachusetts Boston was founded in 1964 to provide superb educational opportunities for the people of the commonwealth, especially those of the greater Boston area. Since its founding, the University has demonstrated a deep commitment to serving students and the community. Situated on a peninsula reaching into Dorchester Bay and Boston Harbor, the campus is easily accessible by both public and private transportation. The campus consists of eight connected buildings on about 100 acres of waterfront property. A new Campus Center provides enhanced student services and various student and community venues. Life at the University is as rich and varied as the city of Boston itself. Students on campus can attend plays, musical recitals, films, and lectures; use outstanding specimen collections and facilities for research; navigate the bay in one of the University’s sailboats; or conduct research on the various harbor islands and at the University’s field station on Nantucket Island.

Of the 2,650 graduate students enrolled, approximately 70 percent are women. Reported members of minority groups represented some 31 percent of the total student population. About 11 percent of the campus’s total graduate student population was made up of international students. The mean graduate student age was 31.

The Location and Community
UMass Boston’s proximity to the educational, professional, and cultural riches of Boston’s urban milieu provides resources that greatly enhance students’ educational experience.

Programs of Study and Degree Requirements
The University of Massachusetts Boston (UMass Boston) offers master’s and doctoral degree programs through the Graduate College of Education, the McCormack Graduate School for Policy Studies, and the Colleges of Liberal Arts, Science and Mathematics, Management, Nursing and Health Sciences, and Public and Community Service. The Master of Arts (M.A.) is awarded in American studies, applied linguistics (with three tracks: bilingual education, English as a second language, and foreign language pedagogy), critical and creative thinking, dispute resolution, English, history (with three tracks: history, historical archaeology, and teaching history), and applied sociology. The B.A./M.A. accelerated program in applied sociology allows UMass Boston students to earn both a bachelor’s degree in their field of interest and a master’s degree in sociology in five years. The Master of Education (M.Ed.) degree is offered in counseling, educational administration, instructional design, school psychology, special education (with a track in teaching the visually impaired), and teacher education. The Master of Science degree (M.S.) is offered in biology, biotechnology and biomedical science, chemistry, computer science, environmental sciences, gerontology, human services, nursing, physics (applied), and public affairs. The Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) is offered in business administration. The B.A./M.B.A. accelerated program allows students to earn both a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts and the M.B.A. in five years. A Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study (C.A.G.S.) is offered in counseling, educational administration, and school psychology. The Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) is offered in clinical psychology, computer science, environmental sciences (with four tracks: environmental, coastal, and ocean sciences; environmental biology; green chemistry, and molecular, cellular, and organismal biology; an intercampus degree program in marine science and technology is also offered), gerontology, nursing, and public policy. The Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) is offered in higher education administration and urban schools leadership. Additional doctoral programs are being developed. Graduate certificates in adapting the curriculum frameworks, biotechnology, critical and creative thinking, database technology, dispute resolution, forensic services, instructional technology design, family nurse practitioner (advanced certificate), gerontological adult nurse practitioner (advanced certificate), orientation and mobility, and women in politics and public policy are also offered.

Facilities & Resources
The University holds a collection of more than 575,000 volumes and subscribes to 3,120 domestic and international journals and newspapers. The Joseph P. Healey Library is centrally located on the campus, easily accessible from the bridgeway connecting all buildings. UMass Boston is a member of the Boston Library Consortium, which includes the libraries of Boston College, Boston University, Brandeis University, Brown University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northeastern University, Tufts University, all five campuses of the University of Massachusetts, Wellesley College, and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. Graduate students may use materials on site at any of these libraries and are eligible for cards granting borrowing privileges at these institutions. UMass Boston’s Computing Services provides students with seven-day-a-week access to desktop labs with some 250 Dell Pentium III and Apple McIntosh G4 computers, as well as other specialized, course-related facilities. A wide variety of information technology and data communications resources are available, with network connections in every office and classroom. The campus network is fiber-optic based, with ATM protocol. Computing Services houses equipment from Data General, Dell, Compaq, Sun, and Apple and operating systems include NT, UNIX, Linux, Apple OS, and VMS. Wide-area access to worldwide computing and information resources is provided through Internet services. The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, a public institution for education and research, stands on the coastal edge of the campus. Designed by the architectural firm of I. M. Pei, the facility was established to preserve and provide access to the documents and memorabilia of President Kennedy and his contemporaries in politics and government. Its archival collections contain approximately 28 million pages of documents, 6.5 million feet of film, and more than 100,000 still photographs. The JFK Library is linked to the University by a series of educational programs enabling students and their instructors to share its rich resources. The Archives of the Commonwealth are also adjacent to the UMass Boston campus, and members of the University community benefit greatly from this additional rich repository of research materials covering the past three centuries.

Expenses and Aid
Academic year costs for a full-time student (twelve state-supported courses per semester for two semesters) were $9,845 for Massachusetts residents and $19,920 for residents of other states and international students. This estimate included both mandatory fees and tuition and did not include one-time, course-related, and optional fees; medical insurance; room and board; transportation; or books.

Financial Aid:
Assistantships carrying stipends and tuition waivers are available to qualified full-time graduate students in all programs. The Office of Financial Aid Services assists students through the Federal Work/Study, Federal Perkins Loan, and Federal Stafford Student Loans programs. UMass Boston uses the FAFSA. A limited number of tuition waivers are available to international students who have completed at least one semester of study..

Housing/Living Expenses:
The University of Massachusetts Boston does not have on-campus housing, and all students are responsible for their own living arrangements. However, referral assistance is available from the campus’s Office of Student Housing.

How to Apply / Application
Deadlines for submission of domestic applications and application fees ($50 for Massachusetts residents and $60 for all others) range from January 1 to June 1 for fall semester (September) enrollment, and from October 1 to November 1 for spring semester (January) enrollment. Some programs have specific earlier or later deadlines. For many programs, submission of GRE scores is required. The M.B.A. program requires GMAT scores. Other programs, especially in education, require the Miller Analogies Test (MAT).

International Students
The Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) is required of all applicants from countries whose native language is not English. Unless otherwise specified, completed applications from international students must be received by UMass Boston by May 1 for September enrollment and October 1 for January enrollment.

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