Emerson College acceptance rate and your odds of getting in

Emerson College, a private college in Massachusetts, reports a 51% acceptance rate and sits in the moderately selective band. In practice that means it admits more applicants than it rejects, so a strong application is judged against an applicant pool that is already self-selected.

Use this page to see what Emerson College weighs, where it ranks among Massachusetts schools, and how a profile like yours is likely to land. Admitted students post a 75th-percentile SAT around 1230, a useful checkpoint for where your scores sit, though it is a reference range and not a cutoff.

What are my chances at Emerson College with a 3.5 GPA and a 1350 SAT?

About 86% (Safety), by CollegeCalcAI's deterministic model, for an applicant with a 3.5 unweighted GPA and a 1350 SAT, the middle of Emerson College's admitted range, applying Regular Decision without a hook. A 3.8 GPA with a 1420 SAT comes out near 93%. Courses, activities, essays and the application round move the number; the free calculator includes them.

Estimates, not guarantees. Get yours with your real courses and activities. Assistants and developers can fetch this table from the free API: /api/v1/colleges/emerson-college.

There is no formula that guarantees a spot at Emerson College, but the applicants who get in tend to do the same four things. Here is what the numbers say each one looks like.

Emerson College admitted 5,267 of the 11,092 students who applied for fall 2023, which works out to 47.5%. 997 enrolled. Only about 19% of admitted students enrolled, so the school admits several students for every seat it expects to fill, which is why its acceptance rate reads higher than its selectivity feels. Emerson College enrolls about 3,870 undergraduates in total, 66% of them women, with a student-to-faculty ratio of 14 to 1.

Source: U.S. Department of Education, IPEDS 2023 admissions and enrollment.

The middle 50% of admitted students at Emerson College scored between 1270 and 1420 on the SAT (average 1358). On the ACT the middle 50% runs from 29 to 32. A score above 1420 puts you in the top quarter of admits and turns the test into an asset; a score below 1270 puts you in the bottom quarter, where the rest of the application has to carry more weight. Emerson College is test-optional: scores are considered if you submit them but not required. Send a score at or above the middle of the admitted range; otherwise apply without one and let your transcript lead.

Source: College Scorecard (U.S. Department of Education), release 2026-06-10.

The factors that carry the most weight at Emerson College are rigor of secondary school record, academic GPA, and application essay. Solid grades in a challenging schedule do most of the work here, with the rest of the application providing context. These ratings come from Emerson College's reported Common Data Set, so the full chart below reflects what the school itself says it values, not a generic guess.

Emerson College's published cost of attendance, before any aid, is roughly $80,399 per year. Tuition and fees alone are $57,056. What families actually pay is different: the average net price after grants and scholarships is $49,180 a year, and it ranges from $32,650 for families earning under $30,000 to $57,288 for families earning over $110,000. 16% of undergraduates receive a federal Pell Grant.

Source: College Scorecard (U.S. Department of Education), release 2026-06-10. Net price is what students receiving aid paid after grants, by family income.

Ten years after enrolling, the median Emerson College student who received federal aid earns $62,832 a year, up from $42,799 at six years. 77% of first-time, full-time students graduate within six years, and 87% return for a second year. Among graduates who borrowed, median federal debt at graduation is $23,000; 43% of undergraduates take federal loans.

Source: College Scorecard (U.S. Department of Education), release 2026-06-10. Earnings cover students who received federal aid.

Among the 36 Massachusetts schools we track, Emerson College ranks #18 most selective by acceptance rate. Schools like Harvard University (4%) and Northeastern University (5%) sit nearby, which makes Massachusetts a useful frame for calibrating a balanced list.

Applicants targeting Emerson College often weigh Baylor University, Providence College, and Quincy University, which sit at a similar level. Running the same profile against each one in the free calculator is the fastest way to see where you are a reach, a match, or a likely.

Acceptance rate, application counts, admitted test ranges, cost, and outcomes reflect publicly reported federal data (U.S. Department of Education: IPEDS 2023 and the College Scorecard) and each school's Common Data Set; figures are rounded and lag the current cycle by one to two years, so confirm deadlines and policies on the school's own site. The typical-admit GPA and SAT are CollegeCalcAI's modeled estimates. Estimates from CollegeCalcAI are a planning tool computed by a fixed, transparent model, not a guarantee of any admission decision.