Mount Ida College

Mount Ida College blends career-relevant education with broad-based learning in the arts, sciences and humanities to prepare students to succeed in a changing world.

Mount Ida College is a private, coeducational, baccalaureate college located eight miles west of Boston on a 72-acre campus complex in Newton, MA. Mount Ida College offers a range of baccalaureate and associate degree programs as well as a Master of Science in Management. The College offers more than 22 areas of study within four schools: the School of Applied Sciences, the School of Social Sciences and Humanities, the School of Business, and the School of Design.

The College provides an array of support services for qualified students with documented disabilities. Services for students with disabilities may include classroom accommodations, test modifications, and assistive technology. All students with documented disabilities are entitled to appropriate and reasonable accommodations. Accommodations are reviewed on a case-by-case basis each semester.

The Career Services Center provides individual career counseling, career interest and personality testing, and job search strategies. Students may request assistance in preparing resumes and practicing interviewing techniques through workshops and individual meetings. The Career Services staff works with faculty and employers to identify internship and job opportunities for Mount Ida College students and alumni.

The Wadsworth Library supports undergraduate and graduate students throughout their programs of study by providing reference help, access to print and electronic resources, instruction, and a welcoming place to study and collaborate.

The Center for Curricular Innovation and Instructional Effectiveness (CITE) provides faculty members with the opportunity to create course web sites in the Canvas Learning Management System (LMS) to enhance student learning. Students have access to technical support throughout their time at Mount Ida College.

In 1899, Mount Ida College was established as a private women’s high school, located in several Victorian mansions on Mount Ida Hill in Newton Corner. In 1907, founder Dr. George Franklin Jewett began to experiment with advanced studies in the school, which quickly evolved into one of the first junior colleges in New England. By the 1920s, the college division enrolled as many students as the secondary school. In 1939, Mount Ida College relocated to its present site, the historic Robert Gould Shaw estate in Newton. Over the next 43 years, Mount Ida College continued to develop as a post-secondary institution, attracting students from across the nation and globe.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the curriculum was influenced by the increasing demand for career and occupational training. The mission of the College at that time was to provide educational programs that would prepare graduates either to pursue careers or to transfer to four-year institutions for further education. During the following two decades, the student population continued to diversify, becoming co-educational in the 1980s. Mergers with three other institutions of higher learning resulted in continued record growth and in 1982 it opened a Senior College Division and began offering bachelor degree programs.

Over the past decade, Mount Ida College has evolved from an associate degree to a predominantly bachelor degree granting institution, enrolling students into its first graduate degree program in 2009. The College has undertaken significant new program initiatives at both the undergraduate and graduate level to expand the academic programming offerings.

Mount Ida College currently operates under three charters: its own (1899); the Chamberlayne School and Junior College (1892); and the New England Institute of Applied Arts and Sciences (1907) and is organized into the following operational areas: Office of the President, Academic Affairs, Finance, Administration, Advancement, Enrollment Management, and Student Affairs.