Bentley University is a private university in Waltham, Massachusetts, United States. It was founded in 1917 as a school of accounting and finance in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood. Bentley has one undergraduate school which offers 17 business majors and 14 arts and sciences majors, as well as 39 minors. Its graduate school offers five master's degrees, an MBA with eight disciplines, and three PhD programs.
While Bentley's main campus hosts almost all of its services, the university also has another campus one mile north. The North Campus hosts four residential buildings.
Contents
History
Bentley University was founded in 1917 as the Bentley School of Accounting and Finance by Harry C. Bentley, after leaving his position as professor at the College of Business Administration at Boston University in late 1916. Thirty students attended Bentley's first class on February 26, 1917 in a room secured by Bentley at 30 Huntington Avenue. For the 1920-1921 school year, Bentley leased and had several floors of 921 Boylston Street, what now houses the admissions office of Berklee College, renovated to accommodate an expanding student population. The school operated out of other buildings around the city, but 921 Boylston became the heart of campus.
During the Great Depression, Bentley maintained a stable student population, with just a small dip during the middle of the 1930's. Between 1937 and 1941, as student population grew even more, the school rented and renovated space at 325 Newbury Street. During World War II, Bentley's student population went from an all-time high of 3,084 students in 1938-39, to a precarious 1,055 students in 1944-45. The school was kept afloat largely due to female enrollment, as the school started admitting women in 1942. Between 1942 and 1946, over 1,000 women would take classes at Bentley. Although not the first time the school became coeducational, as it did so to assist with dwindling number during World War I, this time, the school would remain coeducational permanently.
In 1948, the Bentley School of Accounting and Finance was incorporated as a non-profit organization, and Mr. Bentley donated his interests in the corporation of the school to the non-profit. To manage the new non-profit, a 27-member board of trustees was formed. All 27 original trustees, except Bentley, were Bentley alumni. In 1953, Harry Bentley stepped down as president of the Bentley School and took the role of president emeritus while Maurice Monroe Lindsay, an instructor at Bentley since the 1920s, became the second president of the school.
In 1961, the college was accredited to confer four-year Bachelor of Science degrees under president Thomas Lincoln Morison who moved the college from its Boylston Street address in Boston to its current-day location in Waltham, Massachusetts. Land for this move was purchased from the Lyman Estate in 1962 and construction to develop the campus then lasted from 1963 to 1968.
Gregory H. Adamian, a major driving force in the college's development, became the fourth president in 1970. Under his guidance, the college became accredited to confer four-year Bachelor of Arts degrees in 1971 and graduate degrees in 1973. During this time, the school also changed its name to Bentley College. In 2002, Bentley College opened up a campus in the Middle Eastern country of Bahrain in partnership with the Bahrain Institute of Banking and Finance. The college was accredited to confer its first doctoral degrees in the fields of business and accountancy in 2005. A main fixture of the campus, The Bentley Library, underwent a sweeping renovation in 2006 during which time the school's logo was changed to showcase the clock tower that sits atop the building. One year later, Gloria Cordes Larson, a former state and federal government official and Boston-based lawyer, became the first female president of Bentley College.
Academics
The Masters of Human Factors in Information Design program is offered in San Francisco. Students take four of the required courses in California, five courses online, and the 10th course at Bentley's "User Experience Center". The program was designed to accommodate the busy schedules of tech professionals and to draw students from a wide geographic area. Each course is delivered in an executive format: three class meetings on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, followed by four weeks of faculty-monitored virtual teamwork, and closing with a Friday/Saturday meeting in the classroom.
Undergraduate admissions
In 2024, Bentley University accepted 48% of undergraduate applicants, with admission standards considered very high, applicant competition considered average, and those admitted having an average 3.75 high school GPA. The university does not require submission of standardized test scores, Bentley being a test optional school, where test scores will be considered if submitted. Those accepted who submitted test scores had an average 1340 SAT score (27% submitting scores) or average 30 ACT score (5% submitting scores).
Rankings
U.S. News & World Report
Regional Universities North 2025: Ranked 1st of 170 schools
Top 10 Master's Universities in the North 2018: Ranked 2nd
Best Value Schools in Regional Universities North 2025: Ranked 4th
Best National Business Schools - MBA 2025: Unranked
Best National Part-Time MBA 2025: Ranked 102nd
Best National Economics 2025: 174th (tie)
Best Undergraduate Teaching Regional Universities North 2025: 11th (tie)
Most Innovative Schools Regional Universities North 2025: 2nd (tie)
Top Performers on Social Mobility Regional Universities North: 76th
Princeton Review
Best Colleges for Career Services 2026: Ranked 1st
Best Colleges for Career Services 2024: Ranked 1st
Best Colleges for Career Services 2019: Ranked 1st
Best Colleges for Career Services 2018: Ranked 1st
Bloomberg
Best National Business Schools 2022–23: Ranked 77
Student life
Organizations
Bentley is home to a number of academic organizations. Its Fed Challenge team won the College National Fed Challenge in 2010, and won second place in 2012. The university is also home to the Bentley Investment Group, a student-run organization charged with managing a portion of the university's endowment fund. Bentley Investment Group started with $250,000 in 1997 with 24 original members, the assets managed by the club has grown substantially over the past few decades. The technology sector of Bentley Investment Group is currently the largest sector. Other notable academic organizations include Bentley Open Market Committee, Bentley Marketing Association, TAMID, and the Bentley Real Estate Group.
Club sports
In addition to the intercollegiate and intramural programs, the university offers a number of club sports for students. These are operated within the Student Activities department, and are financially supported by the students' activity fees. One of the most notable club sports is the Bentley Equestrian Team, which was created by Bentley University because its founder, Harry C. Bentley, enjoyed horseback riding in his free time.
Campus media
The Vanguard: student-produced weekly on-campus newspaper
The Vale: student-produced yearbook
Bentley TV: student-produced TV station broadcasting on channel 45 on campus
Piecework: student-produced annual literary magazine
Bentley Observer: staff-produced quarterly magazine for alumni
WBTY Radio Bentley: on-campus radio station, operating at 105.3 FM
Falcon Records (Massachusetts): an independent record label focused on promoted local artists in Boston and providing free and entertaining music to consumers
Fusio: an academic research journal published by the university's honors program
Athletics
Bentley's mascot is Flex the Falcon. The university has 23 men's and women's varsity teams. All of the teams compete in the Northeast-10 Conference at the NCAA Division II level, with the exception of the men's hockey program, which was one of the original six founding teams of Atlantic Hockey America at the Division I level. The Bentley Arena is a multi-purpose ice hockey arena on the campus of Bentley University.
Bentley's rugby program won two national Division III titles in 2007 and 2008 as well as the 2008 Beast of the East tournament. They were also Division II National Qualifiers in 2011 and 2012 as well as Rugby Northeast Conference champions in 2011.
The Bentley Men's Ultimate Frisbee team won USA Ultimate's Division III College Championship in 2014.
Notable people
Alumni
George J. Bates, former member of the United States House of Representatives from the state of Massachusetts
Mackenzy Bernadeau, '08, professional football player who was last with the Jacksonville Jaguars organization; drafted 250th overall in 2008 NFL draft by the Carolina Panthers
Gailanne Cariddi, former member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives
C.C. Chapman, '96, author and marketing consultant
Marcelo Claure, '93, president and CEO of Sprint Corporation and founder of Brightstar Corp
Patricia Courtney, infielder in All-American Girls Professional Baseball League
Arthur T. Demoulas, CEO of Demoulas Supermarkets (Market Basket)
James F. Donovan, businessman, industrialist and Bentley University trustee
William C. Freda '74, vice chairman and managing partner of Big Four multinational professional services network Deloitte
Bert Hammel, '73, college basketball coach for Merrimack College and NBA scout for the Milwaukee Bucks
Brian Hammel, '75, former Bentley basketball player and coach who was drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks in the third round of the 1975 NBA draft
Amanda Hesser, '93, food writer, editor, author, and entrepreneur who was the food editor of the NYT Magazine and CEO of Food52
Gail Huff, '84, broadcast journalist for WJLA-TV and the wife of Scott Brown, former U.S. senator from Massachusetts
Faculty and staff
Mohammad Javad Abdolmohammadi, John E. Rhodes Professor of Accounting at Bentley since 1988
Amir Aczel, lecturer in mathematics and the history of mathematics and science, as well as an author of popular books on mathematics and science
Gregory H. Adamian, Bentley's fourth president
Harry C. Bentley, founder and first president of Bentley
Thom Boerman, Bentley football coach, 2009–2013
Selin Sayek Böke, Turkish politician who worked in Bentley's Economics department as an assistant professor
Alison Davis-Blake, Bentley's eighth president, 2018–2020
Daniel Everett, linguist famed for his work with the Pirahã language and contradicting Noam Chomsky's theories related to language universals
Brian Hammel, former Bentley men's basketball coach and Milwaukee Bucks draft pick in 1975
Hal Kopp, Bentley football coach, 1972–1975
Gloria Cordes Larson, Bentley's seventh president
Jack Perri, head coach of men's basketball at Southern New Hampshire University, previously LIU Brooklyn
Jack Regan, Bentley football coach, 1976–1978
Alvin Reynolds, former Bentley football coach
Bobby Shuttleworth, former Bentley men's soccer assistant coach and New England Revolution player