Facts About Bentley
Campus and Location
- Set on 163 acres in Waltham, Massachusetts
- Minutes west of Boston
- Free daily shuttle from campus to Harvard Square in Cambridge
Enrollment
- Undergraduate students: 4,016 full time; 243 part time
- Average undergraduate class size: 24
- About 83 percent of full-time undergraduates live on campus
- Graduate students: 1,405
- Average graduate class size: 21
- PhD students: 30
- International students represent 9 percent of the undergraduate student population, 18 percent of the graduate students and 50 percent of the PhD enrollment
Faculty
- More than 285 full and 199 part-time faculty members, who teach at both undergraduate and graduate levels
- 82 percent hold doctoral degrees
- Professors are accessible, committed to excellent teaching and advising as well as to pursuing research and scholarship in their field
- Many have significant experience in the business world
- Faculty-student ratio is 1 to 12
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Curriculum
- Focused on the fields of knowledge found at the intersection of Business and the Liberal Arts: Business and Information Technology, Ethics and Social Responsibility, and Global Commerce and Culture
- A leader in integrating information technology into the business curriculum
- Bachelor of science degrees in 11 business fields; bachelor of arts degrees in six arts and sciences disciplines
- The graduate school emphasizes the impact of technology on business practice and offers PhD programs in Business and Accountancy, the Bentley MBA with 16 areas of concentration, an integrated MS+MBA, seven Master of Science degrees, and custom executive education programs.
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Tuition and Fees for 2009-2010
- Undergraduate: Tuition is $34,360. Room and board (double room, meal plan) is $12,030. The mobile computing fee is $1,200; the activity fee is $268; and the student health insurance (if not covered by parents' plan) is $908.
- Graduate: Tuition for each three-credit MBA and Master of Science course is $3,276.
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Careers
- Within six months of graduation, more than 95 percent of Bentley students find professional employment or enroll in graduate school
- Recruiting programs bring more than 1,200 job opportunities to students each year
- 93 percent of students take on at least one professional internship while at Bentley
- Workshops, individualized advising, and resource materials help students fine-tune career goals
- Many of Bentley’s 44,500 alumni serve as contacts and resources for students, through panel discussions, informational interviews, Mentor Program
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History
1917
Founded by Harry C. Bentley as a school of accounting and finance
1961
Bentley offers first four-year bachelor of science program.
1968
Moves from downtown Boston to Waltham, Massachusetts to accommodate growing enrollment and student demand for education blending academic study and extracurricular opportunities.
1971
Approved to grant both BS and BA degrees; changed name to Bentley College
1974
Graduate school of business is founded.
1985
The Mobile Computing program, one of the first in the country, is launched, providing all Bentley freshmen with a network-ready laptop computer fully loaded with software.
1990s
Bentley pioneers integration of information technology into the core business curriculum and positions itself as the:
1999
The graduate school is named for 1967 alumnus Elkin B. McCallum in honor of a generous gift made by the McCallum Family Foundation.
2000
The Smith Academic Technology Center opens to serve as the focal point for business and technology initiatives on campus.
2001
Two additional residence halls open on the Southeast campus helping to offset growing demand for on-campus housing among undergraduates. A new baseball field debuts in 2001, named in honor of the school's first and only baseball coach, Robert A. DeFelice. The athletic expansion project also includes a new soccer field, an outdoor track and six tennis courts.
2002
Bentley expands its campus to the Middle East with the "Bentley in Bahrain" program in partnership with Bahrain Institute of Banking and Finance (BIBF). Program offers students in Bahrain and surrounding Gulf States the opportunity to learn from Bentley professors and earn a Bentley degree.
2004
Third residence hall, housing 285 students, opens.
2005
The Liberal Studies major is launched, a first-of-its-kind program for a business school, allowing students to major in business and liberal arts, receiving credentials in both.
Construction is completed on two apartment-style residence halls on Forest Street, now known as the North Campus. The two buildings, housing 118 students, are the first Bentley-built housing for students away from the main campus.
First PhD programs in Business and Accountancy are approved by the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education in November.
2006
First PhD class is welcomed in September.
Construction on two additional apartment-style buildings is completed. Approximately 83 percent of students now live on campus. The Dana Athletic Center completes renovation and expansion in the spring. Fitness facility adds 30,000 square feet including expanded state-of-the-art exercise space, food court and pedestrian plaza. Multi-million dollar renovation of the Bentley Library is completed. Newly designed interior features a cyber café, art gallery, significant increases in study carrels, complete wireless access, increased PC access with Internet and power ports throughout the building, individual and collaborative study rooms for students, and research space for faculty. Online resources virtually double and storage for Bentley’s dynamic book collection grows by 50 percent.
2008
Bentley becomes a university. The Massachusetts Board of Higher Education approves Bentley’s request to change its designation and name to become Bentley University, effective October 2, 2008.
