Colleges Near Worcester

Worcester is a genuinely separate college market from Boston, 40 miles east, despite the two often being lumped together: the federal government counts Worcester County as its own metro area. Five schools sit in the city itself -- the College of the Holy Cross (18% admit) is the clear selectivity outlier, with Clark University (40%) and Worcester Polytechnic Institute (60%) behind it, and Assumption University and Worcester State as the higher-admit options. Fitchburg State and Nichols College, in Dudley, round out a short list that's still deeper than most metros this size.