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.
U.S.News & World Report's latest edition of America's Best Colleges 2010 ranks Bentley University #6 in the Best Universities, Master's (by region-North) category.
In the "Best Business Programs," Bentley was ranked #48.
In the “Programs to Look For” category, Bentley’s Service-Learning Program was named one of the best in the nation.
In the section "Great Schools, Great Prices," Bentley ranked #2 in the Master’s Universities (North) category. The formula is based on the relationship of the school's academic quality to the net cost of attendance and the amount of financial aid they dispense, in the form of need-based grants and scholarships.
U.S.News & World Report’s “America's Best Graduate Schools 2009” ranks the Bentley College McCallum Graduate School of Business one of the top 100 business schools in the nation (#62). The Master of Science in Accountancy program is ranked #30 nationally and #3 in New England; the Master of Science in Information Technology program ranked #18 nationally and #2 in New England.
BusinessWeek ranks Bentley among the top 35 undergraduate business programs in the nation in the magazine’s 4th annual issue of The Best Undergraduate Business Schools. Bentley ranked #33 overall and #5 in New England.
In the rankings, BusinessWeek also assigns grades in key areas based on student surveys. Bentley received:
• A+ in facilities and services
• A in teaching quality
• A in job placement
Beyond Grey Pinstripes, a biennial survey and popular alternative ranking of business schools by the Aspen Institute, named the Bentley McCallum Graduate School to its Global 100 list for 2009-2010. The prestigious ranking of MBA programs highlights schools that incorporate social and environmental issues into their curriculum and research, looking beyond reputation and test scores to measure how well schools prepare their students for the environmental, social and ethical complexities of modern-day business. In the most recent edition, Bentley ranked #67. 149 business schools from 24 countries participated in the survey.
The 2009 Fiske Guide, featuring Bentley University, is one of the nation's leading guidebook and an indispensable source of information for college-bound students and their parents for over twenty years. It describes the academic climates as well as the social and extracurricular scenes at the "best and most interesting" schools in North America. Hailed by USA Today as "the best college guide you can buy," it is an invaluable reference for anyone seeking information on higher education. This particular guide is most popular because it is a combination of facts and prose; facts from Bentley and “opinion” by the writers and editors of Fiske based on interviews and surveys with Bentley students. Quotes include “the quality of teaching is fantastic,” “the dorms are in great condition,” “firms are recruiting heavily on our campus because they know Bentley students are prepared,” “there is never a dull moment on campus,” “students are constantly striving to achieve their best. An ‘okay’ grade is never enough.”
The Princeton Review named Bentley one of the nation’s Best Colleges and Universities and one of the "Best Northeastern Schools" for 2010. Student surveys ranked Bentley #12 in the nation for "Best Career/Job Placement Services," up from #20 last year.
In the Bentley profile, student comments included "Resources here are second to none, if you need help scheduling classes, choosing a major, creating a resume, anything at all…there is an entire office of people ready and willing to help you in any way possible.”
The Princeton Review named the McCallum Graduate School of Business among the Best Business Schools in the nation for 2010.
The student surveys ranked Bentley #1 in the country for "State-of-the-Art Campus Facilities" for the second consecutive year. According to the Review’s survey, McCallum students give rave reviews of Bentley’s physical plant and IT tools, learning environment, integration of business and technology and career opportunities.
Bentley is ranked #4 in the Princeton Review and PC Magazine survey of the Top 20 Wired Campuses for 2008-09. The ranking honors schools with the most comprehensive technology offerings. The survey focused on academics, student resources, infrastructure, wireless networks, and tech support — including questions on everything from advanced computer science programs and online lectures to computer labs and online security. Bentley also ranked #3 in the 2004 survey done by Princeton Review and Forbes.com
Bentley is featured in the 2005 Random House/Princeton Review book, Colleges with a Conscience: 81 Great Schools with Outstanding Community Involvement, selected because of its record of excellent service-learning programs and for successfully blending academics with community work.
Kiplinger Personal Finance magazine ranks Bentley College #28 among the top 100 Best Values in Private Universities for 2009.
Public Accounting Report named Bentley’s Master of Science in Accountancy (MSA) program at the McCallum Graduate School one of the nation's top 25 programs in 2006 and 2007.
Golf Digest ranks Bentley among the top schools for academic male golfers in its 2007-08 College Golf Guide.
CosmoGirl! named Bentley one of the Best 100 Colleges in its 2008 rankings, and singled out Bentley's impressive number of activites for women, as well featuring one student's rave review of the career services program. The magazine highlighted Bentley in 2006 as one "The Top 50 Colleges."
Kaplan/Newsweek named Bentley among the "Hot Schools for 2004," calling it "a rising star."
Business 2.0 magazine ranked Bentley College among “The 20 Tech-Savviest Business Schools” in the December 2001 issue.
Bentley College received the “2001 EDUCAUSE Award for Excellence in Campus Networking” for strategic, integrated, and innovative use of networked technologies to serve students, faculty and staff.
