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Amherst, Massachusetts has 5 accredited schools offering liberal arts programs. Amherst has a population of about 40,989. In Massachusetts, the top-earning liberal arts-related role is Technical Writer at a median $109,200 annually (BLS, May 2025).
The accredited institutions listed below are the closest in our directory that offer liberal arts programs near Amherst, ranked by BOC Score and straight-line distance from Amherst city center. The list is rebuilt from federal IPEDS data on every site update.
Every school list on this site is ordered by the BOC Score, computed from the most recent school-level data published by the U.S. Department of Education (College Scorecard and IPEDS). To qualify, a school must be currently operating and accredited by an agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. Each eligible school is then scored on five measures, percentile-ranked against schools at the same credential level:
Schools without enough outcome data appear after ranked schools, without a score. On this page, schools are ordered by distance from Amherst. Advertising never affects these rankings. Read the full methodology.
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source: IPEDS / College Scorecard (2023 cohort). Browse all Massachusetts schools on the Massachusetts liberal arts page.
Amherst is part of the Amherst Town-Northampton, MA metro area (BLS area code 11200). Where MSA-level wages are published, the table below shows MSA medians; otherwise it falls back to Massachusetts statewide.
| Occupation | Median Wage | Source | COL-Adjusted (US=100) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Public Relations Specialist | $72,610 | Amherst Town-Northampton, MA | $72,465 |
| Management Analyst | $103,610 | Amherst Town-Northampton, MA | $103,403 |
| Technical Writer | $109,200 | MA statewide | $108,982 |
| News Analyst, Reporter, or Journalist | N/A | MA statewide | – |
| Editor | $78,700 | Amherst Town-Northampton, MA | $78,543 |
| Training and Development Specialist | $63,490 | Amherst Town-Northampton, MA | $63,363 |
| Human Resources Specialist | $80,770 | Amherst Town-Northampton, MA | $80,609 |
Source: BLS, May 2025 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes wage data at the metro (MSA) and state level – not by individual city.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Regional Price Parity (US=100) | 100.2 (above U.S. average) | BEA RPP 2024 |
| Liberal Arts-related employment in Hampshire County | 434 workers, 60 establishments | BLS QCEW 2024 annual |
Our directory has 5 accredited schools offering liberal arts programs near Amherst. The closest is Amherst College in Amherst, MA (0.8 miles), and the farthest of the schools shown is Mount Holyoke College (8.3 miles). 2 of the highlighted schools are flagged as offering distance education.
Based on BLS OEWS May 2025 wage data, the top-paying liberal arts-related roles near Amherst are: Technical Writer ($109,200), Management Analyst ($103,610), Human Resources Specialist ($80,770). These reflect MSA-level medians where published, with Massachusetts statewide fallback for occupations not reported at the metro level.
Northampton, MA is 9.0 miles from Amherst and has its own set of local liberal arts programs – see the city’s page. For online programs, distance matters less; for hybrid or in-person formats, comparing both can help.
Confirm institutional accreditation via the U.S. Department of Education database (U.S. Dept. of Education database), and check for any program-specific accreditation listed by the school.
Compare every accredited online degree program with city-level data for Amherst:
Data verified: August 31, 2026. Salary, employment, and tuition figures on this page are sourced from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (OEWS May 2025; Employment Projections 2024–2034) and the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard (2023 cohort). The source agency and data year are cited inline with every statistic.
