College of Our Lady of the Elms

The College of Our Lady of the Elms, usually shortened to Elms College, is a private liberal arts institution in Massachusetts founded in 1928.

Established by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Springfield, the institution is located in Chicoree, 88 miles east of Boston. Chicoree is technically part of the larger, Victorian city of Springfield. A hub of innovation, Springfield claims to have invented the first American English dictionary, the first commercial radio station in the US and, perhaps most significantly, basketball. It now houses the Basketball Hall of Fame, which draws visitors from across the world. Chicoree is where the eponymous river meets the River Connecticut. The campus lies 10 miles north of the border with Connecticut, and is 30 miles north of Hartford, the state capital.

The most popular undergraduate programmes are nursing, social work, education and business management, and a high proportion of graduates go on to public sector jobs.

The college also offers a range of postgraduate qualifications, ranging from a master of science in nursing to a family nurse practitioner doctorate. It is a mixed college, but was all-female until 1998, and the majority of today’s students are women.

Bursaries and scholarships are available for most undergraduates. There have also been evening classes on offer since 1953, and weekend courses since their introduction in the 1980s. There are three halls of residence, housing around a third of the student population, as well as a 25-metre swimming pool and a plethora of trips organised for the benefit of its students