Bay Path University

Bay Path was founded in 1897 as Bay Path Institute in Springfield, Massachusetts. Bay Path started as an urban, coeducational institute offering business teacher training, secretarial science, business administration and accounting degrees. The name Bay Path was derived from its location on the old Bay Path (a part of Boston Post Road), which united the western part of the state with what was once the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The first class in 1897 was 30 students, but Bay Path grew rapidly in its first few decades. In 1920, Bay Path bought the Clawson-Hamilton Business School of Brattleboro, Vermont, and renamed it the Brattleboro Business Institute. In the same year the competitor Griffin Business School was also purchased and integrated into Bay Path. Bay Path was one of the largest and most successful business schools in the highly competitive Northeast during this time, with a peak enrollment of 1,200 students taking classes in innovative, accelerated format. The institution struggled heavily, however, during the Great Depression and World War II, and by 1944 the institute was nearly bankrupt.[3]

In 1945, the college moved to Longmeadow, Massachusetts, was renamed Bay Path Secretarial School, and developed a new mission and vision to become a women's only college. Four years later, the institution became Bay Path Junior College. In order to further expand its offerings, in 1988 Bay Path became a four-year degree-granting institution, and its name was changed to Bay Path College.[4]

In 1999, Bay Path established an accelerated program for women to earn their bachelor's degree through a Saturday only program. In 2000, Bay Path began offering Master of Science degrees. After 14 years of offering master's degree programs, reaching 20 master's degree offerings in 2014, Bay Path changed its name to Bay Path University to reflect its status as both a bachelors' and masters' granting institution.[5]

Bay Path University offers bachelor's, master's degrees, the Occupational Therapy Doctorate and the EdD in Higher Education Leadership & Organizational Studies programs. Degree programs are balanced between those with an arts and science focus, and those with professional focus.[6] The University features majors that are heavily focused on practical, hands-on application of course work, and students take the majority of their credits within their major. The university has 30 major programs for bachelor's degrees and 30+ degree and certification programs at the graduate level. Bay Path has a student to faculty ratio of 12:1 in its undergraduate programs, and its freshmen retention rate is 74.3%.[7]

While the master's degree programs are co-educational, the bachelor's degree programs are women focused. Bay Path's focus on women is personified through the WELL program: Women as Empowered Learners and Leaders. All undergraduate students are required to take three courses in their first, third, and fourth year (with an optional class in their second year). These courses focus on developing skills in learning (research, writing, speaking, analysis, and technology) and leading (identify strengths, setting of personal, academic and professional goals) while researching local and global issues that affect women.[8]

Bay Path University is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education. [9]

Bay Path has 27 clubs and organizations for students over a wide range of interests.[14]

In 2013, Forbes magazine ranked the financial viability of 925 private, not for profit colleges in the United States. In this assessment, Forbes assigned a letter grade based on the financial health of the institution, and found that more than half of private institutions scored at a C grade or below. Bay Path received a ranking of 264 out of 925, earning a "B" grade for the financial health of the institution.[17]

In 2014, The Chronicle of Higher Education compiled a list of the fastest growing colleges in America over a ten-year period from 2002 to 2012. During that time, in the category of private, baccalaureate institutions, Bay Path's growth was the eighth highest in the nation, ranking higher than any other college in the knowledge corridor. Over the ten-year period surveyed, Bay Path grew from a 2002 enrollment of 1,107 students to a 2012 enrollment of 2,370 students: a 114% increase.[18]

In 2015, Dr. Carol A. Leary and Bay Path were ranked #25 in The Boston Globe and The Commonwealth Institute annual Top 100 Women-Led Businesses in Massachusetts.[19]

• Official website