Framingham State College is located in
FraminghamFramingham is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 66,910 at the 2000 census.Framingham, sited on the ancient trail known as the Old Connecticut Path, was first settled when John Stone settled on the west bank of the Sudbury River in 1647...
,
MassachusettsThe Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. Most of its population of...
, from Boston. It offers undergraduate programs in a range of subjects from Art to Biology to Communication Arts, and
graduateA graduate school is a school that awards advanced academic degrees with the general requirement that students must have earned a previous undergraduate degree...
programs including MBA,
MEdMED or Med can be one of several things:* Mission EDitor, map editing software for most Novalogic games* Manhattan Engineer District, US project to develop a nuclear bomb during WWII...
, and
MScA master's degree is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
. The college also has undergraduate degree evening programs along with online courses.
As the first secretary of the newly created Board of Education in
MassachusettsThe Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. Most of its population of...
,
Horace MannHorace Mann was an American education reformer, and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1827 to 1833. He served in the Massachusetts Senate from 1834-1837. Mann was a brother-in-law to author Nathaniel Hawthorne, their wives being sisters.-Education and early career:Horace Mann was...
instituted sweeping school reforms. A centerpiece of these changes was the creation of an experimental
normal schoolA normal school was a school created to train high school graduates to be teachers. Its purpose was to establish teaching standards or norms, hence its name...
, the first one in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, in
LexingtonLexington is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 30,355 at the 2000 census.The town is famous for being the site of the opening shots of the American Revolution, in the Battle of Lexington on April 19, 1775....
, with
Cyrus PeirceCyrus Peirce , American educator and Unitarian minister, was the founding president of the first American public normal school, which evolved into Framingham State College.-Early life and education, 1790-1810:...
as its first principal or president.
Framingham State College is located in
FraminghamFramingham is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 66,910 at the 2000 census.Framingham, sited on the ancient trail known as the Old Connecticut Path, was first settled when John Stone settled on the west bank of the Sudbury River in 1647...
,
MassachusettsThe Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. Most of its population of...
, from Boston. It offers undergraduate programs in a range of subjects from Art to Biology to Communication Arts, and
graduateA graduate school is a school that awards advanced academic degrees with the general requirement that students must have earned a previous undergraduate degree...
programs including MBA,
MEdMED or Med can be one of several things:* Mission EDitor, map editing software for most Novalogic games* Manhattan Engineer District, US project to develop a nuclear bomb during WWII...
, and
MScA master's degree is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
. The college also has undergraduate degree evening programs along with online courses.
History
As the first secretary of the newly created Board of Education in
MassachusettsThe Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. Most of its population of...
,
Horace MannHorace Mann was an American education reformer, and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1827 to 1833. He served in the Massachusetts Senate from 1834-1837. Mann was a brother-in-law to author Nathaniel Hawthorne, their wives being sisters.-Education and early career:Horace Mann was...
instituted sweeping school reforms. A centerpiece of these changes was the creation of an experimental
normal schoolA normal school was a school created to train high school graduates to be teachers. Its purpose was to establish teaching standards or norms, hence its name...
, the first one in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, in
LexingtonLexington is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 30,355 at the 2000 census.The town is famous for being the site of the opening shots of the American Revolution, in the Battle of Lexington on April 19, 1775....
, with
Cyrus PeirceCyrus Peirce , American educator and Unitarian minister, was the founding president of the first American public normal school, which evolved into Framingham State College.-Early life and education, 1790-1810:...
as its first principal or president. A companion was opened the next year in
BridgewaterBridgewater State College is a public liberal arts college located in Bridgewater, Massachusetts. It is the largest of the state's nine state colleges outside of the University of Massachusetts system. The school's mascot is the bear.-History:...
. Growth forced the normal school's relocation to
West NewtonWest Newton is a village of the City of Newton, Massachusetts and is one of the oldest of the thirteen Newton villages. The Zip Code 02465 roughly matches the village limits.-Location:...
in 1843, followed a decade later by a move to the present site on Bare Hill in Framingham.
In 1922, the Framingham Normal School granted its first
Bachelor of ScienceA Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years ....
in Education degrees in conjunction with a four-year study program. Ten years afterward, with degreed teachers becoming the norm, the normal schools were renamed State Teachers Colleges. This was changed again in 1960 to the State College at Framingham when
Bachelor of ArtsBachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences or both....
degrees were added. At present,
Masters'A master's degree is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
of Education, Arts, and Science degrees are granted as well. In 2007 the college began offering the Master's of Business education degree.
Undergraduate Majors
- Art History
- Art Studio
- Biology
- Business Administration
- Business and Information Technology
- Chemistry
- Communications Arts
- Computer Science
- Early Childhood Eduction
- English
- Fashion Design and Retailing
- Food and Nutrition
- Food Sciences
- Geography
- Health and Consumer Sciences
- History
- Interdisciplinary (Coordinate Education Major)
- Mathematics
- Modern Languages
- Nursing
- Politics
- Psychology
- Sociology
Undergraduate Minors
- American Studies
- Apparel Design
- Art History
- Art Studio
- Biochemistry
- Biology
- Business Administration
- Chemistry
- Communication Arts
- Computer Science
- Consumer and Community Services
- Earth Science
- Economics
- English
- Food Science
- French
- Geography
- Geology
- History
- Information Technology
- Journalism
- Latin American Studies
- Law and Politics
- Mathematics
- Museum Studies
- Music
- Nutrition
- Philosophy
- Physics
- Professional Writing
- Psychology
- Secondary Education
- Sociology
- Spanish
- Statistics
- Writing
Graduate Majors
- Master of Business Administration (MBA)
- Master of Arts
- Master of Education
- Master of Science in Food and Nutrition
- Master of Science in Nursing (MSN)
Post Baccalaureate Programs
- Pre-Health Studies Certificate Program
- Teacher Licensure Program (PBTL)
Undergraduate
- Children's Literature
- Human Resource Management
- Instructional Technology Proficiency Offered Online
- Merchandising
- Nursing Education
- Nutrition Education Offered Online
- Special Needs
Graduate
- Computer Programming Languages
- Information Technology Fluency
- Network and System Administration and Management
- Software Engineering
Rankings
As of 2009, StateCollege.com gave Framingham State an overall score of 79.3, making it the 720th best college in the nation, and 39th best in Massachusetts. The website ranks it behind other Massachusetts public schools such as the
University of Massachusetts AmherstThe University of Massachusetts is a selective research and land-grant university in Amherst, Massachusetts...
and
Worcester State CollegeWorcester State College is a public, four-year college founded in 1874 as Worcester Normal School in the city of Worcester, Massachusetts. Although WSC traditionally has an emphasis on education, business, and biotechnology, the College offers Bachelors and Masters degrees in over 20 academic...
, however it ranks ahead of schools like
Fitchburg State College Fitchburg State College, also known as Fitchburg State, is a four year public institution of higher learning with a compact urban campus, located in the city of Fitchburg, Massachusetts. Fitchburg State College has over 3,500 undergraduate and over 1650 graduate/continuing education students,...
and the
University of Massachusetts DartmouthThe University of Massachusetts Dartmouth is a multi-campus university, part of the statewide university system of the University of Massachusetts...
.
Athletics
All Framingham State College teams compete at the NCAA Division III level. All teams compete in the
Massachusetts State College Athletic ConferenceThe Massachusetts State College Athletic Conference is an intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA’s Division III...
(MASCAC). Men's programs include baseball, cross country, football, basketball, ice hockey, and soccer. Women's programs include cross country, lacrosse, softball, basketball, field hockey, soccer, and volleyball. All teams compete on campus, except for the baseball and softball teams who play on fields off campus, as well as the ice hockey team who skates at the Loring Arena in Framingham. FSC also offers a wide variety of intramural programs that include everything from badminton, to golf, to dodgeball. There is also a state-of-the-art athletic and recreation center that includes basketball courts, a volleyball court, and a weight room.
In 2007, the women's soccer team was awarded the prestigious
NCAA Sportsmanship AwardThe NCAA Sportsmanship Award is given each year to one man and one woman in National Collegiate Athletics Association sports who have demonstrated one or more of the ideals of sportmanship, including fairness, civility, honesty, unselfishness, respect and responsibility...
.
In Popular Culture
The main character in the movie
Summer CatchSummer Catch is a 2001 romantic comedy starring Freddie Prinze Jr., Jessica Biel, and Matthew Lillard. The movie takes place on Cape Cod, however, the majority of the film was filmed in North Carolina.- Plot :...
, Ryan Dunne (Freddie Prinze Jr.), plays college baseball at Framingham State College after being kicked off the baseball team at Boston College. The movie, however, incorrectly refers to Framingham State as a junior college.
Timeline of name changes
The school has had several names in the past:
- 1839 opened as the Normal School;
- 1845 designated State Normal School;
- 1932 became State Teacher's College at Framingham;
- 1960 became State College at Framingham; and
- 1968 became Framingham State College.
External links