Showing Massachusetts research university sites. All education sites
R1 and R2 universities in Massachusetts, public and private together.
B 89
Average overall score of 12 fully scanned Massachusetts research university sites
1st
of 17 states, ranked by average overall score
12 of 12
Massachusetts research university sites fully scanned
B 85
Average overall score of all 2,687 fully scanned education sites
How Massachusetts overall scores are distributed
Smoothed distribution of the 12 fully scanned Massachusetts research university sites, score 0 to 100. Height shows how many sites score near each value.
Distribution of 12 scores. The data table lists counts by score range.
- Massachusetts average
- All education average
View the data table
| Score range | Sites |
|---|---|
| 0 to 9 | 0 |
| 10 to 19 | 0 |
| 20 to 29 | 0 |
| 30 to 39 | 0 |
| 40 to 49 | 0 |
| 50 to 59 | 0 |
| 60 to 69 | 0 |
| 70 to 79 | 1 |
| 80 to 89 | 4 |
| 90 to 100 | 7 |
Massachusetts research universities by overall grade, compared with all education sites
Share of fully scanned sites in each grade band. Massachusetts research universities: 12 sites. All education: 2687 sites.
- A (90 to 100)
- B to C (70 to 89)
- D to F (below 70)
View the data table
| Group | A (90 to 100) | B to C (70 to 89) | D to F (below 70) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Massachusetts | 58% (7) | 42% (5) | 0% (0) |
| All education sites | 25% (659) | 73% (1,965) | 2% (63) |
Massachusetts average score by indicator, compared with all education sites
Average of the 12 fully scanned Massachusetts research university sites, score 0 to 100. The comparison covers 2687 fully scanned education sites.
- Massachusetts
- All education
View the data table
| Indicator | Massachusetts average | All education average |
|---|---|---|
| Accessibility | 94 | 91 |
| Botability | 90 | 89 |
| Security | 93 | 85 |
| Usability | 77 | 68 |
| Readability | 45 | 56 |
Top 3 Massachusetts research university sites by overall score
#1 in Massachusetts · U.S. education rank 5
University of Massachusetts-Boston
A 96 overall
- Accessibility A
- Botability A
- Security A
- Usability B
- Readability A
#2 in Massachusetts · U.S. education rank 7
Clark University
A 94 overall
- Accessibility A
- Botability A
- Security B
- Usability B
- Readability F
#2 in Massachusetts · U.S. education rank 7
Northeastern University
A 94 overall
- Accessibility A
- Botability A
- Security A
- Usability B
- Readability A
Most common failures by indicator
The check Massachusetts research university sites fail most often in each indicator. Each indicator page lists the top five.
- 33% (4 of 12 sites) fail this accessibility check: Elements with visible text labels have matching accessible names. A button or link's visible label matches what screen readers announce. More accessibility failures.
- 42% (5 of 12 sites) fail this botability check: Sitemap in robots.txt. The robots.txt file links to the sitemap. More botability failures.
- 50% (6 of 12 sites) fail this security check: X-Content-Type-Options. The site tells browsers not to guess the type of files it serves. More security failures.
- 92% (11 of 12 sites) fail this usability check: Open Graph image alt. The social media preview image has alt text for screen readers. More usability failures.
- 50% (6 of 12 sites) fail this readability check: Reading level. Page text reads at or below a 7th grade level so most users can understand it. More readability failures.
Research universities in Massachusetts by overall score
| Rank | Site | Indicator grades | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
umb.edu
University of Massachusetts-Boston U.S. rank 5 |
|
A |
| 2 |
clarku.edu
Clark University U.S. rank 7 |
|
A |
| 2 |
northeastern.edu
Northeastern University U.S. rank 7 |
|
A |
| 3 |
harvard.edu
Harvard University U.S. rank 9 |
|
A |
| 3 |
umassd.edu
University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth U.S. rank 9 |
|
A |
| 3 |
wpi.edu
Worcester Polytechnic Institute U.S. rank 9 |
|
A |
| 4 |
tufts.edu
Tufts University U.S. rank 10 |
|
A |
| 5 |
umass.edu
University of Massachusetts-Amherst U.S. rank 15 |
|
B |
| 6 |
web.mit.edu
Massachusetts Institute of Technology U.S. rank 16 |
|
B |
| 6 |
uml.edu
University of Massachusetts-Lowell U.S. rank 16 |
|
B |
| 7 |
bu.edu
Boston University U.S. rank 18 |
|
B |
| 8 |
bc.edu
Boston College U.S. rank 22 |
|
C |
About this data
ScanGov scans the homepage of each college and university site on our higher education list. Scores come from the checks in the ScanGov standards. Sites were scanned between 10/28/2026 and 11/8/2026. Each site's report shows its own scan date. A site counts as fully scanned when its homepage loaded and sent us its page content. Averages, grade shares, failure rates, and ranks use fully scanned sites only. Grades follow the ScanGov grade scale. Rank follows the ScanGov ranking method. The full dataset, with every county's raw results, is in the ScanGov data repository.