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College graduation season in Boston: Ceremony dates, traffic, and more

Catherine Messier
USA TODAY NETWORK - New England

(This article has been updated because an earlier version included an inaccuracy.)

It's almost college graduation season in Massachusetts.

As one of the college capitals of the world, Boston will host lots of commencement ceremonies all May long. While the season is a time of excitement for thousands of college students throughout the city, for Boston residents, it means another thing - traffic.

With families flooding into town, hotel rates climbing, and moving trucks lining the streets, the city can feel especially hectic. Want to plan ahead for the bustle of the city as students graduate and move out? Here's a list of graduation dates for Boston-area colleges and universities.

2025 graduation dates for Boston-area colleges

A graduating student cheers during the Commencement ceremony at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S., May 27, 2022.

Here is a list of this year's graduation dates for colleges in the Boston area:

  • May 8: Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (MCPHS)
  • May 10: Berklee College of Music, Emmanuel College, Lasell University
  • May 11: Emerson College, Northeastern University
  • May 15: Merrimack College (Nursing, Arts & Sciences), University of Massachusetts (UMass) Dartmouth
  • May 16: Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, Merrimack College (Business, Engineering, Education), Simmons University, UMass Amherst, Wellesley College
  • May 17: Babson College, Bentley University, Endicott College, Lesley University, UMass Lowell
  • May 18: Boston University, Brandeis University, Suffolk University, Tufts University
  • May 19: Boston College
  • May 22: Massachusetts College of Art and Design (MassArt)
  • May 29: Harvard University, UMass Boston
  • May 30: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)