Mount Ida College was a private college in Newton, Massachusetts. In 2018, the University of Massachusetts Amherst acquired the campus and renamed it the Mount Ida Campus of UMass Amherst. History The Mount Ida School for Girls, once a high school, became a finishing school and was founded in 1899 by George Franklin Jewett, and was named after the hill on which it was located in Newton Corner, Massachusetts. After encountering severe financial difficulties, it was forced to close during the Great Depression, but was purchased by William Fitts Carlson in 1939 and relocated to its present location in the Oak Hill section of Newton. The first junior college level courses were offered at Mount Ida in the mid-1900s, and the school was officially re-branded as a junior college in 1961. It was subsequently granted the ability to award associate degrees with the first being awarded in 1967. The school was later renamed as Mount Ida Junior College, and became a co-educational institution in 1972 which was a logical step since so many Vietnam veterans were attending college in the 1970s thanks to the G.I. Bill. Several Boston-based institutions also merged with Mount Ida on the Newton campus: Chamberlayne Junior College (1988), New England Institute of Funeral Service Education (1989), and Coyne Electrical and Technical School. The Senior College division awarding bachelor's degrees began In 1982. Massachusetts allowed Mount Ida to grant three bachelor's degrees as Mount Ida filed to drop the "Junior" part of the college name. The Senior Degree program was fully accredited in 1984, with an emphasis on career and professional education. In 2012, Barry Brown was appointed president of the college. UMass Amherst announced plans to acquire the Newton campus in April 2018. Classes ended after the commencement in the spring of 2018 and students of the small school were offered automatic admission to UMass Dartmouth (though that university does not have all of the same academic programs). Newbury College (which itself closed in 2019) announced that it would grant full transfer credit to Mount Ida students and would help them finish their degrees. Keene State College and Worcester State University also invited students to their campuses and committed to review applications for immediate acceptance and full credit transfer. Campus Located in Newton, Massachusetts, Mount Ida College was located on a 72-acre campus that once belonged to William Sumner Appleton (1840–1903), father of William Sumner Appleton