Clark Fun Facts to Serve at the Thanksgiving Table 🦃

A proud refresher for Clarkies everywhere.

Clark is a liberal arts university with research-university power: you get both breadth and depth.
Our ethos: “Challenge convention. Change our world.”
9:1 student-to-faculty ratio: professors actually knew your name.
Clark offers a tuition-free 5th-year master’s or MBA for eligible students.

Rankings & Distinctions

Ranked #37 Best Value School in the U.S. by U.S. News & World Report.
One of only 45 colleges named “Colleges That Change Lives” for transforming students’ lives.
Ranked #3 in the world for Game Design (Princeton Review).
Ranked #7 MFA program in the world (Princeton Review).
Ranked #5 Best School for Making an Impact (Princeton Review).
Home to one of the oldest and top Geography programs in the U.S. (100+ years strong).

Historic Firsts & Research Breakthroughs

Sigmund Freud gave his only U.S. lectures at Clark in 1909, a historic moment in American psychology.
Clark is the birthplace of the American Psychological Association (APA).
Early Clark research helped lead to the development of the birth control pill.
Clark’s Robert Goddard, “the father of modern rocketry,” launched the first liquid-fueled rocket, a milestone in modern rocketry. Clark will celebrate the centennial of this launch in March 2026.
Clark has its own mountain range in Antarctica, named by Paul Siple, Ph.D. ’39, inventor of the wind chill factor.

Social Justice & Community Impact

Clark has Social Justice in its DNA. It has a long tradition of turning education into action through inclusion, community research, and Worcester-based activism.
Since 1997, Main South has been home to University Park Campus School, a highly successful partnership between the city’s school district and Clark University that prepares low-income students for college and has earned both local and national recognition, including praise from President Barack Obama.

Milestones in Leadership & Culture

In 1967, Alice Coonley Higgins became the first woman to chair the board of trustees at any private U.S. research university, and she did it at Clark.
Legendary concerts at Clark include Bruce Springsteen, The Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, The Clash, and Talking Heads, among many others.

Athletics Highlight

2024–25 Men’s Basketball: NEWMAC Champions! Clark’s 17th NCAA tournament appearance.

New Climate School

This May, Lou Leonard, joined Clark as the first dean of Clark’s new School of Climate, Environment, and Society. The School builds on Clark’s long legacy of climate-related work in the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities—accelerating the discovery of human‑focused, community‑centered solutions.

Alumni, Donors & Legacy

Notable alumni include Padma Lakshmi ’92 (television host (Top Chef), model, author, businesswoman, and activist), Ron Shaich ’76 (Panera Bread, Tatte, Life Alive), Mark Bittman ’71, L.H.D. ’17 (NYT food writer, author, and the editor-in-chief of The Bittman Project), and Jeffrey Lurie ’73 (owner of the Philadelphia Eagles).
Jacob Hiatt ’46 funded major Clark institutions; his family legacy continues today through the Kraft family of New England Patriots fame.
In 2025, Ron Shaich ’76 made the largest gift in Clark’s history: $20 million to support Clark’s new strategic plan.
Clark alumna Margaret Wickens Pearce (M.A. ’95, Ph.D. ’98) was named a MacArthur “Genius Grant” Fellow in 2025.