In the early years, Emmanuel was a day college preparing women for professional fields such as education, nursing, and social work.

With this, the college agreed to lease a portion of its campus for a new research laboratory to Merck for 75 years and approximately $50 million.

[citation needed] Going co-ed and improving the campus sparked a sustained revival that made Emmanuel one of the fastest-growing colleges in New England at that time.

The Maureen Murphy Wilkens Science Center opened in the fall of 2009, effectively doubling the academic space of the campus.

[14] Emmanuel's 17-acre campus is located adjacent to the Longwood Medical District in the Fenway area of Boston.

[23] The most popular majors at Emmanuel College are Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Psychology, Business, Management, Marketing, Education, and Communication and Media Studies.

Today the college enrolls 700 graduate and professional students in online programs and offers degrees and certificates in business, education, and nursing.

[34] Media/Publications groups include Emmanuel College Radio, Epilogue (Yearbook), Her Campus, Writer's Block, Spoon University, and The Hub (Newspaper).

Political/special interest groups include Political Forum, Model U.N., and Youth in Government The Student Government/Programming Board groups include the Programming Team, Class Officers, Commuter Council, Residence Hall Councils and Student Government Association.

[35] In 2016, a female student decided to leave Emmanuel College in her sophomore year to protest the fact that a male student she said had raped her in 2015 was found “not responsible” for assaulting her by the university administration, after administrators advised her to let the college handle the allegations, rather than police.

[37][38][36] Boston.com reported, "The college issued a statement in response, and said it handles all cases in a comprehensive manner that fully complies with Title IX.

The college's decision to feature him prompted the female student who made the allegations of assault to take to the matter to social media.

[39] Emmanuel's vice president of college relations, Molly DiLorenzo, later told the Boston Globe that the video “did not violate any conditions of the student conduct process,” but that “it is unfortunate that the posting happened.” DiLorenzo also told the Globe, “no individual found responsible for rape...has been allowed to remain enrolled at Emmanuel College.”[39] In 2020, The Spectrum reported that 10 rapes and 7 instances of nonconsensual fondling had been reported on the Emmanuel College campus between 2014 and 2019.

[40] Looking at the 2019 data, College Factual found that, in raw numbers, Emmanuel had more reported incidents of violence against women on campus than other universities nationwide.

[43] The protestors called on President Janet Eisner and her administration to implement zero-tolerance sexual assault policies.

[39][44] The college responded to the protests with a Title IX listening session, and the initiation of a “campus climate task force.”[39][45] Emmanuel athletic teams are the Saints.

Emmanuel began to sponsor men's sports since the college became co-educational, effective in the 2001–02 school year.

[51] In addition to serving on the advisory board, John F. Kennedy gave the college's commencement speech in 1949.