Northern Essex
Community College
Public Community College in Haverhill, MA. Six-year graduation rate 21%. Median 10-year earnings $42,862.
Students who entered Northern Essex Community College land at a median of $42,862 a decade later, close to what most four-year schools deliver. Completion is the weak point: 21% graduate within six years. Borrowing stays contained, with median debt at graduation of $9,000.
Earnings: College Scorecard, median ten years after entry across students who received federal aid — completers and non-completers alike.
- ✓ Debt-to-income ratio 0.21 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
- ! Graduation rate 21% — below national average
Academics
Only 21% finish within six years, so roughly four in five students leave without the credential. Retention of 61% means a meaningful slice of each entering class does not return. Retention runs well ahead of completion, which means students are not leaving immediately; they are leaving somewhere between the second year and the finish line. 17% transfer out. IPEDS does not follow them, so whether they finished elsewhere is not recorded either way. Part-time students fare worse, returning at 50% — relevant if you plan to work while enrolled.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 3,350 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Students pay an average of $6,049 annually, well below typical undergraduate net price. The gap between the $0–30k and $110k+ bands is narrow ($5,256 versus $12,476), meaning aid is not strongly need-weighted. 85% of students get grant aid averaging $4,732, so the published price is a poor guide to what most pay. Only 13% take federal loans. Private borrowing is not captured in this figure.
Entering first-year students
A different, smaller group than the rates above: full-time students in their first year of college anywhere. The grant series here also excludes the "other sources" counted in the all-undergraduate figure, so the two are not comparable.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · 321 students
Net price by family income
The same students as the headline above, limited to those who received Title IV federal aid — a narrower group, with a lower overall average. IPEDS publishes no combined figure across these bands, so they should not be averaged into one.
| Family income band | Average net price |
|---|---|
| $0–30k | $5,256 |
| $30–48k | $4,728 |
| $48–75k | $6,211 |
| $75–110k | $6,628 |
| $110k+ | $12,476 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 436 of these 3,350 students, totalling $1,797,056 — an average of $4,122 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Essex County) — budget these against any cost-of-attendance housing estimate.
HUD Fair Market Rents (40th-percentile gross rent incl. utilities) · FY2026
Veterans & GI Bill
Heightened Cash Monitoring (Compliance Audit Late or Missing); School placed on Heightened Cash Monitoring
VA GI Bill Comparison Tool (Veterans Affairs GIDS)