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Northeastern University Data & Information Overview

441 awards Ranking Badges
Great Price Value for Your Money
18% Acceptance Rate
Want the scoop on Northeastern University? We’ve put together a comprehensive report on the school that covers what majors Northeastern offers, how the school ranks, how diverse it is, and much more.
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How Well Is Northeastern University Ranked?

#59 Best Colleges in Nation
#7 Best Colleges in MA
Criminal Justice Studies Highest Ranked Major
Quality Badge

2024 Rankings

In its yearly rankings, College Factual analyzes over 2,000 colleges and universities to determine which ones are the best in a variety of categories, such as overall value, quality, diversity, which schools are the best for each major, and much more.

Northeastern University was awarded 441 badges in the 2024 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is criminal justice studies.

Explore Best Ranked Schools for You

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Overall Quality

Northeastern landed the #59 spot in College Factual's 2024 ranking of best overall colleges in the United States. The higher ed experts analyzed 2,217 colleges and universities across the nation to determine this ranking. This puts it in the top 5% of all schools in the nation. This is an improvement over the previous year, when Northeastern held the #81 spot on the Best Overall Colleges list.

Northeastern also holds the #7 spot on the Best Colleges in Massachusetts ranking.

See all of the rankings for Northeastern University.

Is It Hard to Get Into Northeastern?

18% Acceptance Rate
61% Of Accepted Are Women
28% Submit SAT Scores

Acceptance Rate

Northeastern University has a very low acceptance rate of 18%, making it one of the most selective out of all the colleges and universities in the nation. It's probably a good idea to apply to other schools in addition to Northeastern just in case you don't make the cut.

Average Test Scores

About 28% of students accepted to Northeastern submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 700 and 760. Math scores were between 730 and 790.

SAT Reading and Writing Scores for Northeastern University  ( 700 to 760 )
200
800

SAT Math Scores for Northeastern University  ( 730 to 790 )
200
800
Northeastern received ACT scores from 14% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT Composite scores ranged between 33 and 35.

ACT Composite Scores for Northeastern University  ( 33 to 35 )
1
36

Learn more about Northeastern University admissions.

Northeastern University Faculty

15 to 1 Student to Faculty
75% Full Time Teachers

Student to Faculty Ratio

The student to faculty ratio is often used to estimate how much interaction there is between professors and their students at a college or university. At Northeastern University, this ratio is 15 to 1, which is on par with the national average of 15 to 1. That's not bad at all.

Percent of Full-Time Faculty

When estimating how much access students will have to their teachers, some people like to look at what percentage of faculty members are full time. This is because part-time teachers may not have as much time to spend on campus as their full-time counterparts.

The full-time faculty percentage at Northeastern University is 75%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Full-Time Faculty Percent  75 out of 100
0
100

Retention and Graduation Rates at Northeastern University

97% Freshmen Retention

Freshmen Retention Rate

Northeastern University has a freshmen retention rate of 97%. That's a good sign that full-time students like the school and their professors enough to want to stick around for another year. It's also a sign that the admissions team did a good job in choosing applicants who were a good fit for the school.

Freshmen Retention Rate  97 out of 100
0
100

Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Northeastern University.

Northeastern University Undergraduate Student Diversity

15,131 Full-Time Undergraduates
36.0% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
51.5% Percent Women

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 15,156 undergraduates at Northeastern with 15,131 being full-time and 25 being part-time.

How Much Does Northeastern University Cost?

$29,714 Net Price
45% Take Out Loans
$32,344 Total Student Loans
The overall average net price of Northeastern is $29,714. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group. See the table below for the net price for different income groups.

Net Price by Income Group for Northeastern

$0-30 K $30K-48K $48-75 $75-110K $110K +
$10,240 $7,376 $18,389 $25,452 $43,276

The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.Note that the net price is typically less than the published for a school. For more information on the sticker price of Northeastern, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.

Student Loan Debt

While almost two-thirds of students nationwide take out loans to pay for college, the percentage may be quite different for the school you plan on attending. At Northeastern, approximately 45% of students took out student loans averaging $8,086 a year. That adds up to $32,344 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at Northeastern is 1.5%. This is significantly lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, which is a good sign that you'll be able to pay back your student loans.

Get more details about paying for Northeastern University.

How Much Money Do Northeastern Graduates Make?

$79,786 Avg Salary of Grads
High Earnings Boost
Yearly salaries vary depending on what you major in, but on average, bachelor's degree recipients from Northeastern make around $79,786 per year during the early years of their employment. This is good news for future Northeastern graduates since it is 88% more than the average college graduate's salary of $42,485 per year.

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See which majors at Northeastern University make the most money.

Location of Northeastern University

Massachusetts State
15,131 Full-Time Undergraduates
Large City Campus Setting
Northeastern University is a private not-for-profit institution situated in Boston, Massachusetts. The location of Northeastern is great for students who prefer living in an urban area.

Get more details about the location of Northeastern University.

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Contact details for Northeastern are given below.

Contact Details
Address: 360 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA 02115-5005
Phone: 617-373-2000
Website: www.northeastern.edu/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/northeastern
Twitter: https://twitter.com/northeastern

Northeastern University Majors

93 Majors With Completions
4,395 Undergraduate Degrees
3,689 Graduate Degrees
During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 93 majors graduated from Northeastern University. Of these students, 4,395 received undergraduate degrees and 3,689 graduated with a master's or doctor's degree. The following table lists the most popular undergraduate majors along with the average salary graduates from those majors make.

Most Popular Majors Bachelor’s Degrees Average Salary of Graduates
General Business/Commerce 880 $65,358
Computer Information Systems 415 $95,288
Mechanical Engineering 240 $69,867
Economics 167 $56,668
Communication & Media Studies 142 $48,567
Computer Engineering 140 $88,529
Neurobiology & Neurosciences 137 $33,969
Health & Medical Administrative Services 135 $41,623
Child Development & Psychology 130 $35,413
Political Science & Government 126 $45,238

Learn more about the majors offered at Northeastern University along with which ones have the highest average starting salaries.

Online Learning at Northeastern

33% Take At Least One Class Online
5% Take All Classes Online

Online courses area a great option for busy, working students as well as for those who have scheduling conflicts and want to study on their own time. As time goes by, expect to see more and more online learning options become available.

In 2020-2021, 9,273 students took at least one online class at Northeastern University. This is a decrease from the 11,053 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year Took at Least One Online Class Took All Classes Online
2020-2021 9,273 1,286
2019-2020 11,053 663
2018-2019 2,324 209
2017-2018 2,011 173
2016-2017 1,692 249

Learn more about online learning at Northeastern University.

If you’re considering Northeastern University, here are some more schools you may be interested in knowing more about.

Curious on how these schools stack up against Northeastern? Pit them head to head with College Combat, our free interactive tool that lets you compare college on the features that matter most to you!

Notes and References

Footnotes

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

References

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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