Northeastern University Data & Information Overview

Get the facts about Northeastern University. Learn how it ranks, what majors it offers, how diverse it is, and much more. If you're interested in learning more about a particular stat, just click on its tile to go to a new page that covers the topic more in-depth. Also, you can jump to any section of this page by clicking one of the links below.

• Rankings
• Admission and Acceptance
• Faculty
• Retention and Graduation Rates
• Diversity
• Cost
• Student Debt
• Average Earnings
• Location
• Majors
• Online Learning
• Related Schools

How Well Is Northeastern University Ranked?

2021 Rankings

College Factual recognizes the best colleges and universities in its annual rankings. These rankings include categories for best overall colleges, best colleges for each major, best value schools, and much more.

Northeastern University was awarded 214 badges in the 2021 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is biochemistry, biophysics and molecular biology.

Overall Quality

Northeastern is ranked #81 out of 1,715 schools in the nation for overall quality on College Factual's 2021 Best Colleges list. This puts it in the top 5% of all schools in the nation.

Northeastern is also ranked #16 out of 68 schools in Massachusetts.

See all of the rankings for Northeastern University.

Is It Hard to Get Into Northeastern?

Acceptance Rate

Even if you have the best grades and high test scores, that may not be enough to get into Northeastern since the school has one of the most selective in the country. Its acceptance rate is a mere 27%, so there's no shame if you don't get in. Be sure to apply to other schools just in case.

Average Test Scores

About 33% 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 680 and 750. Math scores were between 690 and 770.

Northeastern received ACT scores from 53% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT Composite scores ranged between 32 and 34.

Learn more about Northeastern University admissions.

Northeastern University Faculty

Student to Faculty Ratio

The student to faculty ratio at Northeastern University is about average at 14 to 1. This ratio is often used to gauge how many students might be in an average class and how much time professors will have to spend with their students on an individual level. The national average for this metric is 15 to 1.

Percent of Full-Time Faculty

In addition to the student to faculty ratio, some people look at what percentage of faculty members are full-time as a sign of how much time professors will be able to spend with their students. This is because part-time teachers may not be be on campus as much as their full-time counterparts.

The full-time faculty percentage at Northeastern University is 74%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Retention and Graduation Rates at Northeastern University

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.

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

Excellent Overall Diversity at Northeastern

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 13,825 undergraduates at Northeastern with 13,786 being full-time and 39 being part-time.

Northeastern Diversity Score

For each college and university, College Factual calculates an overall diversity score that takes four factors into account: gender, ethnicity, age, and home location of the student. Then, the schools with the best mixtures of students with respect to these factors are ranked the highest.

With an overall score of 99.20 out of 100, Northeastern is one of the most diverse schools in the nation.

Get more detailed information on diversity and student demographics at Northeastern University.

How Much Does Northeastern University Cost?

The overall average net price of Northeastern is $31,855. 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 +
$12,168	$14,186	$18,627	$27,272	$44,248

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 43% of students took out student loans averaging $6,792 a year. That adds up to $27,168 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at Northeastern is 2.0%. 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?

The pay for some majors is higher than others, but on average, students who graduate with a bachelor's degree from Northeastern make about $67,400 a year during their first few years of employment after graduation. That's great news for Northeastern students since it is 69% more than the average college graduate's salary of $39,802 per year.

See which majors at Northeastern University make the most money.

Location of Northeastern University

Located in Boston, Massachusetts, Northeastern University is a private not-for-profit institution. Boston is a great location for students who prefer city over country life.

Get more details about the location of Northeastern University.

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

During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 88 majors graduated from Northeastern University. Of these students, 4,127 received undergraduate degrees and 3,296 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	900	$60,700
Computer Information Systems	248	$85,800
Mechanical Engineering	222	$69,600
Economics	203	$56,700
Chemical Engineering	154	$68,600
Communication & Media Studies	152	$45,400
General Biology	134	$38,100
Neurobiology & Neurosciences	134	$37,600
Child Development & Psychology	128	$37,500
Political Science & Government	122	$43,900

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

Online Learning at Northeastern

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 2017-2018, 2,011 students took at least one online class at Northeastern University. This is an increase from the 1,692 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year	Took at Least One Online Class	Took All Classes Online
2017-2018	2,011	173
2016-2017	1,692	249
2015-2016	1,636	240
2014-2015	1,425	206
2013-2014	1,488	173

Learn more about online learning at Northeastern University.

Related Schools

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

• Bucknell University
• Lafayette College
• Lehigh University
• University of Notre Dame
• Villanova University

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!

References

• National Center for Education Statistics
• College Scorecard
• Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System
• Image Credit: By (User:Piotrus) under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.