by our College Data Analytics TeamMost students will not be asked to pay the full, advertised sticker price of a school. Instead, they will be given a financial aid offer that will include a combination of scholarships, grants, loans, and work-study. The total price of attendance at Northern Essex Community College can feel tremendous, but do not forget that almost all students receive some sort of financial help.
Just what financing solutions does NECC provide, and just what are you going to be eligible for? Keep scrolling for answers. Keep going to learn just how much financial aid will be open to you.
The amount of financial aid and scholarships you are eligible for will vary depending on your family’s income. The information provided on this page can help you determine how much aid you may receive from Northern Essex Community College.
Colleges use loans, grants, scholarships and work-study to minimize what students actually pay out of pocket. Bear in mind that not all aid is equal, and the amount any one student receives can vary widely.
Looking at the entering class at Northern Essex Community College, 73% of first-year full-time students received aid of some kind (about 234 first-years).
| Type of Aid | % of Freshmen Receiving | Average Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Grant or scholarship aid (all sources) | 67% | $6,990 |
| Institutional grants & scholarships | 12% | $1,699 |
| Federal Pell grants | 55% | $5,201 |
| State/local grants | 55% | $2,728 |
| Federal student loans | 12% | $3,950 |
The best aid is gift aid: grants and scholarships that carry no repayment obligation. At this school, some 64% of undergraduate students received gift aid averaging $4,691 (across roughly 2881 undergraduates).
| Award | % of Undergrads Receiving | Average Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Grant or scholarship aid (all sources) | 64% | $4,691 |
| Federal Pell grants | 47% | $3,584 |
| Federal student loans | 10% | $4,122 |
On-campus students receiving title-IV aid were awarded grants averaging $7,155.
How much a family pays depends heavily on income, because most aid is awarded on the basis of financial need.
| Family Income | Average Net Price |
|---|---|
| $0 – $48,000 | $1,989 |
| $30,001 – $75,000 | $3,760 |
| Over $75,000 | $10,415 |
The numbers above are post-aid net prices, so they already account for grants and scholarships.
After grants and scholarships come off the published price, what remains is the net price — the best estimate of true out-of-pocket cost.
| Cohort | Average Net Price |
|---|---|
| On-campus title-IV students | $6,046 |
| Off-campus title-IV students | $3,971 |
To project your own net price, use NECC’s official net price calculator: www.necc.mass.edu/afford/tuition-costs/estimating-costs/net-price-calculator/.
The median federal debt load at NECC comes to $5,661 in federal loans.
| Metric | Amount |
|---|---|
| Median federal debt (all student-aid borrowers) | $5,661 |
| Median federal debt (graduates only) | $9,000 |
| Typical 10-year monthly payment (graduates) | $95.41/mo |
Under a standard ten-year plan, the median graduate’s monthly payment lands near the figure above.
The median alone does not show how widely outcomes vary across the student body. These percentiles trace how cumulative federal debt is spread among borrowers at NECC.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $1,550 |
| 25th percentile | $2,700 |
| 75th percentile | $10,500 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $18,000 |
Median debt varies by family income, by first-generation status, and by dependency status.
Median Debt by Income Bracket
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $6,040 |
| Middle income | $5,500 |
| High income | $5,500 |
First-Generation Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $5,750 |
| Continuing-generation students | $5,500 |
Dependency-Status Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $5,500 |
| Independent students | $6,929 |
The figure below distills the debt data into a single burden category for NECC.
Most undergraduate borrowing runs through the federal Stafford loan program. The totals below capture Stafford lending at NECC:
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Stafford loan recipients | 9300 |
| Total Stafford loan amount | $89,894,014 |
Military-affiliated students can tap the Post-9/11 GI Bill and DoD Tuition Assistance.
GI Bill volume
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| GI Bill recipients | 35 |
| Total GI Bill amount | $175,613 |
| Average GI Bill amount per recipient | $5,018 |
DoD program volume
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| DoD Tuition Assistance recipients | 0 |
| Total DoD amount | $0 |
References
More about our data sources and methodologies.