College Viability Inspection Report

Northern Marianas College

Northern Mariana Islands · Public

Northern Marianas College is a public institution in the Northern Mariana Islands, enrolling 1,056 students as of 2024. It graduates 7% of students in four years, returns 73% of freshmen for a second year, and costs an average of $3,850 a year after grants and scholarships. Of the 8 inspection checks that could be evaluated, 4 are flagged: Retention, Graduation, Endowment, and Tuition Allocation. This report benchmarks Northern Marianas College's most recent reported year (2024) against 2,000+ U.S. colleges across three dimensions: student outcomes, financial health, and value for money. All figures are drawn from federal IPEDS filings and are reported without editorial judgment.

Data note: The U.S. Department of Education's IPEDS database did not include every reported figure for Northern Marianas College between 2020 and 2024. 1 inspection flag could not be evaluated for lack of data — affected indicators are tagged below; missing years are shown as gaps in trend charts rather than estimated.

Northern Marianas College Inspection Flags

Student Outcomes
Financial Health
Value for Your Money

Inspection flags are nine independent checks across student outcomes, financial health, and cost-to-value that surface areas of a college's reported numbers worth a closer look. A triggered flag means the college's data met a specific threshold that students and families may want to ask about — for example, graduation rates slipping below a level, or tuition rising while outcomes decline. A clear flag means the threshold was not met. Flags are signals for further conversation, not verdicts.

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College Viability
Data Summary

Northern Marianas College — All Reported Indicators

Plain-text reference table of every metric and inspection flag for Northern Marianas College. Values reflect IPEDS-reported figures; percent changes reflect endpoint-to-endpoint 2020 → 2024 comparison; percentiles reflect 2024 national rank against four-year public and private nonprofit institutions. Cells marked "not reported" indicate the indicator was not present in IPEDS for this institution.

Student Outcomes

Metric2024 Value5-Yr % ChangeNational Percentile
Four-Year Graduation Rate7.0%+250.0%8th
Six-Year Graduation Rate25.0%+56.3%10th
Full-Time Retention Rate73.0%-11.0%39th
Pell Grant Six-Year Graduation Rate30.4%+113.0%19th
Pell-to-Non-Pell Graduation Gap-10.4pp-100.9%7th
Pell Share of Cohort82.1%+3.7%94th

Financial Health

Metric2024 Value5-Yr % ChangeNational Percentile
Revenue-to-Expense Ratio1.47×-3.6%93rd
Total FTE Enrollment1,056+0.1%38th
Endowment Value$14.8M+64.2%25th
Net Assets (End of Year)$65.4M+205.0%42nd

Value for Money

Metric2024 Value5-Yr % ChangeNational Percentile
Instructional Spending %7.8%-67.5%1st
Student Support Spending %12.6%-14.4%50th
Administrative Spending %36.8%+58.4%92nd
Instruction+Support to Admin Ratio0.55×-66.8%2nd
Average Net Price$3,850+109.1%1st
Net Price: $0-30K Income$2,383+28.9%3rd
Net Price: $30K-48K Income$1,982+23.1%2nd
Net Price: $48-75K Income$4,702+41.2%2nd
Net Price: $75K-110K Income$6,429+61.9%1st
Net Price: $110K+ Income$4,014not reported0th

Inspection Flags

FlagSectionStatus
Retention Below 80%
Northern Marianas College's retention rate fell below 80% in 3 of 5 reported years — triggering the 3-of-5 threshold.
Student OutcomesTriggered
Four-Year Graduation Rate Below 50%
Northern Marianas College's 4-year graduation rate fell below 50% in 5 of 5 reported years — triggering the 3-of-5 threshold.
Student OutcomesTriggered
Pell Gap Exceeds 10 Points
Not enough reported data for this flag — only 1 of 5 years had a Pell cohort of 50+ students.
Student OutcomesNot Evaluated
Revenue-to-Expense Below 1.0
Northern Marianas College's ratio stayed at or above 1.0 in all 5 reported years — ending at 1.47× in 2024.
Financial HealthCleared
Enrollment Declined 5% or More
Northern Marianas College's total enrollment grew from 1,055 to 1,056 students between 2020 and 2024 (+0.1%).
Financial HealthCleared
Endowment Under $50M or Growth Under 15%
Northern Marianas College's endowment is $14.8M, under the $50 million threshold. A smaller endowment leaves less cushion for scholarships and for tough budget years, even though it grew +64.2% over the period.
Financial HealthTriggered
High Cost, Low Completion
Northern Marianas College costs less than the national median AND graduates students at below-median rates — only one of two conditions is met.
Value for MoneyCleared
Spending on Students Below the National Median
Northern Marianas College spends $0.55 on instruction and student support per $1 of admin (2024) — below the national median of $2.75 in 5 of 5 reported years.
Value for MoneyTriggered
Rising Price, Falling Outcomes
Either net price did not rise or the graduation rate did not decline between 2020 and 2024 — flag not triggered.
Value for MoneyCleared