NECC Engineering Science student Nicole Catanzaro transferred to UMass Lowell after receiving her associate degree at Northern Essex.

When Nicole Catanzaro enrolled at Northern Essex Community College, transfer was already on her mind.

It was important to the 25-year-old Army National Guard veteran that her engineering science degree transfer easily into a bachelor’s program at a four-year institution. It did. Today the Haverhill resident is enrolled at UMass Lowell in the bachelor’s degree program in engineering.

Northern Essex understands the importance of a hassle-free transfer and has cultivated educational partnerships and articulation agreements with other educational institutions to aid in the transfer process.

NECC holds hundreds of articulation agreements with close to two dozen private institutions, eight Massachusetts state colleges and universities (under the MassTransfer Program, which guarantees acceptance into their programs with a qualifying GPA), and three international schools – Bath Spa University, University of West London, and most recently Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. These agreements allow students to earn an NECC associate degree or credits that transfer seamlessly into bachelor’s degree programs.

“Transferring was extremely important to my plan,” Catanzaro said. “I am trying to fast track my degree as much as possible and NECC helped me to accomplish that,” she said.

Preparing students for transfer is a major part of the college’s mission.

In keeping with that mission, NECC continues to create partnerships and recently signed new agreements to bring bachelor degree completion programs to NECC’s Lawrence Campus. Now, Regis College offers a Bachelor of Science in Nursing with a minor in Public Health and a Bachelor of Arts in Public Health.

These partnerships are in addition to the bachelor degree completion programs offered on the Haverhill Campus: Psychology, Criminal Justice, and Business Administration from UMass Lowell; and ASL/English Interpreting from Framingham State University.

“I would highly recommend NECC to any student and tell them to take advantage of the transfer agreements. NECC definitely makes it worth it. I am happy to have gone there,” says Catanzaro.

For more information on transferring opportunities at Northern Essex, visit the website.

Top Five Schools NECC
Students Transfer to:
1. University of Massachusetts – Lowell
2. Southern New Hampshire University
3. Merrimack College
4. Salem State University
5. University of Massachusetts – Amherst