How can I compare the true cost of attending Duke and Northeastern?

The biggest practical difference is predictability: Duke’s undergraduate aid is primarily built around demonstrated financial need, while Northeastern’s final price can depend more heavily on the particular mix of need-based aid and any merit scholarship you receive.

Run both schools’ official Net Price Calculators using exactly the same inputs: parent income, assets, home equity if requested, number of children in college, and your own savings and earnings. Save the results and compare the estimated family contribution, grants and scholarships, work-study, and any loans separately. A lower “net price” that includes substantial loans or work-study is not equivalent to the same price covered by grants.

Also compare the full cost-of-attendance categories, not tuition alone. Include housing and food, books and course materials, health insurance if you will use the school plan, personal expenses, and travel between home and campus. Duke’s Durham location and Northeastern’s Boston location can create different off-campus spending and travel patterns, especially after the first year.

Ask each financial-aid office how its estimate treats unusual circumstances that the calculator may miss, such as a recent job loss, major medical costs, a parent’s reduced income, or a sibling entering college. If admitted, compare the written aid offers line by line and ask whether renewable grants have academic or enrollment conditions.

For cost predictability alone, Duke is the safer estimate for a student whose family has substantial demonstrated need. Northeastern can be the less expensive option only if its final combination of need-based aid and any awarded merit scholarship produces a meaningfully lower renewable net cost.