Lowell itself has no in-city practical nursing program in 2026. Aspiring LPNs in the 01852 area commute to Greater Lowell Technical School in Tyngsborough, Shawsheen Valley Tech in Billerica, or Northern Essex Community College in Lawrence for a seat, and cohorts fill fast.
That commute is the first real constraint. The second is money: a full-time, 10 to 12 month certificate runs several thousand dollars for in-district residents and considerably more for everyone else. The third is the licensure clock: after graduation, Massachusetts Board paperwork and the NCLEX-PN add weeks before you can legally work.
Jump straight to the program list →
Where Lowell LPNs Actually Work, and What They're Allowed to Do in Massachusetts
Recent job postings show the Lowell-area LPN market splitting into two tiers: a small hospital presence and a much larger post-acute and home-based care sector. For an aspiring LPN, that means job searching is less about hospital employment and more about knowing which facilities reliably hire and what the state actually permits on the floor.
Where the Jobs Actually Cluster
Lowell General Hospital, part of the Tufts Medicine system, lists LPN roles in Dracut at about $30.00 to $33.59 per hour for 32 hours weekly. Tewksbury Hospital, a state-run facility just outside the city, is a steady employer. D'Youville Life & Wellness, Nursing in Long Term Care and rehab centers such as RegalCare at Lowell, where 7a to 3p shifts are common, and home health agencies like Aveanna Healthcare with private duty LPN openings make up much of the market. Merrimack Valley community health LPNs round out the options. Do not expect the Boston teaching hospitals to dominate your options; acute-care employers in the metro hire relatively few LPNs.
Scope of Practice: What Massachusetts Lets LPNs Do
Massachusetts LPNs work under the supervision of an RN or physician and take full responsibility for their licensed practical nurse duties. Medication administration is within scope, and LPNs may serve as charge nurses. Systematic patient assessment is not part of Massachusetts LPN practice, but delegation-based care is. IV therapy is tightly controlled:
- Allowed: peripheral IV insertion, ultrasound vein selection, and starting, hanging, monitoring, and flushing premixed IVs. Emergency IV admixture is also permitted.
- Not allowed: IV compounding and central line management.
Competency areas for infusion include patient assessment, site selection, device placement, and infection control, so LPNs who pursue IV certification gain a hiring edge in settings that need peripherally inserted lines.
The Commute That Defines This Market
The realistic daily drive spans Lawrence, Tewksbury, Chelmsford, Burlington, and Nashua, NH. State-facility and nursing-home staffing shortages keep LPN openings steady across the Merrimack Valley. Corrections and other state-run facilities add another layer of demand for LPNs comfortable with structured environments, so graduates who can commute have more options than the Lowell city limits alone.
Can You Do an LPN Program Online in Massachusetts?
No, you cannot complete a Massachusetts-approved practical nursing program fully online. Even in 2026, every Board-approved LPN track in the state requires hands-on skills labs and supervised clinical rotations at approved facilities. Some online LPN schools label themselves "online" or "hybrid," but that almost always means the lecture and theory portions are delivered online, not the whole program.
What hybrid actually means for Lowell students
For a Lowell-area student, hybrid LPN programs usually translate to a split week. You may watch recorded lectures, take quizzes, and complete reading assignments from home. You will still travel to campus for skills lab sessions, and you will still report to partner hospitals, nursing homes, or clinics for direct patient-care clinicals. The online portion can reduce lecture seat time, but it does not remove the hard in-person requirements.
Watch out for out-of-state online LPN offers
A program must be approved by the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Nursing before you can sit for the NCLEX-PN as a Massachusetts candidate. If an out-of-state "online LPN" program is not Board-approved, or if you cannot meet Massachusetts licensure by endorsement requirements, you could finish the program and still be unable to obtain a Massachusetts license. Confirm Board status before enrolling, not after.
Where blended delivery shows up near Lowell
A few Massachusetts-approved practical nursing programs advertise hybrid or blended theory delivery. Quinsigamond Community College in Worcester describes its Practical Nursing Certificate as blended or hybrid, with some coursework online and some in person at its healthcare training center. Worcester Technical High School offers a part-time evening hybrid LPN option. The exact online share is not published as a fixed number, so contact the program for a current weekly schedule. Massachusetts Board requirements still include at least 1,080 total instructional hours and 540 clinical hours, so the in-person component remains substantial.
Practical takeaway
Plan for regular in-person days. The real choice is not online versus campus; it is day, evening, or part-time scheduling and how far you are willing to commute. Use the schedule comparisons that follow to weigh those logistics instead of waiting for a fully remote LPN option that does not exist.
Practical Nursing Programs Within Commuting Distance of Lowell
Your most direct options within a reasonable drive of Lowell include two technical school programs run by regional vocational districts and a community college certificate. That distinction matters: technical school PN programs tend to run as immersive, cohort-based certificates with a fixed calendar, while community colleges in this pocket of Massachusetts have largely shifted their nursing energy toward LPN to RN programs in Massachusetts.
Greater Lowell Technical School of Practical Nursing (Tyngsborough)
This is the anchor program for the Lowell area, physically about ten minutes up Route 3 from downtown. Key attributes worth knowing before you apply:
- Length: 40 weeks, full-time. There is no part-time track.
- Schedule: Concurrent day and evening divisions, so you can pick the shift that fits work or family obligations without waiting a year for the next intake.
- Cohort size: Roughly 40 seats per division, with an August start. The Class of 2022 graduated 63 students across both divisions, which gives you a sense of real completion numbers rather than seats offered.
- Clinical and classroom load: Around 504 clinical hours and roughly 1,097 total program hours, per the student handbook. Expect rotations at regional hospitals, long-term care facilities, and community sites.
- NCLEX-PN performance: The school reports an 84% first-time pass rate for the Class of 2022 and 86% for the Class of 2023, essentially tracking the Massachusetts statewide first-time pass rate of 86% reported for 2021 Board-approved PN programs, and above the 80% national figure for U.S.-educated LPN graduates that year.
Shawsheen Valley School of Practical Nursing (Billerica)
Shawsheen Tech operates a Board-approved practical nursing program out of Billerica, roughly 15 to 20 minutes south of Lowell. As a Board-approved PN program in Massachusetts it operates under 244 CMR 6.00 like Greater Lowell, but current program length, schedule format, cohort size, and program-specific NCLEX-PN pass rate should be verified directly with the school before you build your application timeline around it.
What About the Community Colleges and Boston?
Northern Essex Community College in Haverhill offers a Board-approved Practical Nursing Certificate, while Middlesex Community College in Lowell/Bedford is primarily an RN pathway. If you are willing to commute further, additional Board-approved PN programs exist in the greater Boston and Lawrence areas, including those on our list of Best LPN Programs in Boston, but at that point you are trading a 15-minute drive for a 45-minute one over a full clinical year, which is a real quality-of-life decision.
What LPN Training Costs Around Lowell, and How Students Pay for It
An LPN program near Lowell is a 10 to 12 month, full-time certificate, and the LPN program cost depends less on the school's reputation than on where your driver's license says you live. Vocational-district schools of practical nursing charge by residency tier, and that single variable can swing your bill by several thousand dollars.
Residency Tiers Are the First Thing to Check
At Greater Lowell Technical School of Practical Nursing, 2026-2027 tuition and fees run about $9,200 in-district, $13,279 out-of-district, and $14,279 out-of-state, with roughly $1,450 more for books, supplies, and uniforms. Because Greater Lowell Tech's district includes Lowell, city residents generally land in the lowest tier, which is a meaningful advantage over applicants commuting in from Lawrence or Nashua. Shawsheen Valley's district covers Billerica, Wilmington, Tewksbury, Bedford, and Burlington, not Lowell, so Lowell applicants there pay the higher rate; recent figures for tuition and fees sat near $14,540 with about $1,500 in books and supplies. Northern Essex Community College's practical nursing certificate has been listed around $16,591 in-district, $17,202 out-of-district, and $27,918 out-of-state for the full 12-month sequence. Published numbers shift year to year, so confirm the current figure with the school before you budget.
The Costs That Are Not Tuition
Budget separately for the application fee, the entrance exam, scrubs and clinical shoes, a stethoscope and assessment kit, CORI/background screening (including any criminal record question), immunizations and physical, liability insurance, and standardized testing or NCLEX review packages. Then add the NCLEX-PN exam fee and the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Nursing licensure application. None of that is optional, and most of it lands early.
For context on borrowing, typical net prices across the community colleges serving this region cluster in the $6,000 to $9,000 range per year, and median debt at graduation for those institutions generally falls between roughly $6,500 and $16,500. Those are institution-wide averages across all programs, not quotes for a practical nursing certificate, but they show that certificate-level nursing debt tends to stay well below four-year degree levels.
Where the Money Comes From
- DDS LPN Certificate Program: Department of Developmental Services employees in direct support, recreation therapist, or residential supervisor roles with two years of full-time service may be sponsored for up to $20,000 lifetime toward tuition, fees, and mandatory costs, with a two-year post-completion work commitment.
- MassHire and WIOA training funds: Healthcare accounts for roughly 40 percent of WIOA training participants statewide; start at your local MassHire career center before you enroll, not after.
- Employer reimbursement: Nursing homes and hospital systems in the Merrimack Valley frequently cover tuition, books, and exam fees, sometimes through Career Ladder arrangements.
Vocational LPN programs often bill by phase or term rather than by traditional semester, and some require a substantial down payment (Greater Lowell Tech has used a $3,500 figure) months before classes begin. Confirm when each payment is due so your aid lands first.
Where Your LPN Program Money Actually Goes
Applicants almost always price an LPN program by its tuition line and stop there. A representative full-time practical nursing program in the Lowell area breaks down roughly as shown below, and the non-tuition pieces (lab fees, books and standardized testing packages, uniforms, clinical clearances, and the two fees that stand between you and a license) add up to about $3,600. Figures vary by school and year, so confirm every line against the program's current cost sheet before you budget.
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Day, Evening, and Part-Time LPN Formats: How Schedule Changes Your Timeline
Schedule format is the single biggest variable in how long your LPN training takes, and it is worth sorting out before you apply anywhere in the Lowell area. Because few Massachusetts schools publish detailed hour-by-hour calendars, the figures below draw on practical nursing programs across the country to show the pattern rather than to describe any one Lowell program. Confirm the actual clock hours, clinical start times, and part-time availability directly with each school's nursing office, since evening and part-time seats are limited and not offered everywhere.
| Format | Typical time to finish | Weekly rhythm | Who it tends to fit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full-time day (standard) | Most commonly 12 to 18 months; published examples include an 11-month day program at Apollo Career Center and a 13-month day certificate at Hunter Business School | Roughly 30 to 40 hours per week combined, often 20 to 25 hours of class and lab, 8 to 16 hours of clinical, and 10 to 15 hours of independent study; clinical shifts can start at 6:30 or 7:00 a.m. | Students who can treat school as their primary commitment and keep weekday daytime hours open |
| Full-time day (morning-block) | About 15 months, as in Pinellas Technical College's 1,350-hour traditional program | Monday through Friday classes in a set morning window (7:00 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. in that example), with clinical rotations scheduled around it | Students who want full-time pace but need predictable afternoons for childcare or a part-time job |
| Evening and weekend | About 17 months for the same curriculum Hunter Business School delivers in 13 months during the day, roughly four additional months | Evening classroom sessions with clinical rotations shifted to weekends instead of weekday daytime hours | Students holding daytime employment or managing daytime family obligations who cannot leave a paycheck behind |
| Part-time | 16 to 20 months at Ambria College of Nursing, against 12 months full-time there; national guidance suggests part-time students may need 24 months or more | Same class blocks and clinical shifts as full-time peers, but fewer courses per term stretched across a longer calendar | Students balancing steady work hours, caregiving, or prerequisite coursework who need a reduced weekly load |
Admission Requirements and Entrance Exams for Lowell-Area LPN Programs
Practical nursing admissions in the Lowell area are competitive but not mysterious. The programs publish different levels of detail, Greater Lowell Tech is the most transparent, Shawsheen Valley the least, so treat the list below as your working checklist and confirm the specifics with each admissions office before you pay for anything.
- High school diploma, GED, or HiSETGreater Lowell Technical School of Practical Nursing requires a high school diploma or GED; if you tested, bring both the certificate and the official transcript. Credentials earned outside the U.S. need a formal credential evaluation. Applicants must also be at least 17.5 years old.
- Entrance exam: TEAS at both Greater Lowell and NECCGreater Lowell uses the TEAS with minimum scores of 60% in reading, 60% in math, and 54.5% in English, and all three must be met to move forward. Northern Essex Community College also requires the TEAS for its practical nursing track, taken within the previous five years, with no published minimum in its criteria. Shawsheen Valley does not publish its exam details and offers no prep course, so ask directly. Retake policies and test fees vary by program and testing site; get them in writing before you schedule.
- Prerequisite courseworkNECC requires Anatomy and Physiology I and II, both with lab, completed with a grade of C or higher before you apply, these are not co-requisites you can take alongside the program. Greater Lowell lists no college-level prerequisites.
- Health clearance, background check, and CPRExpect an immunization record, physical exam, CORI/SORI background screening, and current CPR certification as conditions of clinical placement. These are standard for Massachusetts clinical sites, though the programs don't spell out every line item on their public pages.
- CNA or healthcare experienceNone of the three programs lists CNA certification or paid healthcare experience as a requirement. It is not a barrier, but it does help you answer interview questions credibly.
- Application timing and cohort startsGreater Lowell's most recently published cycle opened applications in December for an August class start, and every applicant who clears the TEAS minimums gets an interview. Shawsheen Valley uses rolling admissions. NECC's practical nursing criteria are published by academic year. Confirm current dates with each school, since published cycles reflect prior years.
- What actually makes you competitiveAt small-cohort vocational programs, the deciding factor is usually the interview and a complete, clean file. Have your citizenship proof, Social Security card, and proof of residency assembled early, score comfortably above the minimums rather than at them, and show up to the interview able to explain why practical nursing specifically, not nursing in general.
Getting Licensed in Massachusetts: From Graduation to Your LPN Number
Massachusetts has tightened its expectations around licensure paperwork in recent years, and graduates who treat the process as an afterthought lose weeks they didn't need to lose. The path runs through the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Nursing, and it follows a fixed order that's worth mapping during LPN school before your last clinical rotation ends.
The Sequence and the Fees
Once your Board-approved practical nursing program confirms completion, you apply for licensure by examination through the state's online licensing portal. That application carries a $230 fee. Separately, you register for the NCLEX-PN with Pearson VUE and pay a $200 exam fee, a cost that's distinct from anything your school charged. After both are processed, Pearson VUE issues an Authorization to Test, typically within two to six weeks, and that authorization is only good for 90 days, so schedule your exam date as soon as it lands.
Background Checks and Good Moral Character
Massachusetts requires every LPN applicant to demonstrate good moral character as defined under state law. In practice this means a background review tied to your application, and applicants with a criminal record shouldn't assume automatic disqualification. The Board evaluates the nature and timing of the offense rather than applying a blanket bar, but anyone with a record should expect the review to add time and should be prepared to submit documentation if asked.
No Bridge Permit While You Wait
Massachusetts does not offer a temporary permit or graduate-nurse practice status for LPN candidates awaiting exam results. You are not authorized to work as an LPN, under any title, until the license is issued. Plan job start dates around your actual license date, not your graduation date or exam date.
Realistic Timeline and Renewal
End to end, most graduates see six to ten weeks from program completion to an active license, assuming no delays in the background review. Once licensed, Massachusetts LPNs renew every two years. Continuing education isn't required for your first renewal, but subsequent cycles call for 15 contact hours, including 7.5 hours tied directly to your practice area, and online coursework counts toward that total.
No practical nursing program in Massachusetts is fully online: some theory coursework can be completed remotely, but the clinical hours that qualify you to sit for the NCLEX-PN must be done in person, at a real bedside.
LPN Salary and Job Outlook in Lowell and Greater Boston
Lowell sits inside the Boston-Cambridge-Nashua metro division, which is where federal wage data for local LPNs gets reported. That matters, because the metro median runs well above the national figure, and the gap is large enough to change how you think about relocating, commuting, or staying put after licensure. The national numbers below come from the May 2025 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics release; the Boston-area figures are from the most recent metro-level publication (May 2023), so treat them as a floor rather than a current-day quote.
| Area | Employment | 10th Percentile | Median Annual Wage | 90th Percentile |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States (May 2025) | 648,410 | $49,740 | $64,400 | $83,440 |
| Boston-Cambridge-Nashua, MA-NH metro division (May 2023) | 9,150 | N/A | $75,690 | $77,870 |
| Massachusetts statewide | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
The Boston-Metro Pay Premium in One Number
Lowell sits inside the Boston-Cambridge-Nashua metro wage area, and that geography shows up in LPN paychecks.
Ranked Practical Nursing Programs Serving Lowell Students
Below are the top practical nursing programs serving Lowell students, ranked on cost, completion, and outcomes data. No campus on this list sits inside Lowell itself, so every option involves a commute: the closest Massachusetts community college program is about 25 minutes away in Haverhill, while the farthest sit roughly an hour out. Each card covers what the school costs, how its outcomes look, and what the drive means for a Lowell student's week.
How we ranked these
- Median graduate debt loads
- Institution-wide graduation rates
- Program costs and tuition
- Accreditation and licensure exam preparation
- Commute distance from Lowell
- College Scorecard graduate earnings — collegescorecard.ed.gov
- IPEDS institutional survey data from NCES covering graduation rates, retention rates and student-faculty ratios — nces.ed.gov
- Internal program database
- Independent editorial research
- Bureau of Economic Analysis cost-of-living index by state — bea.gov
Massachusetts Bay Community College
Massachusetts Bay Community College's 40-week Practical Nursing Certificate runs full time at the Framingham campus with small cohorts, a fall start, and clinical placements in hospitals and clinics. The program is ACEN-accredited and approved by the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Nursing, and the college reports a perfect licensure pass rate for it. College-wide, the graduation rate sits near 17 percent with retention at 56 percent, median federal debt around $6,500 among graduates, and in-state tuition and fees near $5,856. Framingham is roughly an hour southwest of Lowell, so this fits students who can commit to weekday, full-time study.
Practical Nursing Certificate — On-Campus
Mount Wachusett Community College
Mount Wachusett Community College offers a compact Practical Nursing Certificate built from seven courses, with selective admissions and an entrance exam required for entry. It is ACEN-accredited and approved by the Massachusetts Board of Nursing, and graduates are prepared to sit for the NCLEX-PN. Institution-wide, the college posts a graduation rate near 24 percent, retention of 63 percent, median debt of about $10,250 among graduates, and in-state tuition and fees around $6,160. Gardner is roughly 40 miles west of Lowell, a manageable drive for a full-time day program but a long daily haul for a working student.
Practical Nursing Certificate — On-Campus
Northern Essex Community College
Northern Essex Community College is the closest Massachusetts community college option to Lowell, with its Practical Nursing Certificate based at the Haverhill campus. The ACEN-accredited, Board-approved program blends classroom, lab, and supervised clinical work, charges $346 per credit for in-state students, and lets graduates carry credits into the college's associate degree in nursing. College-wide, the graduation rate is near 21 percent and retention near 61 percent, with median debt of about $9,000 among graduates and an average net price after aid of roughly $6,050, among the lowest here. Haverhill is a short drive northeast, which makes this the simplest commute of the Massachusetts options.
Practical Nursing Certificate — On-Campus
North Shore Community College
North Shore Community College runs an intensive ten-month Practical Nursing Certificate at its Danvers campus, a selective-admissions day program with ACEN accreditation and approval from the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Nursing. Clinical rotations span hospitals, long-term care, home health, and community health centers, and the college reports a 95 percent licensure pass rate with about 89 percent job placement. Institution-wide, the graduation rate is near 18 percent with retention of 61 percent, median debt of about $9,000 among graduates, and in-state tuition and fees around $5,352, the lowest of the Massachusetts publics on this list. One timing note for 2026: the certificate is closed to new Fall 2026 applicants and listed as open for Fall 2027. Danvers sits about 30 miles southeast of Lowell, so plan on a commute down Route 128.
Practical Nursing Certificate — On-Campus
Quinsigamond Community College
Quinsigamond Community College's Practical Nursing Certificate is a five-semester, 46-credit program delivered in a hybrid format, with weekend and evening clinical options that few programs in this group offer. It is ACEN-accredited and approved by the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Nursing, requires the TEAS exam and a 2.7 GPA, and starts in the summer. Across the college, the graduation rate sits near 22 percent with retention at 62 percent, while median debt among graduates runs about $16,575, the highest of the Massachusetts community colleges listed here. Worcester is roughly 45 miles southwest of Lowell, so the hybrid structure is what makes this one workable for a Lowell student holding down a job.
Practical Nursing Certificate — Hybrid
Manchester Community College
Manchester Community College's one-year, 36-credit Licensed Practical Nursing program is a cohort-based certificate with a simulation lab and clinical training at Parkland Medical Center. It is designed for students who already have a medical background or LNA experience, and it feeds into the college's LPN-to-RN bridge for graduates who want to keep advancing. Institution-wide, the college reports a graduation rate near 41 percent with retention of 61 percent and median debt of about $15,060 among graduates; the roughly $7,090 tuition and fee figure reflects New Hampshire residency, so Massachusetts students should expect out-of-state pricing. Manchester is about 45 minutes north of Lowell on I-93, and graduates apply for licensure in whichever state they plan to work in.
Licensed Practical Nursing (LPN) Program, Certificate or Diploma — On-Campus
Nashua Community College
Nashua Community College offers a one-year, 36-credit Licensed Practical Nursing certificate in partnership with River Valley Community College, with clinical rotations across the Greater Nashua region. Entry requires the TEAS exam, New Hampshire LNA licensure, CPR certification, a background check, and a drug screen, and the program starts in the spring with ACEN candidacy in progress. College-wide, the graduation rate is near 38 percent with retention of 64 percent and median debt of about $11,000 among graduates, but the average net price after aid, roughly $23,150, is the highest figure in this group. Nashua is only about 25 miles north of Lowell, a short commute, though the New Hampshire admissions requirements and out-of-state pricing are the real trade-offs for a Massachusetts student.
Licensed Practical Nursing (LPN) Certificate — On-Campus
Quincy College
Quincy College's Certificate of Completion in Practical Nursing is a full-time, ten-month program with fall and spring start dates and clinical placements at major Massachusetts hospitals. Admission requires the TEAS exam plus prerequisites in college algebra, anatomy and physiology, and human growth and development, and the program accepts Massachusetts residents only, which works in a Lowell applicant's favor. Institution-wide, the graduation rate is near 15 percent with retention of 60 percent, median debt of about $13,874 among graduates, and an average net price after aid around $17,126. Quincy is roughly 35 miles southeast of Lowell, and the program is offered at the Quincy and Plymouth campuses.
