Hopkinsville Community College has been ranked as the best two-year school in the state and one of the best in the country by SmartAsset.
The financial website is a national marketplace that connects consumers to financial advisors with content seen by 75 million users each month.
They compared 616 two-year schools that offer associate degrees and have at least 500 full-time students based on their retention rates, student-to-faculty ratio, and tuition and fees to determine the best community colleges in the U.S.
HCC is listed with a full-time retention rate of 63%, a student-to-faculty ratio of 17, and in-state tuition and fees of $4,560. Its ranking is 246th nationwide.
SmartAsset listed Chattanooga State Community College as the best in Tennessee with a national rank of 230th. They are credited with a full-time retention rate of 53%, a student-to-faculty ratio of 13, and in-state tuition & fees at $4,430.
Gateway Technical College in Kenosha, Wisconsin claimed the top spot in the study with a full-time retention rate of 81%, a student-faculty ratio of eight, and $4,766 in tuition and fees for in-state students.
The median student-faculty ratio across the 616 community colleges was 17, while the maximum was 39.
65% of the top 20 community colleges are in North Carolina. SmartAsset said North Carolina schools tend to have the best balance of retention, personal attention, and affordability.
Despite its reputation for high costs in other categories, California schools occupy all of the top 50 least expensive schools which charge full-time, in-state students less than $1,500 annually for tuition and fees.
Information for the SmartAsset survey was taken from information from the 2022-23 school year.
