Best & Worst Community Colleges (2026)

Community colleges offer students the ability to get higher education without having as much financial strain. During the 2025 to 2026 academic year, tuition and fees for full-time, in-state enrollment at a public two-year college averaged just $4,150 per year. Compare that to $11,950 at a public four-year institution and $45,000 at a four-year private school.

Community colleges also have a number of other attractive qualities. They often provide flexible schedules, small class sizes and rigorous coursework. Some even go beyond two-year programs to offer four-year bachelor’s degrees.

To determine where students can receive the best education at the lowest price, WalletHub compared more than 610 community colleges across 18 key indicators of cost and quality. Our data set ranges from the cost of in-state tuition and fees to the student-faculty ratio and graduation rate.

Best Community Colleges in 2026

1. State Technical College of Missouri
2. Manhattan Area Technical College
3. Mesalands Community College
4. Mitchell Technical College
5. Pratt Community College

We also conducted a state-level analysis of the Best & Worst Community College Systems.

Main Findings

Best Community Colleges in the U.S.

Note: With the exception of “Total Score,” all of the columns in the table above depict the relative rank of that community college, where a rank of 1 represents the best conditions for that metric category.

In-Depth Look at the Best Community Colleges

State Technical College of Missouri

The State Technical College of Missouri, located in Osage County, MO, is the best community college, in part because 90% of students stay with the school from the first year to the second year, the best retention rate in the country, and 79% of students graduate – the best graduation rate in the country.

In addition, the school’s students receive the third-largest amount of grant or scholarship aid, at an average of $9,223 per student. This helps make it extremely unlikely that students will default on any loans they do have to take out.

Lastly, the State Technical College of Missouri also offers credit for life experiences and provides employment services to students, which can help them graduate more quickly and obtain jobs sooner.

Manhattan Area Technical College

Manhattan Area Technical College in Manhattan, KS, ranks as the second-best community college in 2026, in large part because it puts students on track for good future earnings. Over 77% of former students earn more than the average income of people with only a high school education (between ages 25 and 34). Graduates also have a median salary of nearly $52,000, the 11th-highest among the schools in our study. Plus, the college offers employment services to help students find jobs.

In addition, Manhattan Area Technical College has the lowest student-loan default rate, the fifth-highest graduation rate and the ninth-best retention rate of students between year one and year two.

Finally, Manhattan Area Technical College offers credit for certain life experiences such as volunteer experience or special training outside of school.

Mesalands Community College

Mesalands Community College, located in Tucumcari, NM, is the third-best community college in the U.S. The college has the 12th-highest graduation rate in the country. In addition, Mesalands graduates are very unlikely to default on their debt, and students benefit from the eighth-best student-to-faculty ratio.

Mesalands also offers employment services for students and gives credit for life experiences. To top things off, New Mexico has a statewide free community college tuition program with few eligibility limits, making higher education even more accessible.

Rankings by State

The methodology can be found on the full version of the article on WalletHub.