Ohio did not fare well in a new ranking of community colleges across the country.
A study by WalletHub identified the best and worst community colleges in the country and showed which states performed best overall. Ohio came in at number 41 – the last place of the states evaluated.
“Although community colleges can offer significant cost advantages, the quality of schools is not consistent in every state,” WalletHub says.
The national rankings were determined using a weighted average of each community college’s individual score and the number of students attending each college.
According to the study, the top three states were Maryland, New Mexico and Connecticut.
The highest-scoring community college in Ohio was Lakeland Community College in Kirtland, which received a score of 54.69 out of 100. However, this result placed the school only 414th out of 653 schools evaluated.
Stark State College in suburban Canton finished low on the national rankings. It also achieved the second-lowest score in Ohio with 48.46 points, placing it 588th in the national rankings.
“A good community college minimizes costs for students while providing an enriching learning experience that leads to high student retention and high graduation rates,” said Cassandra Happe, an analyst at WalletHub, in a prepared statement. “The best colleges also help their students after graduation by offering job placement services to help them find well-paying jobs. Finally, many of the best community colleges recognize that school is not the only place people learn, so they offer credit for life experiences.”
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Where are the best community colleges in Ohio?
Here is the list of Ohio-area community colleges evaluated in the study, sorted in order from highest to lowest score:
- Lakeland Community College
- Belmont College
- Columbus State Community College
- Owens Community College
- Northwestern State Community College
- Terra State Community College
- Hocking College
- Cuyahoga Community College District
- Southern State Community College
- Edison State Community College
- Stark State College
- Eastern Gateway Community College
Where are the best community colleges in the USA?
According to the study, these are the ten best-rated community colleges in the country:
- Manhattan Area Technical College in Kansas
- Missouri State Technical College
- Pratt Community College in Kansas
- Santa Fe Community College in New Mexico
- Southeast New Mexico College in New Mexico
- Irvine Valley College in California
- Moraine Park Technical College in Wisconsin
- CT State Community College Asnuntuck in Connecticut
- College of San Mateo in California
- Montgomery College in Maryland
