South Dakota, Iowa & Minnesota Community Colleges In Top Ten!

In a world where it has become increasingly more difficult for students and their families to afford traditional four-year university educations, community colleges are stepping up to fill a void. And, they're doing it at a substantially lower cost.

Tuition and fees for a full-time student at a public four-year university during the 2021 to 2022 academic year averaged $10,740, for a four-year private school, $38,070. But for a public two-year college, it was $3,800. Students who start at a community college and then transfer to a 4-year school could save a lot of money.

The Wallet Hub Best and Worst Community Colleges study has changed as inflation has driven costs up everywhere.

Once again, they took into account, in-state tuition, and fees, student-to-faculty ratios, student loan default rates, rates of graduation, and return on educational investment rates among other statistics, when putting together these two studies.

The highest ranking South Dakota community college was Mitchell Technical College's fantastic 6th place! Lake Area Technical Institute has inexplicably fallen to 119th after being number two only a few years ago, and Southeast Technical College is 220th.

The ranking of the Top 5 South Dakota Community Colleges in the state was:

1. MTI - Mitchell Technical College (Institute)
2. Lake Area Technical College
3. Southeast Technical College
4. Western Dakota Technical College
5. Sisseton Wahpeton College

As for Iowa community colleges, Northwest Iowa Community College was 2nd in the U.S. and Alexandria Technical & Community College in Minnesota was 3rd.

To see all the outcomes and information go to Wallet Hub's Best and Worst Community Colleges.

Source: WalletHub