COLUMBIA, S.C. – A new study by the personal finance website WalletHub ranks which states have the best and worst community college systems and also ranks individual colleges. South Carolina’s community college and technical college system ranks 37th. Georgia ranks 11th and North Carolina is 35th. South Dakota is ranked number one.
The study looked at costs, education outcomes, and career outcomes. For example on costs, it looked at the cost of tuition, how much schools are spending per student, and financial aid available.
WalletHub analyst Jill Gonzalez says, “We also looked at education outcomes, so that takes into consideration the first-year retention rate, the graduation rate, the faculty/staff-to-student ratio. And then finally we looked at the career outcomes. So what’s the return on your educational investment and what are the student loan default rates per school?”
The return on educational investment looks at starting salary of graduates compared to the cost of their education.
The study also ranked 821 community colleges and technical colleges nationwide. The top rated in the nation is the Helene Fuld College of Nursing in New York.
In South Carolina, not every community college and technical college was ranked, but here are the rankings for those that were:
300. Spartanburg Community College
Serving: Cherokee, Spartanburg, and Union counties
363. Northeastern Technical College
Serving: Chesterfield, Dillon, and Marlboro counties
403. Aiken Technical College
Serving: Aiken county
473. York Technical College
Serving: Chester, Lancaster, and York counties
483. Midlands Technical College
Serving: Fairfield, Lexington, and Richland counties
512. Greenville Technical College
Serving: Greenville county
609. Tri-County Technical College
Serving: Anderson, Oconee, and Pickens counties
648. Williamsburg Technical College
Serving: Williamsburg County
659. Trident Technical College
Serving: Berkeley, Charleston, and Dorchester counties
682. Florence-Darlington Technical College
Serving: Darlington, Florence, and Marion counties
721. Piedmont Technical College
Serving: Abbeville, Edgefield, Greenwood, Laurens, McCormick, Newberry, and Saluda counties
810. Denmark Technical College
Serving: Allendale, Bamberg, and Barnwell countiesYou can read the entire state rankings here.You can read the community and technical college rankings here: