Oklahoma community colleges ranked high for affordability, outcomes

Aug. 22--Oklahoma's community college system ranks 14th best in the nation, with Northern Oklahoma College making the list of Top 10 colleges in a study released Monday by the personal finance website WalletHub.

NOC -- with campuses in Tonkawa, Enid and Stillwater -- ranked eighth in the 2017 Best & Worst Community Colleges list.

WalletHub analysts compared a sample of 728 schools from the American Association of Community Colleges membership across 14 key indicators of cost and quality.

NOC President Cheryl Evans said the ranking is exciting because it recognizes the college is creating life-changing experiences for students.

"This is important to us as an institution because it is external validation of what those we serve know," Evans said. "Northern is fulfilling its mission to be affordable and accessible while providing a quality higher educational experience for our students, who get super outcomes in terms of successfully transferring to four-year universities or heading right to the workforce with great earning potential."

Colleges were evaluated on cost and financing, education outcomes and career outcomes, with each category counting for one-third of the total score.

The new study ranked NOC fifth nationally in career outcomes. Just one year earlier, SmartAsset reported NOC students had the highest return on investment among public two-year colleges. That report showed the starting salary for the average NOC graduate is 1.9 times the total cost of attendance.

NOC had a total fall 2016 enrollment of 4,889 students. In-state students paid an average $1,736 a semester in tuition and mandatory fees, slightly less than the national average of $1,760 in the WalletHub report.

Other Oklahoma institutions in the new analysis and their rankings are Murray State College, Tishomingo, 172; College of the Muscogee Nation, Okmulgee, 180; Seminole State College, Seminole, 263; Rose State College, Midwest City, 292; Tulsa Community College, 326; Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College, Miami, 388; and Oklahoma City Community College, 513.

To rank a state's community college systems, analysts calculated a weighted average of the scores earned by the individual schools in each state and the number of students enrolled in each school.

South Dakota placed first, Alaska second and Washington third.

Community colleges cater to students with family obligations or work schedules that don't allow them to take a traditional schedule of classes. For some students, they are the only affordable option.

Students who earn their general education credits at a community college before transferring to an in-state public four-year university save an average $12,260 in tuition and fees alone, according to the new report.

In some cases, they pay nothing. WalletHub reports multiple states and cities across the U.S. have initiated College Promise programs that grant residents free rides to community college. New York, Oregon, Rhode Island and Tennessee already are doing so, while several other states have introduced free-college legislation.

In Oklahoma, lawmakers have filed bills the past two years seeking to cover the cost of community college tuition for full-time students who meet certain requirements.

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