The best community colleges provide an effective springboard into higher education, offering students high-quality two-year degree programs in a wide range of disciplines. The top-rated community colleges in Arkansas offer a broad selection of associate’s degrees, affordable tuition rates, and strong partnerships with public four-year schools so that students can easily transfer their credits into accredited bachelor’s degree programs.
Colleges and universities in Arkansas are uniquely affordable, with just under half providing tuition rates of $9,000 or less. We’ve also found 7 high quality colleges offering online degree programs in Arkansas.
Indeed, online students can earn their degree at one of the state’s two largest universities, the University of Arkansas or Arkansas State University.
Though students can find some overlapping degree programs at the two schools, each has its specialties. For example, students hoping to pursue degrees in architecture, agriculture, or business may want to consider the University of Arkansas, while those interested in biology, nursing, or political science may want to attend Arkansas State University. It is possible to study these subjects both through traditional and online degree programs in the state of Arkansas.
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Roughly one third of the schools in Arkansas have a religious affiliation. Student populations at these schools range from just under 200 students up to 5,000. Both traditional and online students can pursue degrees that merge religious studies with fields like chemistry and history.
Tuition rates at each of the state’s 12 private schools vary greatly. Arkansas’s private colleges and schools cost anywhere between $9,000 and $46,000. Many of these private colleges boast high graduation rates and small class sizes.
Arkansas is perhaps best-known and loved for its countless lakes, Hot Springs National Park, and the United States’ only active diamond mine. However, the Natural State houses many higher education institutes where both traditional and online students can earn associate, bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in a full range of disciplines.
With so many affordable schools and competitive on-campus and online degree programs, students attending school in Arkansas have the luxury of combining their individual budget needs with their desired degree paths. For more information on attending school in Arkansas, check out some of the state’s top schools.
We’ve identified 22 community colleges in Arkansas. The following list shows the best community colleges and primarily associate degree granting colleges in Arkansas.
If you’re interested in an online associate degree, visit our best online associate degrees in Arkansas page.
Tuition + fees
$4K
Graduation
27%
Student body
5K
Northwest Arkansas Community College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$3K
Graduation
52%
Student body
<1K
University of Arkansas Community College at Batesville’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$4K
Graduation
27%
Student body
1K
North Arkansas College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$3K
Acceptance
100%
Graduation
37%
Student body
1K
University of Arkansas Community College at Morrilton’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$4K
Graduation
41%
Student body
<1K
Cossatot Community College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$3K
Graduation
35%
Student body
2K
Arkansas State University-Newport’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$5K
Graduation
20%
Student body
2K
National Park College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$3K
Graduation
42%
Student body
2K
Arkansas State University-Beebe’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$4K
Graduation
19%
Student body
<1K
Southeast Arkansas College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$3K
Graduation
16%
Student body
<1K
Arkansas State University Mid-South’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$5K
Graduation
30%
Student body
1K
Black River Technical College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$5K
Graduation
41%
Student body
<1K
Southern Arkansas University Tech’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$3K
Graduation
57%
Student body
<1K
Tuition + fees
$3K
Graduation
21%
Student body
1K
South Arkansas Community College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$3K
Graduation
41%
Student body
<1K
Phillips Community College of the University of Arkansas’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$6K
Graduation
24%
Student body
2K
University of Arkansas – Pulaski Technical College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$3K
Graduation
27%
Student body
<1K
Arkansas Northeastern College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$3K
Graduation
25%
Student body
<1K
East Arkansas Community College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$3K
Graduation
30%
Student body
<1K
Arkansas State University Three Rivers’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$3K
Graduation
39%
Student body
<1K
Tuition + fees
$3K
Graduation
52%
Student body
<1K
University of Arkansas Rich Mountain’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$3K
Graduation
38%
Student body
<1K
Many of our 2022 undergraduate focused rankings look considerably different than 2021. That’s because we took a fundamentally different apporach. For 2021 we utiulized our Concentrated Influence algorithm, designed to take away the size advantage larger schools have when we rank their faculty and alumni’s academic influence. Concentrated influence highlights smaller schools that are proportionally as successful as larger universities at cultivating influential alumni and faculty.
