Best Community Colleges in Hawaii 2025
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 Hawaii 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.
Key Takeaways
- Located in a diverse ecological environment, the best community colleges in Hawaii provide unique opportunities for hands-on learning in marine biology, volcanology, and environmental science, leveraging Hawaii’s rich natural resources.
- The colleges in our ranking often emphasize Hawaiian culture, language, and traditions within their curriculum, offering programs in Hawaiian studies and opportunities to engage in cultural practices, such as hula and traditional navigation.
- Many of the best community colleges in Hawaii offer strong transfer agreements with state universities, ensuring a seamless transition for students pursuing bachelor’s degrees while starting with affordable tuition and smaller class sizes.
Best Community Colleges in Hawaii in 2025
2025 Ranking Update
Our Influence Ranking Engine™ leverages machine learning to track the real-world influence of colleges and universities over time. Below you’ll see which schools gained or lost ground for the 2025 school year.
In 2025, the top schools in our ranking of the best community colleges in Hawaii saw a fair amount of change. Kapiʻolani Community College gained the most ranking positions as the college is fully adopting the FAFSA Simplification Act, streamlining the financial aid application process to make it more accessible for students and their families.
Additionally, Kapiʻolani CC is expanding its STEM opportunities through a partnership with the Institute for Future Intelligence and various community organizations, supported by an $800,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. This collaboration aims to provide approximately 300 students with experiential learning and immersive internships in emerging technology fields.
We’ve identified 6 community colleges in Hawaii. The following list shows the best community colleges and primarily associate degree granting colleges in Hawaii.
If you’re interested in an online associate degree, visit our best online associate degrees in Hawaii page.
Best Community Colleges in Hawaii
Tuition + fees
$3K
Graduation
28%
Student body
10K
Career Outlook for degree at Leeward Community College
Cost of Degree: $3,214Starting Salary: $37,500What is Leeward Community College known for?
Leeward Community College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Most Influential Alumni
Tuition + fees
$3K
Graduation
23%
Student body
5K
Career Outlook for degree at Honolulu Community College
Cost of Degree: $3,174Starting Salary: $40,600What is Honolulu Community College known for?
Honolulu Community College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$3K
Graduation
24%
Student body
9K
Tuition + fees
$3K
Graduation
25%
Student body
4K
Career Outlook for degree at Windward Community College
Cost of Degree: $3,194Starting Salary: $32,400What is Windward Community College known for?
Tuition + fees
$3K
Graduation
31%
Student body
3K
Career Outlook for degree at Hawaiʻi Community College
Cost of Degree: $3,204Expenses: $13,584Starting Salary: $30,300Cost Recoup Time: 11 yearsPaid back at 15% of annual salaryTuition + fees
$3K
Graduation
37%
Student body
2K
2021 Ranking Archive
Many of our 2024 undergraduate focused rankings look considerably different than 2023. That’s because we took a fundamentally different approach. For 2024 we utilized 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.
