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 Kentucky 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.
Between community colleges, technical schools, and universities, Kentucky has 24 public schools. The community colleges and technical schools average $4,000 for tuition, and tuition for public universities ranges from $8,000 to $12,000. Those looking to attend private colleges can choose from 26 schools, of which 21 are religiously affiliated. The cost to attend private schools tends to be higher, reaching $42,000 in Kentucky, but there are some affordable options with tuition rates as low as $9,000.
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The largest and top-rated public university is the University of Kentucky, which has over 30,000 students and costs about $12,000. Political science, chemistry, and literature are all possible majors. Students who attend either the University of Louisville or Western Kentucky University will become part of a friendly basketball rivalry. Both of these universities also offer varying fields of study, including mathematics, communications, business, and history. In addition, Kentucky encourages graduating education students to apply for the Teacher Loan Forgiveness Program, which awards $5,000 to $17,500 toward Federal Stafford loans to those remaining the profession.
There is something for everyone in The Bluegrass State. Kentucky is home to the famous Kentucky Derby, the Daniel Boone National Forest, and the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory. Students wanting to study where Abraham Lincoln and Muhammad Ali both called home have 50 higher learning institutions from which to choose.
Kentucky has it all — associate, bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees. Check out the top programs and find which institution is the right one for you.
The people affiliated with a school are ultimately what make it great. This is why, at the undergraduate level, we rank the best colleges and universities based on what we call “Concentrated Influence”. Concentrated Influence takes the combined influence score of a college or university’s top academic influencers (including faculty and alums) and divides it by the school’s total number of undergraduates.
Using concentrated influence gives small and mid-sized schools an opportunity to shine by taking away the size advantage of larger universities. A small school with proportionately more influential faculty than a large school, whose influence in absolute terms may be bigger, will nonetheless score higher in a concentrated influence ranking. Our approach highlights undergraduate schools that truly rank for excellence, regardless of size.
If you are serious about finding the best colleges and universities for a bachelor’s degree, you should be asking where the most influential professors are teaching and whether their graduates are themselves advancing the school’s reputation for academic excellence.
Most ranking sites rely on an opaque combination of reputation surveys and arbitrary performance metrics. Concentrated Influence provides a ranking that is free from bias, insulated from manipulation, and reflective of real-world educational outcomes.
Find out more about our ranking methodology here.
There are 16 community colleges in Kentucky. The following list shows the best community colleges in the state.
Tuition + fees
$4K
Graduation
51%
Student body
3K
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West Kentucky Community and Technical College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$4K
Graduation
30%
Student body
2K
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Big Sandy Community and Technical College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$5K
Graduation
47%
Student body
3K
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Gateway Community and Technical College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$5K
Graduation
30%
Student body
7K
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Bluegrass Community and Technical College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$4K
Graduation
39%
Student body
4K
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Elizabethtown Community and Technical College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$4K
Graduation
26%
Student body
<1K
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Henderson Community College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$4K
Graduation
40%
Student body
2K
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Hazard Community and Technical College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$5K
Graduation
25%
Student body
6K
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Jefferson Community and Technical College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$4K
Graduation
34%
Student body
2K
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Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$4K
Graduation
45%
Student body
2K
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Maysville Community and Technical College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$4K
Graduation
43%
Student body
2K
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Ashland Community and Technical College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$4K
Graduation
33%
Student body
3K
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Somerset Community College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$4K
Graduation
41%
Student body
2K
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Owensboro Community and Technical College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$4K
Graduation
42%
Student body
2K
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Madisonville Community College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$4K
Graduation
38%
Student body
3K
View profile
Southcentral Kentucky Community and Technical College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$4K
Graduation
26%
Student body
2K
View profile
Hopkinsville Community College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
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