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.
Students who wish to attend traditional and online colleges in Kentucky have plenty of excellent options. Traditional students and distance learners alike have an array of affordable, accessible, and reputable undergraduate and graduate degrees to choose from.
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. Online students pay the same in state tuition rates when enrolling in these public options.
Prospective students planning 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. There are, however, some affordable private 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. The University of Kentucky has over 30,000 students and costs about $12,000. UK offers a wide range of traditional and fully online programs in areas like political science, chemistry, and literature.
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 highly regarded graduate and undergraduate degrees in fields like mathematics, communications, business, and history.
Eastern Kentucky University is also among the top public colleges in Kentucky, with more than 14,000 students enrolled in a wide range of undergraduate and graduate programs.
In addition, Kentucky encourages graduating education students to apply for the Teacher Loan Forgiveness Program. This financial aid program awards $5,000 to $17,500 toward Federal Stafford loans to those remaining in 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. Both traditional and online Students wanting to study in a state that Abraham Lincoln and Muhammad Ali 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 brick-and-mortar and online schools the state of Kentucky has to offer.
We’ve identified 16 community colleges in Kentucky. The following list shows the best community colleges and primarily associate degree granting colleges in Kentucky.
If you’re interested in an online associate degree, visit our best online associate degrees in Kentucky page.
Tuition + fees
$4K
Graduation
51%
Student body
3K
West Kentucky Community and Technical College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$5K
Graduation
30%
Student body
7K
Bluegrass Community and Technical College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$4K
Graduation
43%
Student body
2K
Ashland Community and Technical College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$5K
Graduation
25%
Student body
6K
Jefferson Community and Technical College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$4K
Graduation
39%
Student body
4K
Elizabethtown Community and Technical College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$4K
Graduation
33%
Student body
3K
Somerset Community College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$4K
Graduation
30%
Student body
2K
Big Sandy Community and Technical College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$4K
Graduation
40%
Student body
2K
Hazard Community and Technical College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$5K
Graduation
47%
Student body
3K
Gateway Community and Technical College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$4K
Graduation
34%
Student body
2K
Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$4K
Graduation
26%
Student body
<1K
Henderson Community College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$4K
Graduation
42%
Student body
2K
Madisonville Community College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$4K
Graduation
38%
Student body
3K
Southcentral Kentucky Community and Technical College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$4K
Graduation
41%
Student body
2K
Owensboro Community and Technical College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$4K
Graduation
26%
Student body
2K
Hopkinsville Community College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$4K
Graduation
45%
Student body
2K
Maysville Community and Technical College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
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.
