Best Community Colleges in Minnesota 2024

Badge for BEST IN MINNESOTA COMMUNITY COLLEGES

Published: Apr 13, 2021
Updated: Oct 16, 2023

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 Minnesota 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.

10 Best Community Colleges in Minnesota

Normandale Community College
Minnesota State Community and Technical College
Minneapolis Community and Technical College
Dakota County Technical College
Minnesota North College – Vermilion
Lake Superior College
Century College
Anoka-Ramsey Community College
Riverland Community College
North Hennepin Community College

Normandale Community College
Minneapolis Community and Technical College
Riverland Community College
Anoka-Ramsey Community College
Leech Lake Tribal College
Minnesota State Community and Technical College
North Hennepin Community College
Hennepin Technical College
Century College
Saint Paul College

Normandale Community College 27 to 1
Anoka-Ramsey Community College 24 to 1
Dakota County Technical College 23 to 1
Century College 23 to 1
Pine Technical and Community College 23 to 1
Alexandria Technical and Community College 22 to 1
Minneapolis Community and Technical College 22 to 1
Saint Paul College 21 to 1
North Hennepin Community College 21 to 1
St. Cloud Technical and Community College 20 to 1

Minnesota State College Southeast $7,490
Dakota County Technical College $6,419
Lake Superior College $6,404
Normandale Community College $6,321
Saint Paul College $6,318
Riverland Community College $6,250
Northland Community & Technical College $6,243
Northwest Technical College $6,226
South Central College $6,146
Central Lakes College $6,140

Minnesota State College Southeast
Minnesota North College – Rainy River
White Earth Tribal and Community College
Alexandria Technical and Community College
St. Cloud Technical and Community College
Pine Technical and Community College
Central Lakes College
Northland Community & Technical College
Minnesota North College – Mesabi Range Virginia
Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College

Minnesota North College – Rainy River
Minnesota State College Southeast
Minnesota North College – Itasca
Minnesota North College – Hibbing
Minnesota North College – Mesabi Range Virginia
Minnesota North College – Vermilion
Alexandria Technical and Community College
Northland Community & Technical College
Central Lakes College
Pine Technical and Community College

White Earth Tribal and Community College 9 to 1
Leech Lake Tribal College 10 to 1
Northland Community & Technical College 14 to 1
Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College 15 to 1
South Central College 15 to 1
Anoka Technical College 16 to 1
Northwest Technical College 16 to 1
Minnesota North College – Hibbing 16 to 1
Minnesota State College Southeast 17 to 1
Hennepin Technical College 17 to 1

Leech Lake Tribal College $4,148
Pine Technical and Community College $4,178
North Hennepin Community College $5,050
White Earth Tribal and Community College $5,250
Minnesota North College – Hibbing $5,374
Anoka-Ramsey Community College $5,655
Minnesota West Community and Technical College $5,848
Hennepin Technical College $5,881
Minnesota State Community and Technical College $5,900
Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College $5,999

Colleges and Universities in Minnesota

One of largest public higher education institutes in the country, the University of Minnesota has main campuses in both of the Twin Cities, Saint Paul and Minneapolis. This school costs about $15,000 in tuition, and provides its students with competitive programs in fields like nursing, education, economics, and psychology. And the options don’t stop there. There are more than 20 schools in the state with religious affiliations, including larger schools like the University of St. Thomas, which campuses in both Twin Cities, and smaller schools like Oak Hills Christian College in Bemidji.

Find college admissions consultants in your state.

For students striving to keep costs low in a smaller school environment, Southwest Minnesota State University offers tuition below the national average and serves about 3,500 students. Additionally, those on track to become a teacher or health care provider may be eligible for one of Minnesota’s loan forgiveness programs after graduation. Minnesota also boasts a large network of private colleges, two of which, Walden University and Capella University, primarily cater to online students.

Ever heard the phrase, There’s an app for that? Well, in Minnesota they say something similar, There’s a festival for that. This fun state doesn’t hold back when it comes to celebrating. With events like the Grumpy Old Men Festival, World Festival, and the Perham Turtle Fest, students earning their degrees at one of Minnesota’s more than 70 colleges won’t miss out on a good time.

Discover some of Minnesota’s top programs and learn how you can earn your associate, bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degree while cashing in on some of this state’s unique experiences.

What are Minnesota’s Colleges & Universities?

Minnesota’s Best Overall

How do we determine Minnesota's best community colleges?

Methodology

The people affiliated with a school are ultimately what make it great! 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 in their fields of study.

Most ranking sites rely on an opaque combination of reputation surveys and arbitrary performance metrics. Concentrated Influence provides a ranking that is freer from bias, insulated from manipulation, and reflective of real-world educational outcomes.

To rank the influence of schools, we first determine the influence of scholars and professionals based on the number of citations and publications they have had over the past 10 years. In addition to publications and citations, we consider the web links to and from these sources, and the page views of those sources. We then match the influential people to their alma maters and institutions of employment, so that their influence is attributed to those schools. Our machine-learning Influence Ranking algorithm produces a numerical score of academic achievements, merits, and citations across Wikipedia, wikidata, Crossref, Semantic Scholar and an ever-growing body of data. If you are interested in exploring how and why we rank by influence, explore our methodology in more depth.

We’ve identified 30 community colleges in Minnesota. The following list shows the best community colleges and primarily associate degree granting colleges in Minnesota.