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 Missouri 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.
Tuition costs in Missouri fall below the national average, allowing students access to many affordable options. For example, at Missouri State University, the second largest public school, tuition fees are around $7,000. Students of actor John Goodman’s alma mater can major in fields like religious studies, history, and business, and even have the option of earning an associate degree in arts or a bachelor’s in business at the university’s sister school in China. Missouri also offers more than 40 private schools.
Find college admissions consultants in your state.
Tuition and student populations vary greatly among these schools, but students who attend these higher education institutes also have the option to attend classes at other campuses. For example, Saint Louis University, a college with Jesuit roots, has campuses in both St. Louis and Madrid, Spain. Additionally, Missouri offers special loan forgiveness programs for nurses and other health professionals, including dentists, psychiatrists, and primary care physicians, who work in designated, high-need areas.
When you aren’t exploring one of its 6,000 caves, chowing down on some barbecue, or taking in a live jazz performance, Missouri can serve as the perfect place to begin a road trip. The Show Me State is bordered by eight other U.S. states, making it ideal for students love travelling and planning weekend getaways. During the week days, students can continue on their road to success by pursuing their degree at one of Missouri’s 72 higher education institutes.
See where Missouri’s many roads can take you while earning your degree at one this state’s top learning institutions.
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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 “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.
Less We’ve identified 12 community colleges in Missouri. The following list shows the best community colleges in the state.
Tuition + fees
$5K
Graduation
29%
Student body
2K
View profile
Three Rivers College ’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$6K
Graduation
49%
Student body
1K
View profile
North Central Missouri College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$5K
Graduation
29%
Student body
4K
View profile
St. Charles Community College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$4K
Graduation
38%
Student body
2K
View profile
East Central College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$5K
Graduation
33%
Student body
3K
View profile
State Fair Community College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$5K
Graduation
30%
Student body
1K
View profile
Missouri State University–West Plains’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$5K
Graduation
32%
Student body
8K
View profile
Ozarks Technical Community College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$5K
Graduation
34%
Student body
3K
View profile
Moberly Area Community College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$5K
Graduation
18%
Student body
12K
View profile
St. Louis Community College–Forest Park’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$4K
Graduation
35%
Student body
3K
View profile
Crowder College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$5K
Graduation
40%
Student body
2K
View profile
Mineral Area College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$6K
Graduation
32%
Student body
3K
View profile
Jefferson College ’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
What are Custom College Rankings?
College Strategist
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