Best Community Colleges in Oregon 2024

Published: May 4, 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 Oregon 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.

Linn–Benton Community College 20 to 1
Portland Community College 20 to 1
Mt. Hood Community College 19 to 1
Chemeketa Community College 19 to 1
Rogue Community College 17 to 1
Lane Community College 17 to 1
Clackamas Community College 16 to 1
Central Oregon Community College 16 to 1
Umpqua Community College 15 to 1
Klamath Community College 15 to 1

Southwestern Oregon Community College $6,447
Central Oregon Community College $5,508
Linn–Benton Community College $5,327
Clackamas Community College $5,040
Blue Mountain Community College $5,040
Lane Community College $4,536
Portland Community College $4,428
Oregon Coast Community College $4,356
Treasure Valley Community College $4,345
Chemeketa Community College $4,320

Linn–Benton Community College
Tillamook Bay Community College
Columbia Gorge Community College
Blue Mountain Community College
Oregon Coast Community College
Southwestern Oregon Community College
Klamath Community College
Mt. Hood Community College
Umpqua Community College
Clatsop Community College

Oregon Coast Community College 9 to 1
Tillamook Bay Community College 9 to 1
Southwestern Oregon Community College 10 to 1
Clatsop Community College 11 to 1
Columbia Gorge Community College 12 to 1
Treasure Valley Community College 14 to 1
Umpqua Community College 15 to 1
Klamath Community College 15 to 1
Blue Mountain Community College 15 to 1
Clackamas Community College 16 to 1

Tillamook Bay Community College $3,744
Klamath Community College $3,780
Clatsop Community College $3,780
Columbia Gorge Community College $4,032
Umpqua Community College $4,056
Mt. Hood Community College $4,248
Chemeketa Community College $4,320
Rogue Community College $4,320
Treasure Valley Community College $4,345
Oregon Coast Community College $4,356

Colleges and Universities in Oregon

Oregon is home to over 40 higher education institutions, including Oregon State University, the largest in the state. More than 30,000 students are enrolled at this public research institution in Corvallis, and with a tuition of $11,000, the school comes in slightly above the national average. Students attending the next largest, the University of Oregon, will join in on a friendly intrastate rivalry against Oregon State. Though the tuition is higher at $12,000, the school boasts a student-faculty ratio of 16:1.

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Of the 21 private institutions, 10 are religiously based. Concordia University has the largest student population at just under 5,000 and a tuition of $31,000. Students who attend this private Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod university can study fields such as chemistry, psychology, and history. Oregon’s community colleges range in tuition from $4,000 to $6,000. The least expensive four-year institution in the state, Portland State University (PSU), comes in at $8,000. Students attending PSU can study a range of fields, including environmental engineering, film, and international business, right in the heart of the city.

Gaze at the Pacific Ocean from the Oregon Coast Highway, which travels along the entire coastal edge of the state. Taste Pacific Northwest wines from the Willamette Valley, or take a bike ride through the streets of Portland. Students looking to earn their associate, bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degree in The Beaver State can enjoy a great higher education experience set against a stunning natural backdrop.

Discover what Oregon has to offer, and find a college that fits your career interests as well as your budget.

What are Oregon’s Colleges & Universities?

Oregon’s Best Overall

How do we determine Oregon'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 17 community colleges in Oregon. The following list shows the best community colleges and primarily associate degree granting colleges in Oregon.