Best Community Colleges in Pennsylvania 2024

Badge for BEST IN PENNSYLVANIA COMMUNITY COLLEGES

Published: Mar 23, 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 Pennsylvania 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 Pennsylvania

Manor College
Community College of Allegheny County
Bucks County Community College
University of Pittsburgh at Titusville
Community College of Philadelphia
Montgomery County Community College
Northampton Community College
Harcum College
Westmoreland County Community College
Community College of Beaver County

Community College of Allegheny County
University of Pittsburgh at Titusville
Community College of Philadelphia
Manor College
Bucks County Community College
Northampton Community College
Montgomery County Community College
Harcum College
Luzerne County Community College
Westmoreland County Community College

Johnson College 96%
Manor College 93%
Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology 91%
University of Pittsburgh at Titusville 46%

New Castle School of Trades 20 to 1
Lehigh Carbon Community College 19 to 1
Northampton Community College 19 to 1
Reading Area Community College 19 to 1
Pennsylvania Highlands Community College 18 to 1
Community College of Allegheny County 17 to 1
Westmoreland County Community College 17 to 1
Montgomery County Community College 16 to 1
Community College of Beaver County 16 to 1
Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology 16 to 1

Harcum College $28,240
New Castle School of Trades $22,176
Johnson College $20,025
Manor College $19,414
Triangle Tech $18,538
University of Pittsburgh at Titusville $11,568
Community College of Beaver County $10,500
Montgomery County Community College $8,880
Reading Area Community College $8,700
Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology $8,450

Manor College $10,080

Reading Area Community College
New Castle School of Trades
Johnson College
Triangle Tech
Butler County Community College
Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology
Pennsylvania Highlands Community College
Lehigh Carbon Community College
Delaware County Community College
Luzerne County Community College

New Castle School of Trades
Community College of Beaver County
Johnson College
Pennsylvania Highlands Community College
Lehigh Carbon Community College
Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology
Triangle Tech
Butler County Community College
Reading Area Community College
Delaware County Community College

University of Pittsburgh at Titusville 46%
Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology 91%
Manor College 93%
Johnson College 96%

University of Pittsburgh at Titusville 2 to 1
Harcum College 4 to 1
Johnson College 8 to 1
Triangle Tech 8 to 1
Manor College 11 to 1
Butler County Community College 12 to 1
Community College of Philadelphia 13 to 1
Bucks County Community College 13 to 1
Luzerne County Community College 15 to 1
Montgomery County Community College 16 to 1

Butler County Community College $6,840
Pennsylvania Highlands Community College $6,870
Northampton Community College $7,200
Lehigh Carbon Community College $7,320
Community College of Allegheny County $7,320
Community College of Philadelphia $7,632
Delaware County Community College $7,800
Bucks County Community College $7,920
Luzerne County Community College $8,200
Westmoreland County Community College $8,280

Manor College $10,080

Colleges and Universities in Pennsylvania

Prospective students hoping to earn an associate, bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degree have over 100 higher learning institutions to choose from. The largest public university is Pennsylvania State University, or Penn State, with a tuition of $18,000, and a student population of over 95,000 across its campuses. As a private institution, the University of Pennsylvania, or simply Penn, is known for its medical, nursing, social work, and business fields. Tuition is $56,000, and the school boasts a 95% graduation rate.

Find college admissions consultants in your state.

Students can also attend one of the more than 60 religiously affiliated schools, such as Villanova University or Lafayette College, each with a tuition of about $53,000. Some of the most affordable colleges in the state include the Curtis Institute of Music and the Talmudical Yeshiva of Philadelphia, with tuitions set at $3,000 and $9,000, respectively. Though the average tuition for college in Pennsylvania comes in above the national average, those who practice medicine in underserved areas may qualify for up to $100,000 in loan forgiveness through the Pennsylvania Primary Care Loan Repayment Program.

As the nation’s second state, Pennsylvania’s history runs deep. It’s here where Betsy Ross made the first American flag and where the Declaration of Independence was signed. The Keystone State is also home to some culinary delights, including whoopie pies, soft pretzels, and the famous Philly cheesesteak. Students looking to earn their degree in Pennsylvania will undoubtedly enjoy what the state has to offer.

Check out the state’s top programs and learn more about earning your degree in Pennsylvania.

What are Pennsylvania’s Colleges & Universities?

Pennsylvania’s Best Overall

How do we determine Pennsylvania'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 20 community colleges in Pennsylvania. The following list shows the best community colleges and primarily associate degree granting colleges in Pennsylvania.