Best Community Colleges in Virginia 2025

Badge for BEST IN VIRGINIA COMMUNITY COLLEGES

By Dr. James Barham
Reviewed By Jenn Finley

Published: May 5, 2021
Updated: Nov 19, 2024

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 Virginia 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.

Table of Contents

10 Best Community Colleges in Virginia

Northern Virginia Community College
Danville Community College
Tidewater Community College
Virginia Peninsula Community College
Richard Bland College
Germanna Community College
Piedmont Virginia Community College
Virginia Western Community College
Northern Virginia Community College, Annandale
Patrick & Henry Community College

Columbia College
Northern Virginia Community College
Tidewater Community College
Richard Bland College
Danville Community College
Brightpoint Community College
Piedmont Virginia Community College
Virginia Highlands Community College
Virginia Western Community College
Central Virginia Community College

Richard Bland College 79%

New River Community College 28 to 1
Northern Virginia Community College 28 to 1
Northern Virginia Community College, Annandale 28 to 1
Richard Bland College 27 to 1
Laurel Ridge Community College 25 to 1
Southside Virginia Community College 24 to 1
Virginia Western Community College 23 to 1
Wytheville Community College 23 to 1
Germanna Community College 23 to 1
Rappahannock Community College 22 to 1

Columbia College $8,820
Richard Bland College $6,030
Northern Virginia Community College $5,412
Northern Virginia Community College, Annandale $5,412
J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College $4,743
Virginia Western Community College $4,680
Virginia Peninsula Community College $4,680
Tidewater Community College $4,680
Piedmont Virginia Community College $4,650
Germanna Community College $4,650

Eastern Shore Community College
Brightpoint Community College
Laurel Ridge Community College
Columbia College
Mountain Gateway Community College
Blue Ridge Community College
Paul D. Camp Community College
Wytheville Community College
Mountain Empire Community College
J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College

Eastern Shore Community College
Blue Ridge Community College
Mountain Gateway Community College
Wytheville Community College
Mountain Empire Community College
Southside Virginia Community College
Virginia Peninsula Community College
Patrick & Henry Community College
Rappahannock Community College
Southwest Virginia Community College

Richard Bland College 79%

Columbia College 12 to 1
Mountain Gateway Community College 16 to 1
Eastern Shore Community College 16 to 1
Virginia Highlands Community College 17 to 1
Central Virginia Community College 18 to 1
Patrick & Henry Community College 18 to 1
Mountain Empire Community College 18 to 1
Paul D. Camp Community College 19 to 1
Piedmont Virginia Community College 19 to 1
Southwest Virginia Community College 19 to 1

Mountain Gateway Community College $4,620
Rappahannock Community College $4,620
Central Virginia Community College $4,620
Paul D. Camp Community College $4,620
New River Community College $4,620
Southwest Virginia Community College $4,620
Virginia Highlands Community College $4,620
Wytheville Community College $4,620
Patrick & Henry Community College $4,620
Blue Ridge Community College $4,620

Colleges and Universities in Virginia

Liberty University, a private Christian school in Lynchburg, is the largest school in Virginia, serving over 60,000 students. The largest public university, Virginia Tech, has a student population of about half that but offers many in-person degree programs as well as eight master’s programs and 19 certificate programs online. Students who attend Virginia Tech can pursue fields like engineering, criminal justice, education, and business.

Find college admissions consultants in your state.

The majority of Virginia’s universities and colleges could be considered small schools, serving populations of less than 5,000 students. Included on this list are public schools, like Christopher Newport University in Newport News, and private schools, like Hampton University, a historically black university in Hampton. Though most of its higher education institutes charge tuition fees above the national average, Virginia offers several loan forgiveness programs for qualifying attorneys and medical, dental, behavioral health, and pharmaceutical professionals.

Virginia is perhaps most famous for its rich history - but the state is also home to many unique museums and famous landmarks. For example, those who love the classics can visit the Edgar Allen Poe Museum in Richmond. Those who harbor romantic dreams of espionage and intrigue might visit the CIA Museum in McLean. And, if you like your attractions random, you could check out Virginia’s 300-yard-long natural tunnel or its 29-ton spinning granite ball. While you’re here, you might consider attending one of the 78 colleges located in the state.

Learn more about Virginia’s higher education opportunities by checking out the state’s many colleges and universities.

What are Virginia’s Colleges & Universities?

Virginia’s Best Overall

How do we determine Virginia'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 26 community colleges in Virginia. The following list shows the best community colleges and primarily associate degree granting colleges in Virginia.