# How TIME ranked America's best community colleges

> TIME and Statista evaluated 250 top community colleges using five performance measures, from graduation rates to campus resources.
- Title: How TIME ranked America's best community colleges · TIME
- Summary: TIME and Statista evaluated 250 top community colleges using five performance measures, from graduation rates to campus resources.
- Keywords: time, statista, community colleges, rankings, associate degree programs
- Source: TIME — https://time.com/article/2026/11/12/best-community-colleges-methodology
- Author: Olivia B. Waxman
- Published: 2026-11-12T14:45:56.167+00:00
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: time, statista, community colleges, rankings, associate degree programs, news, world
## TIME and Statista rank community colleges
TIME and Statista are recognizing America's Best Community Colleges for the first time, ranking the top community colleges offering associate degree programs in the U.S.
## Five measures shaped the rankings
The rankings used five dimensions: Student Success Rate, Graduates' Earnings, Return on Investment, Diversity, and Campus Resources. Data came from publicly available sources like IPEDS and College Scorecard.
## How the final score was calculated
The final score was thirty percent Student Success Rate plus thirty percent Graduates' Earnings plus twenty percent Return on Investment plus ten percent Diversity plus ten percent Campus Resources.

> 30% x Student Success Rate + 30% x Graduates' Earnings + 20% x Return on Investment + 10% x Diversity + 10% x Campus Resources = final score
## Two hundred fifty colleges made the list
All community colleges were benchmarked against one another using the final score. The two hundred fifty best-performing community colleges were included in the final list and are listed alphabetically within each state.
## Key takeaway

TIME and Statista ranked America's best community colleges for the first time, using five performance measures to evaluate institutions across graduation rates, earnings, return on investment, diversity and campus resources.