The Third Best Community College In America Is In Iowa

Consistency is key. An Iowa community college has once again found itself at the top of a list of the best community colleges in America. Last year, the same college was one spot away from being the best, but making it to the top 3 pretty nice too.

With the 2023-2024 school year right around the corner, most people are enrolled in a university or community college to study. But if you're looking to save some money and get a really good education out of the deal, you might want to look towards Sheldon, IA.

Sheldon is home to Northwest Iowa Community College, also known as the third-best community college in America. How did they land at the top of this list again? Let's take a look.

How Iowa Community College Is The 3rd Best In America

Every year, a study is conducted by WalletHub that ranks community colleges across the U.S., and around the same time every year, those results get released. In 2022, Northwest Iowa Community College in Sheldon, IA was named the 2nd-best community college in the U.S.

In 2023, Northwest Iowa Community College (NCC) dropped one spot to be named the 3rd-best community college in America.

NCC makes it at the top of this list every year because of the three key dimensions WalletHub uses to compare 668 schools from the list of member institutions in the American Association of Community Colleges, NCC ranks very well in each.

For this year's list, this is how Northwest Iowa Community College ranked in those three categories to make them drop slightly compared to 2022, but remain in the top 3 best community colleges in America:

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• Cost & Financing - #409
• Education Outcomes - #178
• Career Outcomes - #2

Congrats to Northwest Iowa Community College on making the top 3.

Other Iowa Community Colleges Make The List

NCC wasn't the only Iowa community college to land on this list. 11 other colleges in Iowa were on this year's list, but not all of them made it on the "good" side of this list.

Here are the other Iowa community colleges and where they ranked:

• 3rd - Northwest Iowa Community College
• 96th - Kirkwood Community College
• 116th - Indian Hills Community College
• 130th - Hawkeye Community College
• 134th - Iowa Lakes Community College
• 140th - North Iowa Area Community College
• 179th - Northeast Iowa Community College
• 187th - Western Iowa Tech Community College
• 213th - Southeastern Community College - Burlington, IA
• 227th - Iowa Western Community College
• 301st - Eastern Iowa Community College District
• 350th - Iowa Central Community College
• 361st - Marshalltown Community College

It's hard to see all of the schools in Iowa and Illinois. See an actual full list and more details here.