In a world where it has become increasingly more difficult for students and their families to afford traditional four-year university educations, community colleges are stepping up to fill a void. And, they're doing it at a substantially lower cost.

Tuition and fees for a full-time student at a public four-year university during the 2020 to 2021 academic year averaged $10,560, for a four-year private school, $37,650. But for a public two-year college, it was $3,770. Students who start at a community college and then transfer to a 4-year school could save a lot of money.

Not to mention that they will find smaller class sizes, flexible schedules, and rigorous coursework.

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The Wallet Hub Best and Worst Community Colleges and Best and Worst Community College Systems study has changed quite a bit from last year. But then again, what hasn't?

Once again, they took into account, in-state tuition and fees, student-to-faculty ratios, student loan default rates, rates of graduation and return on educational investment rates among other statistics, when putting together these two studies.

The highest ranking South Dakota community college was Mitchell Technical College in 25th place. Lake Area Technical Institute which ranked so incredibly high last year is 79th this year and Southeast Technical College is 142nd.

But when you consider they were evaluating 685 community colleges, that is pretty good! And South Dakota has the 9th best Community College system in the country.

To see all the outcomes and information go to Wallet Hub's Best and Worst Community Colleges and Best and Worst Community College Systems.

Source: WalletHub

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