These Coast community colleges ranked among the best schools in Mississippi

Mona Moore
·1 min read

If you’re looking for the best community college the state has to offer, few will beat what you find on the Mississippi Coast, according to a study by Wallet Hub.

Of the 15 community colleges in the state, Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College (MGCCC) and Pearl River Community College (PRCC) were ranked third and fourth, respectively.

Using data collected from the National Center for Education Statistics, Wallet Hub ranked more than 650 community colleges in the United States based on three categories: cost and financing, education outcomes and career outcomes.

According to a 2020 study by the Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges, the average annual salary of a Mississippi community college graduate is twice as much as the average non-graduate within five years of graduating.

Factors that contributed to the cost category include tuition, fees, the average amount of grants and scholarships, the accessibility to free community colleges and faculty salaries.

Under the education outcomes category, Wallet Hub looked at things like the first-year retention rate, graduation rate and transfer-out rate of the student bodies.

The three elements of career outcomes were the student-loan default rate, median salary of graduates and share of former students earning above the average earnings of a high school graduate.

Ranking order of Mississippi community colleges

  1. Itawamba Community College

  2. East Mississippi Community College

  3. Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College

  4. Pearl River Community College

  5. Holmes Community College

  6. Hinds Community College

  7. East Central Community College

  8. Northeast Mississippi Community College

  9. Meridian Community College

  10. Jones County Junior College

  11. Coahoma Community College

  12. Mississippi Delta Community College