Why This Matters
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92 COMMUNITY COLLEGES IN FLORIDA
According to data from College Navigator, there are 92 community colleges offering associate degrees in Florida.
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$3,242 AVERAGE IN-DISTRICT TUITION & FEES
Students in Florida who qualify as in-district paid an average of $3,242 for tuition and fees during the 2022-2023 school year.
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80.6% OF COMMUNITY COLLEGE STUDENTS RECEIVE FINANCIAL AID
The National Center for Education Statistics estimates that 370,718 students attending two-year institutions during the 2020-21 school year received some type of financial aid.
Our Research
This list features some of the best community colleges in Florida. Each school featured is a nonprofit, accredited institution — either public or private — with a high standard of academic quality for post-secondary institutions. We included small, midsize, and large colleges as well as trade, technical, and vocational programs. Next, we compared this comprehensive list to a list of aggregated college rankings from reputable publications like the U.S. News & World Report among others to simplify a student’s college search. We pored through these rankings so students don’t have to.
The colleges on our list are accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC), a reputable organization that examines objectives, quality and overall effectiveness of education programs in the southern United States.
We evaluated each school on tuition costs, admission, retention and graduation rates, faculty, and reputation as well as the student resources provided for students. Then we calculated the Intelligent Score on a scale of 0 to 100. Read more about our ranking methodology.
Online College Programs That Might Interest You
Learn about start dates, transferring credits, availability of financial aid, and more by contacting the universities below.
The Top 50 Community Colleges in Florida
Discover More Options
What You Should Know About Graduating From Community College in Florida
If you’re looking for a high-paying job in Florida that only requires an associate degree, there are quite a few to choose from. The five highest paying jobs in the Sunshine State are air traffic controllers, aerospace engineering technicians, nuclear medicine technologists, radiation therapists, and dental hygienists.
The more job openings there are in your chosen field, the easier it may be for you to get a position soon after graduation. In Florida, the top five careers with the most job openings are paralegals and legal assistants, preschool teachers, radiologic technicians, physical therapy assistants, and vet technicians.
Jobs that are declining in employment rates can be much more competitive, and this is something you want to evaluate before choosing a specific career path. In Florida, the jobs with the highest employment decline rates are nuclear technicians and desktop publishers.
What’s Next?
One of the biggest concerns when it comes to getting an associate degree at a community college in Florida is figuring out how you will pay for it. To help you learn what kind of financial aid is available to you, we’ve provided some federal and state resources.
- Florida Department of Education’s Office of Student Financial Assistance. The Florida Department of Education has an entire office dedicated to helping students find a way to pay for college. Here, you can find information on students loans and state grants as well as application materials.
- Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). The U.S. Department of Education is a valuable resource when it comes to obtaining federal aid. Fill out the online FAFSA form to apply for Pell grants, federal loans, and work-study opportunities. Check out the FAFSA4caster, to get more information on what you may be eligible for.
- CareerOneStop. Developed and maintained by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, CareerOneStop is full of information on financial aid opportunities such as scholarships and grants. You can filter the options by location, degree level, and program type to find programs that are the right fit, and the information on how much is awarded, who qualifies, and how to apply is all right there at your fingertips.