New Jersey has 36 community college associate degree programs for you to choose from, according to data from College Navigator.
An average of $5,667 in tuition was paid by in-district New Jersey community college students for the 2022-23 school year.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 452,493 U.S. college students — or 80.6% — were awarded some form of financial aid for the 2019-20 academic year.
This list features some of the best community colleges in New Jersey. 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 Middle States Commission on Higher Education Accreditation (MSCHE), a reputable organization that examines objectives, quality and overall effectiveness of education programs in the Mid-Atlantic region of the 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.
When researching community college programs in New Jersey, you may want to look at some of the highest-paying career fields for associate degree graduates. Radiation therapists and nuclear medicine technologists can earn upwards of $100,000 per year, with funeral home managers and MRI technologists close behind.
Jobs with the highest number of projected openings is another factor to consider. Preschool teachers are needed in New Jersey, along with paralegals and legal assistants. There are also plenty of openings for human resources assistants and dental hygienists.
Declining employment is another helpful statistic to know. New Jersey nuclear technicians are in decline, as are desktop publishers. Legal support work is also one of the career fields with a fast decline rate.
Part of your research of New Jersey community colleges should include financial aid. Below, we’ve listed some of the best state and federal online resources with information about financial assistance for two-year programs.