Best Community Colleges in Oregon of 2024

Located in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area, Columbia Gorge Community College is a small public school with a beautiful natural setting. The school has two campuses - one in Hood River and one in Dulles, where the school’s only residence hall is located. This residence hall, called Chinook, was built in 2021 and offers stunning views of Mt. Hood. Students have easy access to outdoor recreation, including skiing, snowboarding, hiking, and fishing. Columbia Gorge is a federally designated Hispanic Serving Institution and a Sanctuary Campus, which means it’s committed to protecting all of its students, including undocumented student immigrants and students who qualify for Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals (DACA). In addition to career preparation programs, Columbia Gorge offers thirteen associate degrees, five geared towards students who wish to transfer to a four-year institution.

Tillamook Bay Community College is a small public college located in the community of Tillamook. Its core values are student success, academic excellence, and resourceful teamwork. Like all of the schools on this list, Tillamook has an open admissions policy which means anyone may enroll at the college. The school offers a wide range of certificates, career training programs, and associate degrees. Notable degree programs include an Associate of Science in Forestry, an Associate of Science in Animal Science, and an Associate of Arts in Sociology. Specific degrees are earmarked for ease of transfer to four-year institutions, and the school has a transfer partnership with Oregon State University. Per the US Department of Education, the school's successful transfer rate was 24%, above the state average of 21%. The school is partly supported by the Tillamook Bay Community College Foundation, a nonprofit that awards many generous scholarships to students.

With multiple locations throughout the Portland metropolitan area and a student body of about 60,000, Portland Community College is the largest community college in Oregon. About 5,000 Portland Community College students transfer to a four-year institution annually. The school has 47 programs specifically designed for ease of transfer to four-year institutions - the most of any community college on this list. Some of the schools that Portland Community College students most frequently transfer to are Brigham Young University, University of Oregon, Oregon State University, University of Washington, and Pacific Northwest College of Art. The school offers a strong transfer advising program that holds a large Oregon Transfer Days event each January, where students can meet with admissions representatives from four-year schools.

Blue Mountain Community College is a two-year public school with five locations in northeastern Oregon, the main site being Pendleton. The school serves about 8,000 students, a quarter of whom transfer to a four-year college or university. Schools that Blue Mountain Community College students are most likely to transfer to include Oregon State, the University of Oregon, and the Oregon Institute of Technology. Articulation agreements with Blue Mountain Community College include Boise State University for Civil Engineering, the University of Idaho for Agriculture, and Eastern Oregon University for Teacher Education. The school has an active student body involved in athletics, student government, and clubs. Student-run organizations include the Veterans Club, Native American Club, LatinX Club, and the Smoke and Mirrors Literary Club. Blue Mountain Community College also has competitive men's and women's rodeo teams that have won several national titles and produced many NWAC Scholar All-Americans.

Clackamas Community College is located in Clackamas County - one of the four counties that make up the Portland metropolitan area. The two-year public school serves 26,000 students through vocational, technical, and academic programs, including an Associate of Arts Oregon Transfer. Successful completion of this general transfer degree gives students junior-level standing at a four-year university. The school has a notable music, theater, and arts program that allows students to learn and showcase their work in the state-of-the-art Niemeyer Center and Alexander Gallery on campus. Clackamas Community College is designated a Military Friendly School with an active Veterans Education and Training (VET) center that offers many services for veterans, active military members, and dependents. These services include education and career information, scholarships and grants, and a Student Veterans of America club and honor society.

Chemeketa Community College derives its name from the Native American language of the Kalapuya, in which the word “Chemeketa” means "place of peace.” The school’s main campus is located in Salem, but there are also locations in six other communities in Oregon’s mid-valley. About 30,000 students a year take classes at Chemeketa Community College, a federally designated Hispanic Serving Institution. In 2018, the school was the first in Oregon to be awarded a Developing Hispanic Serving Institution Title V grant to support its Hispanic and low-income students. A unique fact about the school is that it owns a printing press and creates low-cost textbooks, saving individual students hundreds of dollars a year. A Chemeketa Scholars program covers up to two years of tuition in any field of study, including career technical programs. Additionally, the Chemeketa Foundation has over 100 different scholarships available to apply for annually.

With campuses in Gresham and Portland, Mt. Hood Community College is a two-year public school that offers over 120 academic, professional and technical programs. About 18,000 students take classes at the community college each year. A unique feature of the school is its study abroad program - an activity not traditionally offered by community colleges. Mt. Hood is in the top ten community colleges in the nation for the number of students that study abroad annually. Popular study abroad programs are a Japanese language learning program in Kyoto, Japan, and a Spanish language learning program in Costa Rica. The school also welcomes international students, and its International Student Program sets them up with local host families. Other support services for international students include intensive English classes, academic coaching, tutoring, and technology support.