College Navigator has documented 33 two-year associate degree programs across Tennessee.
According to data from College Board, the average Tennessee student paid a tuition of $4,639 at in-district community colleges for the 2022-23 school year.
The National Center for Education Statistics revealed that 452,493 students attending two-year institutions in the United States received some sort of financial aid, such as scholarships and loans, for the 2019-20 school year.
This list features some of the best community colleges in Tennessee. 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.
While pursuing higher education, you should consider your career potential and desired salary. As of May 2021, the highest paying jobs that require an associate degree in Tennessee were air traffic controllers, hydrologic technicians, funeral home managers, nuclear technicians, and radiation therapists.
Job seekers with an associate degree should also review which careers typically have the most job openings. In the state of Tennessee, these occupations are preschool teachers (excluding special education), paralegals and legal assistants, physical therapist assistants, computer network support specialists, and radiologic technicians.
In addition to reviewing jobs that have positive employment outlooks, job seekers should keep in mind which occupations are projected to see a decline. Careers expected to have the greatest decline for associate degree holders in Tennessee are geological technicians, desktop publishers, and human resources assistants (excluding payroll and timekeeping).
Every student should take into account the cost of higher education. To help with the process of finding financial aid opportunities, we’ve assembled a list of federal and state resources that connect associate degree students to scholarships and grants across Tennessee.