Why This Matters

  • 117 COMMUNITY COLLEGES IN TEXAS

    There are 117 community colleges throughout the state of Texas to choose from.

  • $2,949 AVERAGE IN-DISTRICT TUITION & FEES

    According to data from College Board, the average in-district student in Texas paid just under $3,000 in tuition and fees for the 2022-2023 school year.

  • OVER 80% OF STUDENTS RECEIVED FINANCIAL AID

    80.6% of students, or 452,493 students, enrolled in two-year community colleges were able to get some type of financial aid for the 2019-2020 school year.

Our Research

This list features some of the best community colleges in Texas. 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.

The Top 50 Community Colleges in Texas

Best Community Colleges In Texas Badge 2023
01
Intelligent Pick
Amarillo College
01
Best for Student Success
Northwest Vista College
01
Best for New Graduates
Lee College
01
Best for Health Sciences
Laredo Community College
01
Best for University Prep
Coastal Bend College
01
Best Accelerated Programs
College of the Mainland
01
Most Academic Programs
El Paso Community College
01
Best for Student Life
Angelina College
01
Best for First Generation Students
Southwest Texas Junior College
01
Best for City Learning
Austin Community College District
01

Alvin Community College
01

Palo Alto College
01

Texas State Technical College
01

Galveston College
01

Lamar Institute of Technology
01

Blinn College
01

McLennan Community College
01

San Jacinto College
01

Del Mar College
01

Central Texas College
01

Panola College
01

Cisco College
01

Clarendon College
01

St. Philip's College
01

North Central Texas College
01

Victoria College
01

Dallas Institute of Funeral Service
01

Lone Star College System
01

Dallas College
01

Wharton County Junior College
01

Frank Phillips College
01

Paris Junior College
01

South Plains College
01

San Antonio College
01

Grayson College
01

Trinity Valley Community College
01

Hill College
01

Texarkana College
01

Houston Community College
01

Howard College
01

Vernon College
01

Tarrant County College District
01

Jacksonville College
01

South Texas College
01

Tyler Junior College
01

Navarro College

What You Should Know About Graduating From Community College in Texas

One of the most important aspects of choosing a career track is how much you can earn after you graduate. In Texas, the jobs with the highest pay were air traffic controllers, nuclear technicians, hydrologic technicians, radiation therapists, and nuclear medicine technologists, as of 2021.

There should also be job openings available in your chosen career. The jobs that are looking for the most people in Texas include preschool teachers, paralegals, computer network support specialists, radiologic technologists, and architectural and civil drafters.

The careers with the highest rates of declining employment in Texas that require an associate degree are nuclear technicians, desktop publishers, and broadcast technicians. While this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t pursue one of these careers if you want, it does mean that you’ll need to be aware that the job field may be more competitive.

What’s Next?

When you’re looking at the community colleges available in Texas and trying to choose the one that’s the best fit for you, you’ll want to also look at the financial aid options available. We’ve provided a list of resources that can connect you to grants, scholarships, and other types of financial aid available for associate degrees, both at the state and federal level.

  • Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. The Texas Higher Education Agency gives students information on financial aid options at the state level, and it also provides the guidelines for what qualifies as being in-state for tuition purposes.
  • Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). The U.S. Department of Education’s office of Federal Student Aid helps students understand what aid opportunities they qualify for, and the office itself hands out more than $120 billion in aid every year. To find out what program you may be eligible for, from grants to work-study, visit the FAFSA4caster and then fill out the online FAFSA form.
  • CareerOneStop. Scholarships can be a great way to help fund your associate degree. These awards may be one-time offerings or be renewable for every year you are in school. CareerOneStop makes it easy to find scholarships that are a fit for you. Just filter by degree program and level to find potential opportunities that match up.