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North Carolina Community Colleges Dominate Rankings In Annual Survey

Screenshot courtesy of SmartAsset

An annual study that ranks the country's best community colleges heavily features North Carolina schools. 

North Carolina community colleges take the top six spots of this year's SmartAsset study, with eight schools in the top 10. This is the second year in a row the state has dominated the list. 

All of the North Carolina schools get high marks in the main metrics, which include both low student-to-faculty ratios and high graduation rates, along with a relatively low cost of tuition.

Brunswick Community College, in eastern North Carolina, came in at number one, with an 82 percent graduation rate and tuition costs of about $2,500.

Closer to the Triad, Randolph Community College in Asheboro ranked ninth, right after Catawba Valley Community College in Hickory which came in at number eight.

Census Bureau data show that while attendance at two-year institutions has seen a slight decline recently, nearly one-third of all college students in America attended a community college between 1980 and 2015.

President Biden is pursuing a proposal to offer free tuition at all community colleges.

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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