Community College institutions in the United States
Community colleges are public, two-year institutions whose highest award is an associate degree or certificate, classified under the Carnegie associate-degree categories. This dataset includes 920 U.S. institutions classified as Community College under the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, maintained by the American Council on Education and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, enrolling about 5,368,457 students in total.
Of these, 826 are public and 94 private. The largest by enrollment include Ivy Tech Community College, Lone Star College System, and Dallas College. Among institutions that report the figure, the median graduation rate is 37% and the median average net price is $8,169.
R1 vs R2 vs Doctoral/Professional
The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, maintained by the American Council on Education and the Carnegie Foundation, sorts doctoral universities into these research tiers.
| Tier | Research activity | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| R1 | Very high research activity | Doctoral universities with the highest level of research activity, the top Carnegie research tier (e.g. Harvard, MIT, most flagship state universities). |
| R2 | High research activity | Doctoral universities with high research activity, the second Carnegie research tier, below R1 but above the doctoral/professional category. |
| Doctoral/Professional | Doctoral or professional-practice degrees | Universities that award research or professional-practice doctorates but fall below the research-activity thresholds for R1 or R2. |
920 institutions
Page 20 of 20Wor - Wic Community College
Salisbury, Maryland
Wytheville Community College
Wytheville, Virginia
Yavapai College
Prescott, Arizona
York County Community College
Wells, Maine
York Technical College
Rock Hill, South Carolina
YTI Career Institute - York
York, Pennsylvania
Yuba College
Marysville, California
Zane State College
Zanesville, Ohio
Frequently asked questions
- What is a Community College institution under the Carnegie Classification?
- Community colleges are public, two-year institutions whose highest award is an associate degree or certificate, classified under the Carnegie associate-degree categories. This dataset tracks 920 of them in the United States.
- What are the largest Community College in the U.S.?
- By total enrollment, the largest are Ivy Tech Community College, Lone Star College System, Dallas College, NVCC, and Houston Community College.
- What is the typical graduation rate and net price for these institutions?
- The median graduation rate among institutions that report one is 37%, and the median average net price is $8,169. Figures come from IPEDS and College Scorecard.
Related categories
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Data: IPEDS Fall 2025–26 provisional · College Scorecard (June 2026 release). All sources & release dates →
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