Billy Stewart

Two community colleges in East Mississippi have received national recognition for their affordability and online availability by AffordableColleges.com, a website that ranks colleges with a “Value Score.”

Nonprofit Colleges Online released a list of the 50 best colleges for an online associates degree and placed East Mississippi Community College in the first slot in a list released Monday. 

The ranking focused on online associates degrees, considering the number of programs offered, student-to-teacher ratios, tuition costs and the percentage of full-time students receiving financial aid from the school

Nonprofit Colleges recognized EMCC for its flexibility and offerings to students who may not be able to visit campus physically. 

“The world of higher education is changing as more colleges and universities work to supplement brick-and-mortar classrooms with online offerings that provide students more options and flexible scheduling,” EMCC President Thomas Huebner said in a statement. “We have worked hard at EMCC to ensure that we are on the forefront of that growing trend. Just this semester, we began offering an E-Commerce Technology program in which all classes are available online and a cyber security program that gives students the option of taking all of their sophomore classes online.”

Both East Mississippi Community College and East Central Community College placed in the top 30 for the Most Affordable Community Colleges at AffordableColleges.com, an organization that tries to rank colleges based on their affordability.

EMCC, with a score of 7.83, secured a spot in the top 10 at seven and ECCC placed 29 with a score of 7.20.

The website called EMCC an “affordable, practical” option for students considering a transfer to a four-year university. 

“Unlike other cheap community colleges, EMCC is divided into three academic divisions: humanities and fine arts, mathematics and science, and social science and business,” AffordableColleges.com said. “Within each division are a variety of associate degrees for students to choose from. These range from computer science to nutrition and aim to help students gain credits that are transferable to a bachelor’s degree program.”

The website also selected EMCC as the most affordable online community college, with a score of 8.32, and the most affordable online associate degree. The website pointed to the academic divisions but also the accessibility of EMCC’s virtual library to eLearning students, who can “ask a librarian” for research assistance 24/7.

“These rankings validates our efforts to ensure that students at EMCC not only have access to an exceptional education but one that makes sound economic sense,” Huebner said.

At ECCC, the college “offers a number of different academic programs, including in the healthcare field, automotive mechanics, culinary arts and early childhood education,” AffordableColleges.com said. “Combining cheap rates with high quality, ECCC is one of the best community colleges in the region.”

“We are particularly pleased with this national recognition because it not only recognizes the affordability of East Central Community College, but the quality of our instructional programs,” ECCC President Billy Stewart said in a statement. “Our vision is to be nationally recognized and locally preferred, and to be recognized nationally for quality programs that are reasonably priced is an honor. In addition, I am confident that both quality and affordability were contributing factors in the tremendous enrollment increase we experienced this fall.”