SmartAsset has named East Mississippi Community College among the Top 10 colleges in the nation for the fourth year in a row.

EMCC placed No. 8 on the report titled “The Best Community Colleges in America — 2019 Edition,” according to news releases from EMCC and Smart Asset. EMCC was ranked No. 5 last year, No. 3 in 2017 and No. 8 in 2016.

SmartAsset compiled the rankings after analyzing 796 two-year educational institutions nationwide and comparing the schools’ graduation and transfer rates, student-to-faculty ratios and cost of tuition and fees, SmartAsset Vice President of Financial Education AJ Smith stated in an email to EMCC.

The data was taken from the National Center for Education Statistics’ Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System for the 2017-18 school year, according to SmartAsset.

“With approximately 82 percent of students graduating or transferring to four-year institutions in the 2017-2018 school year, EMCC has the second-highest graduation and transfer rate in this year’s study,” Smith wrote in an email.

EMCC’s tuition and fees of $3,240 for in-state students to complete two semesters of coursework is “about $1,000 lower than the average tuition of almost $4,300 across all 796 colleges in the study,” according to the report.

“Students at EMCC can take their first two years of college or earn a career technical certificate or associate’s degree that leads to well-paying jobs without falling into the student loan debt trap,” EMCC President Scott Alsobrooks said in a statement. “Our students can be assured they will not only get the best bang for their buck but that they will graduate from a quality institution dedicated to preparing them for the next phase of their lives.”

Read the SmartAsset report online at http://bit.ly/2yIY0Ej