Community colleges are widely acknowledged to be key engines powering social mobility in the United States. Their affordable fees, career-oriented pathways and flexible schedules make them accessible to underserved and low-income communities, recent immigrants, and first-generation college learners, among others. Thanks to this springboard, students are able to enter the workforce or continue their studies, improving their personal livelihoods and generating overall community development.

A large proportion of Hispanic/Latino students begin their higher education journey at community colleges, opening many opportunities for further growth. Throughout the year, Hispanic Outlook recognizes the invaluable support that community colleges across the country offer to Hispanic/Latino students, through articles and profiles of these institutions. Part of this recognition consists in identifying, every April, those community colleges that serve the largest number of Hispanic/Latino students (measured through enrollment and degrees granted). In order to identify these top 50 community colleges, we draw upon the latest data (Fall 2023 for enrollment, and 2022-23 academic year for degrees granted) provided by the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), a part of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). 

For the past two years, Hispanic Outlook has recognized the growing trend of baccalaureate-granting community colleges by presenting two separate sets of lists: one set for “traditional” 2-year institutions with associate degrees as the highest degree granted, and the other set for community colleges that offer bachelor’s degrees as well. This second set is separate because IPEDS defines them as 4-year institutions; nonetheless, they are still considered community colleges (and are thus differentiated from conventional 4-year universities) because they have Carnegie classifications that include only Associates Colleges as well as “Baccalaureate/Associates Colleges, Associate Degrees Dominant” and “Baccalaureate/Associates Colleges, Mixed Baccalaureates And Associates Degrees” (this last classification was carefully examined to ensure that each institution mentioned is indeed primarily an Associates College).

Top 50 Community Colleges: Enrollment

Two-year Community Colleges (with Associate Degrees as Highest Degrees Granted)

• In Fall 2023, all top 50 two-year community colleges enrolled half a million (501,359) Hispanic/Latino students, an increase of nearly 27,000 from Fall 2022. This increase is larger than the increase between Fall 2021 and Fall 2022 (nearly 15,000), indicating an encouraging growth trend.   
• All top 50 two-year community colleges are public institutions.
• The majority of the colleges on this list are in California (37). The remaining colleges are in Texas (6), New York (2), Arizona, Connecticut, Illinois, New Mexico and Virginia (one each).

• The top three institutions - El Paso Community College, East Los Angeles College and Mt. San Antonio College - each enrolled more than 18,000 Hispanic/Latino students. Enrollment at the top ten institutions accounted for nearly a third (32%) of total Hispanic/Latino enrollment at all top 50 colleges, indicating a high concentration of Hispanic/Latino students in a relatively small number of 2-year community colleges. 

• The colleges with the highest percentage of Hispanics/Latinos as a proportion of total enrollment were Imperial Valley College (91%), Texas Southmost College (88%), El Paso Community College and Hartnell College (83% each).

Four-year Community Colleges (with Bachelor’s Degrees as Highest Degrees Granted)

• In Fall 2023, all top 50 four-year community colleges enrolled a total of 458,229 Hispanic/Latino students, an increase of 38,476 students from Fall 2022. As with two-year community colleges, this indicates accelerating growth in enrollment, given that the increase between Fall 2021 and Fall 2022 was of 22,750 students.
• It is notable that nearly as many Hispanic/Latino students were enrolled at the top 50 four-year community colleges as were enrolled at the top 50 two-year colleges, highlighting the growing importance and presence of bachelor-degree-granting community colleges. 
• As with top 50 two-year institutions, all top 50 four-year community colleges are public.

• In contrast with the top 50 two-year colleges serving Hispanic/Latino students, which are mostly located in one state (California), the top 50 four-year community colleges are more widely distributed across different states: the largest number are in Florida (13), California (13) and Texas (13), followed by Colorado (4), Arizona (3), Nevada (2), and Washington and Indiana (one in each).

• The top three of these four-year institutions – Dallas College, Lone Star College System and Miami Dade College - enrolled more than 28,000 Hispanic/Latino students each (at least 10,000 more Hispanic/Latino students each than the top-ranking two-year community colleges, perhaps due to their larger overall size). 
• A large proportion of Hispanic/Latino students were concentrated in relatively few four-year community colleges –  enrollment at the top 10 institutions (225,161 Hispanic/Latino students) represents nearly half (49%) of total Hispanic/Latino enrolment at all 50 four-year community colleges on this list. This concentration of Hispanic/Latino students in a few institutions is thus even more pronounced among four-year community colleges than among two-year ones.

• The colleges with the highest percentage of Hispanics/Latinos as a proportion of total enrollment were South Texas College (96%), Laredo College in Texas (95%), Miami Dade College in Florida (72%) and Rio Hondo College in California (72%).

Top 50 Community Colleges: Degrees Granted

 Two-year Community Colleges - Associate Degrees Granted

• In the 2022-23 academic year, the top 50 community colleges in terms of Associate degrees granted to Hispanic/Latino students conferred 68,282 of these degrees. This represents a dip with regard to the 2021-22 academic year, when 73,364 Associate degrees were granted to Hispanic/Latino students at these institutions. 

• As would be expected, there is a large overlap between the institutions on the top 50 list of two-year colleges in terms of enrollment and those on the top 50 list of two-year colleges in terms of Associate degrees granted. Thus, the top 50 two-year community colleges on both lists were all public institutions, and they are mostly concentrated in California. The institutions on both lists are not identical, however, given that each college has different graduation rates; enrollment numbers and degrees granted also mark different parts of students’ college trajectories (the beginning and end points), so the data for both are naturally measured differently and provided at different times. 
•  The top ten community colleges on this list – headed by El Paso Community College and East Los Angeles College - together awarded 21,703 Associate degrees to Hispanic/Latino students, representing 32% of all Associate degrees awarded by the 50 schools on this list. This data mirrors the proportion of Hispanic/Latino students concentrated in the top ten two-year community colleges in the list of top institutions by enrollment. 

• The colleges with the highest proportion of Associate degrees awarded to Hispanic/Latino students were Texas Southmost College (96%), Imperial Valley College (93%), Palo Alto College (86%), and El Paso Community College (86%). 

• Regionally, the data on Associate degrees granted by 2-year institutions to Hispanic/Latino students reveals that El Paso Community College in Texas is ranked first in the South, the largest region in the country (comprised of 17 states). In the West, East Los Angeles College in California is in first place, while in the Midwest Eastern Gateway Community College in Ohio ranks first, and in the Northeast, CUNY Borough of Manhattan Community College in New York awards the highest number of these degrees to Hispanic/Latino students.  

Four-year Community Colleges – Associate and Bachelor’s Degrees Granted

• In the 2022-23 academic year, a total of 64,419 Associate and Bachelor’s degrees were granted to Hispanic/Latino students by all top 50 four-year community colleges. As with two-year community colleges, there has been a slight decrease in the number of these degrees granted to Hispanic/Latino students with regard to the previous year (1,839 fewer Associate and Bachelor’s degrees). 

• Among four-year community colleges, Miami Dade College ranks first in awarding the greatest number of Associate and Bachelor’s degrees to Hispanic/Latino students, with 7,038. Dallas College, South Texas College, the Lone Star College System and Valencia College round out the top five places on this list; each of these colleges awarded more than 3,300 of these degrees to Hispanic/Latino students. 
• The 10 top-ranked four-year community colleges on this list conferred 34,031 Associate and Bachelor’s degrees to Hispanic/Latino students, representing slightly more than half (53%) of all Associate and Bachelor’s degrees conferred to these students at all top 50 four-year community colleges.  As with enrolment, this indicates a high concentration of degrees awarded to Hispanic/Latino students at a relatively small number of four-year community colleges. 
• The colleges with the highest proportion of Associate and Bachelor’s degrees awarded to Hispanic/Latino students were Laredo College (98%), South Texas College (95%), and Rio Hondo College (88%).