INA, Ill. (Sept. 10, 2015) - Rend Lake College has been ranked the ninth-best community college in the state by WalletHub, a financial website, based on several key factors. Overall, RLC placed 366th in the nation.
The ranking, which was published last week, compared a total of 670 community colleges in the nation, based on 17 performance metrics. Reboot Illinois then took the WalletHub ranking and condensed it to focus on the 31 community colleges in Illinois who made the cut. Of those, RLC placed ninth.
The ranking put the 17 performance metrics into four categories for measurement: cost and financing, classroom experience, education outcomes, and career outcomes. RLC ranked 19th in the nation when it came to education outcomes, which included measurements in first-year retention rate, graduation rate, transfer-out rate, and credentials (degrees and certificated) awarded per 100 full-time-equivalent students.
“It’s always nice to see the hard work of the faculty and staff recognized, especially when it hits on the national level,†said President Terry Wilkerson. “The culture of Rend Lake has been, and continues to be, centered on the success of our students.â€
RLC also outperformed many community colleges in the career outcomes category, ranking at 194th. This category focused on the return on educational investment and student-loan default rate.
In the cost and financing category, RLC was measured on the cost of in-state tuition and fees, amount of state and local aid, total amount of federal aid, cost per student, school spending efficiency, and faculty staff salary.
The final category - classroom experience - focused on active and collaborative learning, student effort, academic challenge, student-faculty interaction, support for learners, and the student-to-faculty ratio.
Overall, Illinois ranked 32nd in the country for having the best community college systems, excluding six states who were not included in the report: Alaska, Delaware, Indiana, Rhode Island, South Dakota, and Vermont. There are over 1,100 community colleges in the United States. Other Southern Illinois colleges on the WalletHub list include Kaskaskia College, Lake Land College, Lincoln Land Community College, Parkland College, and Shawnee Community College.
According to WalletHub, the information and data included in the ranking was gathered by the Community College Survey of Student Engagement, conducted by the University of Texas at Austin annually. The data was collected between 2013 and 2015, with the most recent results for each institution being used. Additional data was obtained from the National Center for Education Statistics, the Center for Community College Student Engagement, the Council for Community and Economic Research, and the American Institutes for Research and Optimity Advisors.
To view the WalletHub ranking, visit www.wallethub.com. To view the Reboot Illinois article, visit www.rebootillinois.com. Start your journey at RLC by visiting www.rlc.edu/journey.
