San Joaquin Delta College Named California's Best Community College

STOCKTON (CBS13) - Stockton's San Joaquin Delta College is getting some national recognition after consumer website WalletHub.com named it the top community college in the state and fourth overall in the nation.

The website says it looked at 700 U.S. colleges and compared them against the same set of 19 key indicators that measure certain aspects of the colleges' "cost and quality".

The ranking was determined by three main criteria: students' cost and financing of attending the college, students' education outcomes, and career outcomes.

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The college College ranked 11th in the "Cost and Financing Rank." It includes includes things like whether the college offers free community-college education (the most heavily weighted item), the average amount of grant or scholarship aid received, the availability of employment services for students, and per-pupil spending.

The college ranked 83th for Career Outcomes Rank, which is comprised of what you'd expect: return on educational investment, the student load default rate, former students' median salary after attending, and the share of former students earning above the average earnings of a high school graduate.

Lastly, San Joaquin Delta College ranked 249th for Education Outcomes Rank, which looks at things like first-year retention rate, graduate rate, and credentials rewarded per 100 students.

WalletHub.com says it used findings and expert insight from a panel of researchers to determine the rankings. In addition to this ranking, the company also conducts a state-level analysis of the Best & Worst Community College Systems.