The Aspen Institute has ranked Santa Fe College as one of the top 10 community colleges in the country.
SFC is one of only two institutions in the state to receive Aspen’s top 10 acknowledgement. The institute looked at about 1,200 other colleges nationwide.
This is the institute’s second year awarding the College Excellence Program Prize, said David Houder, director of communications at SFC.
Santa Fe did not make the top 10 last year, Houder said, but it is overjoyed to have gotten the recognition a second time around.
“Everyone is thrilled,” he said. “As a community college, you fly under the radar, and the good stuff sometimes doesn’t get noticed.”
Houder said the colleges are evaluated on things like graduation percentages and job placement rates.
Katie Walker, a 19-year-old SFC exercise science sophomore, said she wasn’t surprised by the ranking.
“I like the small classes, and I love everything about Santa Fe,” she said.
Walker said she thinks it’s the amount of available one-on-one time with professors that makes SFC a top 10 college.
Tim Warren, 18, will start his freshman year at SFC in the Fall. Having received his acceptance letter, the deciding factor for choosing SFC depended on its ranking, Warren said.
“This is one thing that’s encouraging me to go there,” he said.
Contact Alexa Volland at avolland@alligator.org.
