Hudson Valley Ranked as 58th Most Productive Community College in the Country

September 28, 2015

Hudson Valley Community College ranks as one of the largest and most productive two-year colleges in the United States, according to a report released recently by Community College Week, a bi-weekly higher education newspaper.

The Troy college awarded 1,885 associate degrees in 2013-2014, which places it among the top 5 percent of community colleges nationwide in terms of annual graduation rate.

The college is 58th among the nation's two-year schools in the number of associate degrees awarded during that academic year, which is the most recent year for complete data from the U.S. Department of Education's Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System.

Hudson Valley has consistently ranked among the nation's top 100 community colleges for the past decade.

There are 1,123 public community colleges that offer associate degrees in the United States, according to the American Association of Community Colleges. The organization estimates that community college students make up 46 percent of all American undergraduates.

Hudson Valley is the fifth most productive college among the 30 community colleges in the SUNY system. Suffolk Community College (ranked 7th); Nassau Community College (13th); Monroe Community College (28th); and Erie Community College (39th); awarded more associate degrees in the 2013-2014 academic year.

Community College Week also ranks the top 50 institutions by number of degrees awarded in certain academic areas based upon the U.S. Department of Education's Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP). Among all colleges nationwide awarding associate degrees, Hudson Valley ranked 12th in the number of criminal justice degrees; 14th in homeland security, law enforcement, firefighting and related protective services associate degrees; 14th in sales, merchandising and related marketing operations degrees; 16th in family and consumer science degrees; 19th in engineering technology degrees; 25th in the number of parks, recreation, leisure and fitness studies degrees; 26th in business, management and marketing degrees; and 31st in communication technologies/technicians and support services degrees.

The Community College Week study underscored one major trend across both two-year and four-year institutions of higher education that Hudson Valley seems to be contradicting. Data shows the gap between male and female graduates at community colleges nationwide continues to persist, as it has for two decades. At the end of the 2013-2014 academic year, women earned 61 percent of all associate degrees granted to men's 39 percent, according to the analysis.

Hudson Valley bucks that trend however, with a larger percentage of male graduates than female graduates over the past five years. In 2013-2014, 51 percent of graduates were male and 49 percent were female. The gender breakdown has been consistent for at least the past decade.