Butler County Community College has been named the best community college in the state, again.
The ranking was published this week by Schools.com and compared the state’s community colleges by total cost, student-to-faculty ratio and number of transfer agreements with other institutions. Bucks County Community College was ranked second and the Community College of Beaver County ranked fifth.
BC3 President Dr. Nick Neupauer said the school’s back-to-back number one rankings are a testament to BC3’s consistency in excellence and its importance to higher education in eight counties.
“This also speaks to the commitment from the entire BC3 team to provide affordable, accessible and above all, quality education to the students we serve,” Neupauer said in a statement released Friday.
Schools.com on Tuesday published only its Top Five rankings in its second survey since late 2015. Bucks County Community College was second; Montgomery County Community College, Blue Bell, third; Northampton County Area Community College, fourth; and the Community College of Beaver County fifth.
Neupauer has been president for 10 years, which exceeds that of any Pennsylvania community college, the 14 State System of Higher Education institutions and its four state-related schools- Pitt, Penn State, Temple and Lincoln.
Kim Geyer, a 1984 BC3 graduate, has served as an ex officio BC3 trustee in her capacity as a Butler County commissioner since 2011.
“It is an honor to be part of a county that has a community college honored twice and consecutively recognizing our professionals and institution, each of whom has demonstrated time and again the power of hard work, innovation and perseverance,” Geyer said.
Fellow Commissioner Kevin Boozel, a 1991 graduate of BC3, said his alma mater is a “diamond among jewels” and is “being recognized for its innovation, cooperative spirit and most importantly, its delivery of well-educated students to both the work force and four-year institutions.”
“This accomplishment rings the bell of success loud and clear that,” Boozel said, “can be heard across the state.”
