Lake Michigan College has been ranked the 13th best community college in the country by financial advisory firm SmartAsset.

In its 2025 Best Community Colleges report, the company placed LMC at the top of all community colleges in Michigan for the second year in a row. Nationally, LMC ranked 28th last year.

College Vice President of Enrollment, Marketing, and Governmental Relations Al Pscholka tells us the report is based off three factors, including cost.

“Of course, we’ve always kept our tuition low,” Pscholka said. “The student-teacher ratio, which we think is really important. You get individualized attention here. It’s 13 students per one faculty member, and half of our faculty have PhDs, so they are subject matter experts. And the retention rate, how good are you at keeping students in school? Ours was above 85%.”

SmartAsset says LMC has average annual in-state tuition of about $2,600.

While the report reflects well on Lake Michigan College, Pscholka says it also reflects well on the entire community and could mean economic development.

“If a company is looking to locate somewhere, isn’t it great that we have the number one community college in the state, 13th in the country? That helps us attract new investments.”

The SmartAsset report looked at more than 500 community colleges with more than 500 students. Coming in second for Michigan is Kellogg Community College in Battle Creek, while third is Montcalm Community College.