The national website Schools.com ranked Lake Land College among the top 10 best community colleges in Illinois.
Schools.com named Lake Land College sixth in the state. The site highlighted its online class enrollment and affordability and value of the college’s tuition and fees, including textbook rental.
“Lake Land College continues to be one of the best values in the state and nation for college students. Our tuition and fees are about one-fourth of a state university and our academic quality is recognized in the success of our graduates,” Lake Land College President Josh Bullock said. “We are proud to be the number one choice among the recent high school graduating class in our district.”
Lake Land College’s tuition and fees are about $3,800 for one year, making it one of the most affordable colleges in Illinois. In addition, the college’s textbook rental program saves students an average of $1,400 per year. Lake Land is one of the few colleges in the nation to offer textbook rental to students.
Online enrollment at Lake Land College is robust with about 32 percent of students taking at least one online class and 11 percent taking all online classes. The college has about 170 offerings online each semester.
The site also recognized Lake Land’s commitment to creating a sustainable campus. During the past eight years, the college has been replacing old infrastructure with new green technology. Lake Land has one of the largest geothermal well fields in the country, as well as a growing set of solar panels. The college has a recycling center available to the community and uses LED lighting and virtual machines to reduce energy consumption throughout campus. Not only are these initiatives sustainable, the infrastructure provides a living learning laboratory for Lake Land College students.
“Awareness of human impacts on the environment is high at Lake Land College, and students and faculty work together to ensure that [Lake Land] makes as little negative ecological impact as possible,” Justin Boyle wrote in an article published on the website.
Boyle stated researchers at the site analyzed “seven categories of data released by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and other independent agencies. We looked at total attendance cost, student-faculty ratio, distance education focus and transfer rate to four-year institutions, among other factors, and we came up with a pretty clear who’s-who of top Illinois community colleges.”