Community college in Navajo Nation gets top grade

PHOENIX — The Navajo Nation’s Dine College has garnered a top ranking from a personal finance website.

WalletHub ranked the school second on a list of 670 community colleges evaluated by the site.

Jill Gonzalez with WalletHub said the Arizona school’s in-state tuition of $725 dollars per year is the lowest in the country, putting students on solid ground when they finish school.

“Not only were they number one in terms of cost and financing and affordability, but they were also number one in terms of career outcomes, which means students are graduating with great jobs and they’re leaving with no student debt whatsoever,” Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez said Dine also makes sure that students don’t get lost in the crowd.

“The student-to-faculty ratio there is just 15-to-one, so students are not going to be in a hall of 500 of their peers, vying for attention.”

She said it helps that Dine is a small school, with an enrollment of just under 2,000 students.

Gonzalez said WalletHub looked at 17 different factors to come up with its rankings.

WalletHub is a personal finance website which conducts data driven studies on a number of topics to help consumers make informed financial decisions.