Most Affordable HBCU

Gadsden State Community College has been named the second most affordable Historically Black College or University in the country by Student Loan Hero.

Student Loan Hero, a website that provides students with resources and information on college loans, examined data from the National Center for Education Statistics on tuition and fees for the 2017-18 school year.

In addition to the national designation, Gadsden State has the lowest in-state tuition and fees among all HBCUs in the state of Alabama.

The College is among six other Alabama colleges named to the Top 20 most affordable HBCUs nationwide. Following Gadsden State are Shelton State Community College in Tuscaloosa (No. 4), Trenholm State Community College in Montgomery (No. 5), J.F. Drake State Community and Technical College in Huntsville (No. 6), Bishop State Community College in Mobile (No. 7) and Lawson State Community College in Birmingham (No. 8).

Student Loan Hero reports Gadsden State’s in-state tuition and fees at $3,600. The most affordable HBCU in the country is Coahoma Community College in Clarksdale, Miss., at $2,803 for in-state tuition and fees.

Gadsden State Community College’s Valley Street Campus earned the HBCU designation in 1997. Valley Street Campus was formally established on July 6, 1960, as the Gadsden Vocational Trade School, a private vocational training school for Black Americans. It became a public institution in 1961 and was the only technical school in the area enrolling Black Americans until desegregation in 1970. It merged with Gadsden State in 1985. In 2017, Gadsden State was ranked the fourth most affordable HBCU by Best Value Schools, an online educational website.