| # | University | City | World rank | In-country | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1951 | Bristol Community College | not ranked | #1767 | 1,290 | |
| 1952 | Walla Walla Community College | not ranked | #1841 | 1,285 | |
| 1953 | Cheyney University | not ranked | #1787 | 1,279 | |
| 1954 | Brookdale Community College | not ranked | #1986 | 1,251 | |
| 1955 | Ozarks Technical Community College | not ranked | #1865 | 1,244 | |
| 1956 | Cornell College | not ranked | #1975 | 1,234 | |
| 1957 | Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College | not ranked | #1959 | 1,230 | |
| 1958 | Erie Community College | not ranked | #1871 | 1,228 | |
| 1959 | Flathead Valley Community College | not ranked | #2000 | 1,214 | |
| 1960 | Latter-day Saints Business College | not ranked | #1781 | 1,208 | |
| 1961 | Andrew College | not ranked | #1995 | 1,196 | |
| 1962 | Virginia Western Community College | not ranked | #1994 | 1,189 | |
| 1963 | Gavilan College | not ranked | #1867 | 1,188 | |
| 1964 | Lincoln Land Community College | not ranked | #2003 | 1,175 | |
| 1965 | Chippewa Valley Technical College | not ranked | #1968 | 1,162 | |
| 1966 | Columbia State Community College | not ranked | #2001 | 1,161 | |
| 1967 | Pueblo Community College | not ranked | #2016 | 1,156 | |
| 1968 | Piedmont Virginia Community College | not ranked | #2002 | 1,155 | |
| 1969 | College of the Sequoias | not ranked | #1939 | 1,149 | |
| 1970 | J F Drake State Community and Technical College | not ranked | #1912 | 1,148 | |
| 1971 | Des Moines Area Community College | not ranked | #1977 | 1,133 | |
| 1972 | Norwalk Community College | not ranked | #2022 | 1,129 | |
| 1973 | Rowan-Cabarrus Community College | not ranked | #1996 | 1,123 | |
| 1974 | Lenoir Community College | not ranked | #1897 | 1,074 | |
| 1975 | Independence Community College | not ranked | #1895 | 1,072 | |
| 1976 | Marshalltown Community College | not ranked | #1549 | 1,066 | |
| 1977 | Galen College of Nursing-Louisville | not ranked | #2035 | 1,044 | |
| 1978 | Cumberland County College | not ranked | #2031 | 1,043 | |
| 1979 | Belmont College | not ranked | #2006 | 1,042 | |
| 1980 | Bossier Parish Community College | not ranked | #2027 | 1,009 | |
| 1981 | Harris-Stowe State University | not ranked | #1814 | 1,000 | |
| 1982 | Eastfield College | not ranked | #2032 | 997 | |
| 1983 | Kennebec Valley Community College | not ranked | #1946 | 994 | |
| 1984 | Lord Fairfax Community College | not ranked | #2036 | 993 | |
| 1985 | Dallas County Community College | not ranked | #2043 | 980 | |
| 1986 | Schoolcraft College | not ranked | #2051 | 963 | |
| 1987 | Texarkana College | not ranked | #2046 | 963 | |
| 1988 | West Hills College-Coalinga | not ranked | #1918 | 953 | |
| 1989 | Triton College | not ranked | #2040 | 947 | |
| 1990 | Moberly Area Community College | not ranked | #2045 | 944 | |
| 1991 | Sauk Valley Community College | not ranked | #2052 | 938 | |
| 1992 | Grayson College | not ranked | #2011 | 931 | |
| 1993 | Dabney S Lancaster Community College | not ranked | #2044 | 929 | |
| 1994 | College of the Siskiyous | not ranked | #1861 | 920 | |
| 1995 | North Central Missouri College | not ranked | #2039 | 915 | |
| 1996 | Augusta Technical College | not ranked | #2072 | 892 | |
| 1997 | Allegany College of Maryland | not ranked | #1982 | 885 | |
| 1998 | Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College | not ranked | #1998 | 882 | |
| 1999 | Hudson County Community College | not ranked | #1942 | 880 | |
| 2000 | Capital Community College | not ranked | #2062 | 875 |
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What the two columns mean
In-country is the position the ranking record gives the university among those in its own country, and it is often the more useful number: a university ranked 480th in the world may still be third at home. It is carried over as published, so it does not always follow the order of the other two columns. World rank is the university's QS World University Rankings position. Citations are the number of times work published by the university has been cited, as recorded in OpenAlex; it is the measure used to order universities that QS does not rank at all.
The two do not always agree. A large research university can out-cite a smaller one that sits above it in QS, because QS weighs reputation surveys and staff ratios as well as research.