West Valley College is one of 250 schools on TIME and Statista's first list of America's best community colleges, published Thursday, and the magazine singled out the Saratoga campus for its semiconductor training.
The list is unranked. In its write-up, TIME pointed to West Valley and Austin Community College in Texas as colleges offering certificates that prepare students for jobs in the semiconductor industry, as major chipmakers struggle to find qualified workers.
How schools were picked
To be considered, a college had to be public, accredited and financially solvent, enroll more than 100 students and offer two-year degrees, according to TIME. The list drew on federal IPEDS and College Scorecard data and weighed factors including how many students share each instructor, core spending per student, diversity, what graduates earn, how many finish or transfer, and campus resources.
The program TIME mentioned
West Valley won a $3.9 million federal grant in January from the U.S. Education Department's Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education to build a semiconductor certificate program, the college announced at the time. It said it was the only community college in California, and one of 18 nationwide, to get an award in that funding round. The four-year grant runs through December 2029.
The money is paying for a semiconductor fabrication lab where students get hands-on practice for cleanroom and fab jobs. The college says the certificate is built to prepare and credential 120 or more workers each year.