Atlanta Technical College, tucked way on the city's southwest side, spent $4,500 on a survey to find out how good a job its students think the two-year school is doing. The payoff has been priceless: bragging rights as the nation's best community college.

For the past few months folks at Atlanta Tech have been popping their bookbag straps since learning of the school's standing atop Washington Monthly magazine's first list of America's 30 best two-year institutions.

Renee' Hannans Henry/AJC (ENLARGE)

Trinia McConnell, who attended Fulton High School, is a 34-year-old freshman majoring in diesel technology at Atlanta Technical College. According to a Washington Monthly magazine ranking, the school is America's best two-year institution.

Becky Stein/AJC Special (ENLARGE)

Atlanta Technical College student Stephanie Sherrer (left) gets advice from teacher Karen Wheel Carter on styling her hair.

Higher education [an error occurred while processing this directive] Interactive database: They charge, we pay Topic page: Atlanta universities and colleges

President Alvetta Peterman Thomas is unapologetic about how the school of 12,000 students wears its status on its sleeve — or in this case on a super-sized bright yellow banner tattooed to the administration building.

These have been heady times for Atlanta Tech, which has operated in relative obscurity since its humble beginnings in 1945 as Smith-Hughes Vocational School.

"When we participated in the survey, we had no idea any national publication would be looking at this to rank colleges," Thomas said. "We wanted to know how well we were doing. The ranking came afterward. ... Customer service is important to us. It's a wonderful honor."

Washington Monthly, much like U.S. News and World Report, has been sizing up four-year schools for years. Last year, editors decided to rank community and technical colleges, too, using results of a poll by the Community College Survey of Student Engagement that lets students grade their school, and graduation rate statistics from the U.S. Department of Education.

"No one had ever rated community colleges before," said Paul Glastris, Washington Monthly editor in chief. "We found a way to do it."

It is worth noting that the University of Texas-based CCSSE discourages the use of survey results for rankings and took issue with Washington Monthly's effort, published in August.

On the list is a mix of technical and community colleges from Florida to Washington state. Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton took the 10th spot.

Atlanta Tech, which costs full-time students $514 per quarter, is one of about 1,200 two-year colleges nationwide. It also is among five technical colleges in metro Atlanta and 33 statewide.

To top the magazine's chart, Atlanta Tech overcame a 35 percent graduation rate, which Kevin Carey, author of the article that went with the ranking, said is above average for two-year schools. It posted above-average scores on the survey. The support system provided to students and student-faculty interaction were among the five benchmark categories believed to indicate student success.

The survey was administered by Atlanta Tech officials in 2006 under CCSSE's direction in randomly selected classes. "[The rating] certainly suggests, on a variety of levels, it's doing better than most community colleges in the country," said Carey, who is also research and policy manager for Education Sector, a think tank.

"There's still room to improve. This isn't meant to be the definitive list. ... It's just one way of looking at the question."

Barbering student Julius Bass thinks Atlanta Tech could do better in some administrative things, like financial aid, but gives the college high marks on what goes on in the classroom.

"I find the teaching good. You have to be on it as a student," said Bass, 20. "[There's] a lot of interaction with the teacher. [That] makes it easier for you to learn."

Atlanta Tech helped graduating student Larry Alford, who already has a computer science degree and is close to earning an MBA, pursue his culinary passion. Alumnus Tommy Lawyer has gone on to become one of BMW of North America's top Mini-Cooper technicians.

"We change lives," Thomas said. "We provide our students with a level of support they can't find anywhere else."

Atlanta Tech offers more than 80 programs of study, including the newly approved Management and Supervisory Development. It is the only technical college in Georgia with an international exchange program.

"Our students typically come to the table with a lot more baggage than you would see from the typical college student," Thomas said. "We're challenged to try to create learning external things that could impact their ability to be successful in school."

For instance, students needing a wardrobe for work, job interviews or school-related activities can borrow one from a clothes closet, a program Paralegal Studies Chairwoman Karen Carter began in 2005 in her office.

Students are graded on work habit traits, ranging from attendance and teamwork to attitude and appearance. Those grades appear on transcripts.

"What's surprising is that it's taken so long for ATC to be discovered," said Mike Light, spokesman for the Technical College System of Georgia. "The college's faculty and staff are excellent, the programs are a great value in relation to their cost, and ATC graduates move right into the work force."

That's why paralegal student Stephanie Sherrer makes a 40-mile commute from Douglasville instead of attending a closer technical college.

"That speaks to the caliber of the school that I would drive 40 miles each way to go to school to get that kind of education," said Sherrer, 32. "It is a very good school. I have no qualms about saying that. I tell everybody that."