I examine what the characteristics of competitive community colleges are and how the ranking systems identify the ideal qualities of community colleges through a comparison of community colleges to prestigious four-year institutions. I provide information regarding the institutional differences and the characteristics of top-ranked community colleges. From the results, I show that top-ranked community colleges have more disadvantages to student cohorts and depend significantly on state support, unlike prestigious four-year institutions. The financial difficulties that community colleges face distract them from providing educational support to attending students and contribute to potentially lowering their college completion rates. These findings have specific implications for how institutional leaders make long-term plans to develop and compete in the higher education market.