2025 Best Journalism Associate Degree Schools in California

Journalism is above average in terms of popularity with it being the #110 most popular associate degree program in the country. As a result, there are many college that offer the degree, making your choice of school a hard one.

For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 2 schools in California to determine which ones were the best for journalism students pursuing a associate degree. Combined, these schools handed out 349 associate degrees in journalism to qualified students.

Jump to one of the following sections: * Our Methodology

• Best Associate Degree Schools List

Early-Career Earnings

Average early-career salary of those graduating with their associate degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. That is, everyone wants their associate degree to be worth something, and salaries are one measure of determining that.

Other Factors We Consider

In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:

• Major Focus - How much a school focuses on journalism students vs. other majors.
• Major Demand - How many other journalism students want to attend this school to pursue a associate degree.
• Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
• Student Debt - How easy is it for journalism to pay back their student loans after receiving their associate degree.
• Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized journalism related body.

Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for journalism students working on their associate degree.

One Size Does Not Fit All

When choosing the right school for you, it's important to arm yourself with all the facts you can. To that end, we've created a number of major-specific rankings, including this Best Journalism Associate Degree Schools in California list to help you make the college decision.

Best Schools for Associate Students to Study Journalism in California

Explore the top ranked colleges and universities for journalism students seeking a an associate degree.

Top California Schools for an Associate in Journalism

1

College of the Canyons
Santa Clarita, CA

12 Annual Graduates

College of the Canyons is a good choice for students interested in an associate degree in journalism. College of the Canyons is a large public college located in the large suburb of Santa Clarita.More information about a associate in journalism from College of the Canyons

2

Mt. San Antonio College
Walnut, CA

10 Annual Graduates

Every student who is interested in an associate degree in journalism needs to check out Mt. San Antonio College. Located in the large suburb of Walnut, Mt. SAC is a public college with a fairly large student population.More information about a associate in journalism from Mt. San Antonio College

Best Journalism Colleges in the Far Western US Region

Explore all the Best Journalism Colleges in the Far Western US Area or other specific states within that region.

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Oregon	147	1
Washington	131	3
Nevada	112	20

View All Rankings >

Rankings in Majors Related to Journalism

One of 5 majors within the Communication & Journalism area of study, Journalism has other similar majors worth exploring.

Journalism Concentrations

Major	Annual Graduates
General Journalism	346
Broadcast Journalism	3

Most Popular Majors Related to Journalism

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Communication & Media Studies	3,328
Radio, Television & Digital Communication	989
Public Relations & Advertising	23
Communication & Journalism (Other)	11

Notes and References

• The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
• The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
• Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
• Credit for the banner image above goes to Jfurrer. More about our data sources and methodologies.