an associate degree in graphic communications is more popular than many other degrees. In fact, it ranks #62 out of 328 on popularity of all such degrees in the nation. This means you won't have too much trouble finding schools that offer the degree.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 3 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Graphic Communications Associate Degree Schools in the Southwest Region ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 161 associate degrees in graphic communications during the 2022-2023 academic year.
Choosing a Great Graphic Communications School for Your Associate Degree
Your choice of graphic communications for getting your associate degree school matters. Important measures of a quality graphic communication program can vary widely even among the top schools. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
Quality Overall Is Important
A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To take this into account we include a college's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a collection of various factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
Average Earnings
One measure we use to determine the quality of a school is to look at the average salary of associate graduates during the early years of their career. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their associate degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.
Other Factors We Consider
The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.
Major Focus - How much a school focuses on graphic communications students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - The number of graphic communications students who choose to seek a associate degree at the school.
Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
Student Debt - How easy is it for graphic communications to pay back their student loans after receiving their associate degree.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized graphic communications related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for graphic communications students working on their associate degree.
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Graphic Communications Associate Degree Schools in the Southwest Region ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
Best Schools for Associate Students to Study Graphic Communications in the Southwest Region
The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing an associate degree in graphic communications.
Top Southwest Region Schools for an Associate in Graphic Communication
Every student who is interested in an associate degree in graphic communications needs to check out Houston Community College. Houston Community College is a fairly large public college located in the city of Houston.
Soon after graduating, graphic communication associate recipients generally make an average of $16,155 in their early careers.
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).
Your choice of graphic communications for getting your associate degree school matters. Important measures of a quality graphic communication program can vary widely even among the top schools. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
