Computer Science is above average in terms of popularity with it being the #35 most popular associate degree program in the country. This means you won't have too much trouble finding schools that offer the degree.
College Factual looked at 42 colleges and universities when compiling its 2023 Best Computer Science Associate Degree Schools ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 4,092 associate degrees in computer science to qualified students.
Choosing a Great Computer Science School for Your Associate Degree
Your choice of computer science for getting your associate degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. 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 account for this we consider 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 computer science students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - How many other computer science students want to attend this school to pursue a associate degree.
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 much debt computer science students go into to obtain their associate degree and how well they are able to pay back that debt.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized computer science related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for computer science 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 Computer Science Associate Degree Schools ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
ADVERTISEMENT
Featured Computer Science Programs
Learn about start dates, transferring credits, availability of financial aid, and more by contacting the universities below.
Learn the applied programming skills needed to fill in-demand tech roles when you earn your online AS in Computer Science at Southern New Hampshire University.
It's difficult to beat Northern Virginia Community College if you wish to pursue an associate degree in computer science. Northern Virginia Community College is a fairly large public college located in the suburb of Annandale.
Associate recipients from the computer science major at Northern Virginia Community College get $7,480 more than the typical graduate in this field shortly after graduation.
Normandale Community College is a wonderful choice for individuals interested in an associate degree in computer science. Located in the city of Bloomington, Normandale Community College is a public college with a medium-sized student population.
Those computer science students who get their associate degree from Normandale Community College receive $5,175 more than the typical compsci graduate.
Located in the remote town of Watertown, LATI is a public school with a small student population.
Associate recipients from the computer science program at Lake Area Technical Institute make $9,414 above the average college grad in this field shortly after graduation.
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).