Ranked #2 in popularity, nursing is one of the most sought-after associate degree programs in the nation. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 74 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Nursing Associate Degree Schools in California ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 5,712 associate degrees in nursing during the 2022-2023 academic year.
Choosing a Great Nursing School for Your Associate Degree
Your choice of nursing 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 take this into account we consider a school's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a host 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 many resources a school devotes to nursing students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - How many other nursing 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 easy is it for nursing to pay back their student loans after receiving their associate degree.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized nursing related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for nursing students working on their associate degree.
The nursing school you choose to invest your time and money in matters. To help you make the decision that is right for you, we've developed a number of major-specific rankings, including this list of the Best Nursing Associate Degree Schools in California.
Best Schools for Associate Students to Study Nursing in California
The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing an associate degree in nursing. Only those schools that rank in the top 20% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
14 Top California Schools for an Associate in Nursing
Any student who is interested in an associate degree in nursing has to look into Mount Saint Mary's University. MSMU is a small private not-for-profit university located in the city of Los Angeles.
Students who graduate with their associate from the nursing program state that they receive average early career wages of $64,968.
It is difficult to beat Modesto Junior College if you want to pursue an associate degree in nursing. Located in the medium-sized city of Modesto, MJC is a public college with a fairly large student population.
Nursing associate degree recipients from Modesto Junior College earn a boost of approximately $3,260 above the average income of nursing graduates.
Every student who is interested in an associate degree in nursing needs to look into Merced College. Merced Community College District is a fairly large public college located in the city of Merced.
Associate recipients from the nursing degree program at Merced College make $10,945 more than the standard college graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
Carrington College, Sacramento is a great decision for students interested in an associate degree in nursing. Carrington College, Sacramento is a small private for-profit college located in the suburb of Sacramento.
Associate recipients from the nursing program at Carrington College, Sacramento make $8,344 more than the average college grad with the same degree shortly after graduation.
Located in the rural area of Angwin, PUC is a private not-for-profit college with a fairly small student population.
Associate recipients from the nursing degree program at Pacific Union College make $14,617 more than the average graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
Located in the suburb of Marysville, Yuba College is a public college with a moderately-sized student population.
Associate recipients from the nursing program at Yuba College get $21,204 above the standard college graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
These are some additional schools worth mentioning that are also great but just didn't quite make the cut to earn our top Best Nursing Associate Degree Schools in California award.
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).