2023 Most Focused Associate Degree Colleges for Marine Sciences
4
Ranked Colleges
26
Degrees Awarded
$17,200
Avg Cost*

With all of the options students have for higher education today, it can be tough to choose which direction to take. College Factual has developed its “Schools for an Associate Highly Focused on Marine Sciences Major” ranking as one item you can use to help make this decision.
In 2021-2022, 374 people earned their degree in marine sciences, making the major the 679th most popular in the United States.
At the associate degree level specifically, there were 26 marine sciences graduates with average earnings and debt of $36,431 and $15,731 respectively.
For this year’s “Schools for an Associate Highly Focused on Marine Sciences Major” ranking, we looked at 4 colleges that offer a degree in marine sciences. The colleges and universities that top this list are recognized because their marine sciences program is one of the largest majors offered at the school.
Check out our ranking methodology for more information.
More Ways to Rank Marine Sciences Schools
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 “Schools for an Associate Highly Focused on Marine Sciences Major” list to help you make the college decision.
You can create your own custom comparison that focuses on the factors most important to you using our tool, College Combat. When you have some time, check it out - you may want to bookmark the link so you don’t forget it.
Schools for an Associate Highly Focused on Marine Sciences Major
The following schools top our list of the Best “Schools for an Associate Highly Focused on Marine Sciences Major”.
Top 4 Most Focused Associate Degree Colleges for Marine Sciences
Out of the 4 schools in the Schools for an Associate Highly Focused on Marine Sciences Major that were part of this year’s ranking, College of Micronesia-FSM landed the #1 spot on the list. COM-FSM is located in Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia and, has a small student population. In 2021-2022, this school awarded 13 associates’s marine sciences degrees to qualified students.
Full COM-FSM Marine Sciences Report
Out of the 4 schools in the Schools for an Associate Highly Focused on Marine Sciences Major that were part of this year’s ranking, American Samoa Community College landed the #2 spot on the list. Located in Pago Pago, American Samoa, this small public school awarded 2 degrees to qualified associates’s marine sciences students in 2021-2022.
Read full report on Marine Sciences at American Samoa Community College
Out of the 4 schools in the Schools for an Associate Highly Focused on Marine Sciences Major that were part of this year’s ranking, Cape Fear Community College landed the #3 spot on the list. Cape Fear Community College is a fairly large school located in Wilmington, North Carolina that handed out 11 associates’s marine sciences degrees in 2021-2022.
The low undergrad student loan default rate of 4.1% is a good sign that students have an easier time paying off their loans than they might at other schools. For comparison, the national default rate is 10.1%.
Read more about Marine Sciences at CFCC
You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Lake Superior State University. The school came in at #4 for the Schools for an Associate Highly Focused on Marine Sciences Major. Sault Ste Marie, Michigan is the setting for this small institution of higher learning. The public school handed out associates’s marine sciences degrees to 0 students in 2021-2022.
The undergrad student loan default rate at the school is 1.3%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%.
Full Lake Superior State University Marine Sciences Report
Notes and References
References
- 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 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).
- Information about the national average student loan default rate is from the U.S. Department of Education and refers to data about the 2016 borrower cohort tracking period for which the cohort default rate (CDR) was 10.1%.
Read more about our data sources and methodologies
- *Avg Salary and Avg 4-Year Grad Rate are for the top schools only.
- Some schools otherwise deserving of recognition may have been removed from this ranking in the event that new data identified post-publication warranted it, or at the request of the school.
Credits
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