an associate degree in cosmetology is more popular than many other degrees. In fact, it ranks #81 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.
College Factual reviewed 4 schools in the Southwest Region to determine which ones were the best for associate degree seekers in the field of cosmetology. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 252 associate degrees in cosmetology during the 2022-2023 academic year.
Choosing a Great Cosmetology School for Your Associate Degree
Your choice of cosmetology 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 include a school's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a host of different 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 cosmetology students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - The number of cosmetology 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 much debt cosmetology 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 cosmetology related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for cosmetology students working on their associate degree.
Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Cosmetology Associate Degree Schools in the Southwest Region list, to help you choose the best school for you.
Best Schools for Associate Students to Study Cosmetology in the Southwest Region
Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing an associate degree in cosmetology.
Top Southwest Region Schools for an Associate in Cosmetology
It is difficult to beat Houston Community College if you wish to pursue an associate degree in cosmetology. Houston Community College is a fairly large public college located in the city of Houston.
After graduating, cosmetology associate recipients typically make an average of $15,372 in the first five years of their career.
Any student who is interested in an associate degree in cosmetology has to check out Central New Mexico Community College. CNM is a large public college located in the large city of Albuquerque.
Soon after graduation, cosmetology associate recipients generally earn about $16,496 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).