If you plan on getting your associate degree in funeral & mortuary science, you won't be alone since the degree program is ranked #72 in the country in terms of popularity. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.
College Factual reviewed 3 schools in the Southwest Region to determine which ones were the best for associate degree seekers in the field of funeral & mortuary science. Combined, these schools handed out 337 associate degrees in funeral & mortuary science to qualified students.
Choosing a Great Funeral & Mortuary Science School for Your Associate Degree
The mortuary science associate degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality mortuary science program can vary widely even among the top schools. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
Overall Quality Is a Must
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 Early-Career Salaries
To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their associate degree from the school. After all, your associate degree won't mean much if it doesn't help you find a job that will help you earn a living.
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 funeral & mortuary science students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - How many other funeral & mortuary 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 funeral & mortuary 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 funeral & mortuary science related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for funeral & mortuary science students working on their associate degree.
The mortuary science 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 Funeral & Mortuary Science Associate Degree Schools in the Southwest Region.
Best Schools for Associate Students to Study Funeral & Mortuary Science in the Southwest Region
Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing an associate degree in funeral & mortuary science.
Top Southwest Region Schools for an Associate in Mortuary Science
It's difficult to beat Chandler-Gilbert Community College if you wish to pursue an associate degree in funeral & mortuary science. Located in the large city of Chandler, Chandler-Gilbert Community College is a public college with a large student population.
Associate graduates who receive their degree from the mortuary science program make an average of $39,549 in their early career salary.
It is difficult to beat Commonwealth Institute of Funeral Service if you wish to pursue an associate degree in funeral & mortuary science. Commonwealth Institute of Funeral Service is a fairly small private not-for-profit school located in the large city of Houston.
Those funeral & mortuary science students who get their associate degree from Commonwealth Institute of Funeral Service receive $4,008 more than the typical mortuary science grad.
Every student who is interested in an associate degree in funeral & mortuary science needs to look into Dallas Institute of Funeral Service. Dallas Institute of Funeral Service is a small private not-for-profit school located in the large city of Dallas.
After graduating, mortuary science associate recipients typically earn about $40,962 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.
The mortuary science associate degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality mortuary science program can vary widely even among the top schools. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice: