2025 Best Criminal Justice Associate Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region
8
Colleges in the Great Lakes Region
257
Associate Degrees
Ranked #10 in popularity,
criminal justice is one of the most sought-after associate degree programs in the nation. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 8 schools in the Great Lakes Region to determine which ones were the best for criminal justice students pursuing a associate degree. Combined, these schools handed out 257 associate degrees in criminal justice to qualified students.
Jump to one of the following sections: * Our Methodology
Choosing a Great Criminal Justice School for Your Associate Degree
Your choice of criminal justice for getting your associate degree school matters. Important measures of a quality criminal justice program can vary widely even among the top schools. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
Quality Overall Is Important
The overall quality of a associate degree school is important to ensure a quality education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
Other Factors We Consider
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
- Major Focus - How much a school focuses on criminal justice students vs. other majors.
- Major Demand - The number of criminal justice students who choose to seek a associate degree at the school.
- Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
- Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized criminal justice related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for criminal justice students working on their associate degree.
More Ways to Rank Criminal Justice 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 Best Criminal Justice Associate Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region list to help you make the college decision.