2025 Best Fire Protection Associate Degree Schools in Illinois

an associate degree in fire protection is more popular than many other degrees. In fact, it ranks #36 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 looked at 3 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Fire Protection Associate Degree Schools in Illinois ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 177 associate degrees in fire protection during the 2022-2023 academic year.

Jump to one of the following sections: * Our Methodology

• Best Associate Degree Schools List

Choosing a Great Fire Protection School for Your Associate Degree

Your choice of fire protection 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

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.

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

In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:

• Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to fire protection students as compared to other majors.
• Major Demand - How many other fire protection students want to attend this school to pursue a associate degree.
• 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.
• Student Debt - How much debt fire protection 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 fire protection related body.

Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for fire protection students working on their associate degree.

More Ways to Rank Fire Protection Schools

Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Fire Protection Associate Degree Schools in Illinois list, to help you choose the best school for you.

Best Schools for Associate Students to Study Fire Protection in Illinois

The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing an associate degree in fire protection.

Top Illinois Schools for an Associate in Fire Protection

1

William Rainey Harper College
Palatine, IL

15 Annual Graduates

William Rainey Harper College is a great decision for individuals pursuing an associate degree in fire protection. Harper College is a fairly large public college located in the large suburb of Palatine.More information about a associate in fire protection from William Rainey Harper College

2

McHenry County College
Crystal Lake, IL

12 Annual Graduates

Any student who is interested in an associate degree in fire protection needs to take a look at McHenry County College. MCC is a medium-sized public college located in the rural area of Crystal Lake.More information about a associate in fire protection from McHenry County College

3

College of DuPage
Glen Ellyn, IL

30 Annual Graduates

$58,160 Median Starting Salary

Any student pursuing a degree in an associate degree in fire protection needs to take a look at College of DuPage. COD is a fairly large public college located in the large suburb of Glen Ellyn.

Soon after graduation, fire protection associate recipients generally earn an average of $58,160 at the beginning of their careers.

More information about a associate in fire protection from College of DuPage

Best Fire Protection Colleges in the Great Lakes Region

Explore all the Best Fire Protection Schools in the Great Lakes Area or other specific states within that region.

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Ohio	196	88
Michigan	192	33
Indiana	123	91
Wisconsin	114	75

View All Rankings >

Fire Protection Related Rankings by Major

Fire Protection is one of 4 different types of Homeland Security, Law Enforcement & Firefighting programs to choose from.

Fire Protection Focus Areas

Major	Annual Graduates
Fire Science	124
Fire Prevention & Safety Technology/Technician	53

Majors Similar to Fire Protection

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Criminal Justice & Corrections	323
Security Science and Technology	7
Homeland Security	5

Notes and References

• 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). More about our data sources and methodologies.