Plant Sciences is about average in terms of popularity for associate degrees programs. That is, it ranks #174 out of the 328 majors across the country that we analyze each year. So, you may have to do some digging around to find quality schools that offer the degree program. This list can help with that.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 2 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Plant Sciences Associate Degree Schools in the Plains States Region ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 38 associate degrees in plant sciences during the 2022-2023 academic year.
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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 much a school focuses on plant sciences students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - How many other plant sciences 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 easy is it for plant sciences to pay back their student loans after receiving their associate degree.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized plant sciences related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for plant sciences students working on their associate degree.
The plant sciences 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 Plant Sciences Associate Degree Schools in the Plains States Region.
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It's difficult to beat Northeast Community College if you want to pursue an associate degree in plant sciences. Located in the town of Norfolk, Northeast is a public college with a moderately-sized student population.
Students who graduate with their associate from the plant sciences program report average early career wages of $49,481.
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).
by our College Data Analytics Team
