If you pursue a associate degree in general biology, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #18 most popular program in the country. This means there are lots of options to choose from when you decide to get your degree.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 19 schools in the United States to determine which ones were the best for general biology students pursuing a associate degree. Combined, these schools handed out 7,647 associate degrees in general biology to qualified students.
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Choosing a Great General Biology School for Your Associate Degree
Your choice of general biology for getting your associate degree school matters. Important measures of a quality biology program can vary widely even among the top schools. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
A Great Overall School
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 consider a school's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a collection of various factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
Early-Career Earnings
Average early-career salary of those graduating with their associate degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. That is, everyone wants their associate degree to be worth something, and salaries are one measure of determining that.
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 general biology students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - How many other general biology 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 general biology to pay back their student loans after receiving their associate degree.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized general biology related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for general biology students working on their associate degree.
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 General Biology Associate Degree Schools list to help you make the college decision.
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Reedley College is one of the finest schools in the country for getting an associate degree in general biology. Reedley College is a medium-sized public college located in the distant town of Reedley.
After graduating, biology associate recipients generally make around $30,520 in their early careers.
South Texas College is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting an associate degree in general biology. Located in the midsize city of McAllen, South Texas College is a public college with a very large student population.
Associate students who receive their degree from the biology program earn around $28,791 in their early career salary.
Located in the city of Austin, Austin Community College District is a public college with a fairly large student population.
Associate recipients from the general biology program at Austin Community College District get $5,415 above the average college grad in this field when they enter the workforce.
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.
Your choice of general biology for getting your associate degree school matters. Important measures of a quality biology program can vary widely even among the top schools. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
