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.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 2 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best General Biology Associate Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 258 associate degrees in general biology during the 2022-2023 academic year.
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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 full 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.
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best General Biology Associate Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
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Every student pursuing a degree in an associate degree in general biology has to look into Mott Community College. MCC is a moderately-sized public college located in the small city of Flint.
Soon after graduation, biology associate recipients generally make around $28,480 in the first five years of their career.
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.
by our College Data Analytics Team