Ranked #13 in popularity, accounting is one of the most sought-after associate degree programs in the nation. 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 12 schools in Ohio to determine which ones were the best for accounting students pursuing a associate degree. Combined, these schools handed out 600 associate degrees in accounting to qualified students.
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Choosing a Great Accounting School for Your Associate Degree
Your choice of accounting for getting your associate degree school matters. Important measures of a quality accounting 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 college's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a combination of different 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 much a school focuses on accounting students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - How many other accounting 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 accounting to pay back their student loans after receiving their associate degree.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized accounting related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for accounting students working on their associate degree.
The accounting 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 Accounting Associate Degree Schools in Ohio.
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It's difficult to beat Cincinnati State Technical and Community College if you want to pursue an associate degree in accounting. Cincinnati State is a medium-sized public college located in the large city of Cincinnati.
Students who graduate with their associate from the accounting program report average early career income of $35,703.
Cuyahoga Community College District is one of the finest schools in the country for getting an associate degree in accounting. Located in the large city of Cleveland, Cuyahoga Community College District is a public college with a large student population.
Accounting associate degree recipients from Cuyahoga Community College District receive an earnings boost of about $7,737 above the typical earnings of accounting majors.
Any student pursuing a degree in an associate degree in accounting needs to look into Stark State College. Stark State College is a medium-sized public college located in the suburb of North Canton.
Students who graduate with their associate from the accounting program report average early career wages of $38,671.
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).
Your choice of accounting for getting your associate degree school matters. Important measures of a quality accounting program can vary widely even among the top schools. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
