Accounting is of the hottest associate degree programs in the United States, coming in as the #13 most popular major in the country. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 53 schools in the Southeast Region to determine which ones were the best for accounting students pursuing a associate degree. Combined, these schools handed out 2,095 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. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
Quality Overall Is Important
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 collection of different factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
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
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 complete 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 the Southeast Region.
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Best Schools for Associate Students to Study Accounting in the Southeast Region
Learn about the top ranked colleges and universities for accounting students seeking a an associate degree. Only those schools that rank in the top 20% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
10 Top Southeast Region Schools for an Associate in Accounting
It's hard to beat Wake Technical Community College if you want to pursue an associate degree in accounting. Wake Technical Community College is a very large public college located in the large suburb of Raleigh.
Accounting associate degree recipients from Wake Technical Community College receive an earnings boost of about $9,381 above the average income of accounting majors.
It is hard to beat Keiser University - Ft Lauderdale if you wish to pursue an associate degree in accounting. Located in the midsize city of Fort Lauderdale, Keiser University - Ft Lauderdale is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Those accounting students who get their associate degree from Keiser University - Ft Lauderdale earn $12,882 more than the average accounting student.
It is hard to beat Rasmussen University - Florida if you want to pursue an associate degree in accounting. Located in the city of Ocala, Rasmussen University - Florida is a private for-profit university with a small student population.
Accounting associate degree recipients from Rasmussen University - Florida get an earnings boost of about $8,530 above the average income of accounting graduates.
American Military University is a very large private for-profit university located in the town of Charles Town.
Associate recipients from the accounting major at American Public University System make $7,274 more than the average graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
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Honorable Mentions
Here are some additional great schools for Accounting students in the Southeast Region that almost earned our Best Accounting Associate Degree Schools in the Southeast Region award.
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. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
