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.
College Factual reviewed 20 schools in the Southwest Region to determine which ones were the best for associate degree seekers in the field of accounting. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 746 associate degrees in accounting during the 2022-2023 academic year.
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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 host of various 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 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.
Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Accounting Associate Degree Schools in the Southwest Region list, to help you choose the best school for you.
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Austin Community College District is a good choice for individuals interested in an associate degree in accounting. Located in the city of Austin, Austin Community College District is a public college with a very large student population.
Associate recipients from the accounting program at Austin Community College District make $20,200 more than the standard college grad in this field shortly after graduation.
Any student who is interested in an associate degree in accounting needs to take a look at University of Phoenix - Arizona. Located in the city of Phoenix, UOPX - Arizona is a private for-profit university with a very large student population.
Soon after graduation, accounting associate recipients generally make about $38,794 in their early careers.
Every student who is interested in an associate degree in accounting needs to look into El Centro College. Located in the city of Dallas, El Centro College is a public college with a fairly large student population.
Students who graduate with their associate from the accounting program state that they receive average early career earnings of $37,031.
Any student who is interested in an associate degree in accounting has to look into Central New Mexico Community College. CNM is a fairly large public college located in the large city of Albuquerque.
Associate recipients from the accounting degree program at Central New Mexico Community College earn $2,242 more than the standard graduate in this field shortly after graduation.
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:
