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.
College Factual looked at 28 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Accounting Associate Degree Schools in the Plains States Region ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 717 associate degrees in accounting during the 2022-2023 academic year.
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Choosing a Great Accounting School for Your Associate Degree
The accounting associate degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
A Great Overall School
The overall quality of a associate degree school is important to ensure a good education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
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
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to accounting students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - The number of accounting students who choose to seek a associate degree at the school.
Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
Student Debt - How much debt accounting students go into to obtain their associate degree and how well they are able to pay back that debt.
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 schools 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 Plains States Region.
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Rasmussen University - North Dakota is a wonderful decision for individuals interested in an associate degree in accounting. Located in the midsize city of Fargo, Rasmussen University - North Dakota is a private for-profit university with a small student population.
Accounting associate degree recipients from Rasmussen University - North Dakota receive an earnings boost of around $2,901 above the average earnings of accounting majors.
Rasmussen University - Minnesota is a wonderful decision for individuals interested in an associate degree in accounting. Rasmussen University - Minnesota is a moderately-sized private for-profit university located in the city of St. Cloud.
Associate recipients from the accounting major at Rasmussen University - Minnesota get $2,901 more than the average college graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
It's difficult to beat Southeast Technical College if you want to pursue an associate degree in accounting. Located in the midsize city of Sioux Falls, Southeast Tech is a public college with a small student population.
Those accounting students who get their associate degree from Southeast Technical College receive $3,986 more than the typical accounting student.
Located in the large suburb of Ankeny, DMACC is a public college with a fairly large student population.
Associate recipients from the accounting degree program at Des Moines Area Community College make $6,536 above the average college grad in this field when they enter the workforce.
Located in the suburb of Brooklyn Park, North Hennepin Community College is a public college with a medium-sized student population.
Associate recipients from the accounting degree program at North Hennepin Community College earn $8,821 above the typical college grad 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).
The accounting associate degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
