Ranked #9 in popularity, general business/commerce is one of the most sought-after associate degree programs in the nation. So, there are lots of possibilities to explore when you're trying to determine where you want to get your degree.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 11 schools in Maryland to determine which ones were the best for general business/commerce students pursuing a associate degree. Combined, these schools handed out 1,292 associate degrees in general business/commerce to qualified students.
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Choosing a Great General Business/Commerce School for Your Associate Degree
Your choice of general business/commerce for getting your associate degree school matters. Important measures of a quality general business program can vary widely even among the top schools. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
Overall Quality Is a Must
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.
Average Early-Career Salaries
To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their associate degree from the school. After all, your associate degree won't mean much if it doesn't help you find a job that will help you earn a living.
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 general business/commerce students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - The number of general business/commerce 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 general business/commerce 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 general business/commerce related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for general business/commerce students working on their associate degree.
More Ways to Rank General Business/Commerce Schools
Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best General Business/Commerce Associate Degree Schools in Maryland list, to help you choose the best school for you.
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Montgomery College is a good choice for individuals interested in an associate degree in general business/commerce. Montgomery College is a fairly large public college located in the city of Rockville.
Soon after graduation, general business associate recipients generally make an average of $29,449 in their early careers.
Hagerstown Community College is a great option for individuals pursuing an associate degree in general business/commerce. HCC is a moderately-sized public college located in the midsize suburb of Hagerstown.
General Business/Commerce associate degree recipients from Hagerstown Community College earn a boost of about $4,771 over the average income of general business/commerce graduates.
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 general business/commerce for getting your associate degree school matters. Important measures of a quality general business program can vary widely even among the top schools. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
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