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.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 8 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best General Business/Commerce Associate Degree Schools in Arkansas ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 444 associate degrees in general business/commerce during the 2022-2023 academic year.
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Choosing a Great General Business/Commerce School for Your Associate Degree
The general business 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. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
Overall Quality Is a Must
A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To take this into account we include a college's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a combination of various factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
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
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 general business/commerce students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - How many other general business/commerce 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 general business/commerce to pay back their student loans after receiving their associate degree.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized general business/commerce related body.
Our complete 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.
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best General Business/Commerce Associate Degree Schools in Arkansas ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
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Any student who is interested in an associate degree in general business/commerce has to take a look at NorthWest Arkansas Community College. NWACC is a medium-sized public college located in the small city of Bentonville.
After graduation, general business associate recipients usually earn around $31,888 at the beginning of their careers.
Every student who is interested in an associate degree in general business/commerce needs to take a look at University of Arkansas - Pulaski Technical College. Located in the small city of North Little Rock, UA Pulaski Tech is a public university with a small student population.
Students who graduate with their associate from the general business program state that they receive average early career earnings of $32,780.
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 general business 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. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
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