If you pursue a associate degree in communication & media studies, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #24 most popular program in the country. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 7 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Communication & Media Studies Associate Degree Schools in New York ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 273 associate degrees in communication & media studies to qualified students.
DEBUG: Checking offer "Media Communication (I Have a Bachelors)" with relevance 0.8
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "Media Communication (I Have a Bachelors)" ACCEPTED (relevance 0.8)
DEBUG: relevant_offers count = 1
DEBUG: relevant_offers > 0, checking for ESYOH offers
DEBUG: ESYOH filtering - found 1 ESYOH offers with relevance >= 0.8
DEBUG: esyoh_offers count = 1
DEBUG: ESYOH offers found, rendering ESYOH widget
DEBUG: most_relevant_only = true, filtering for most relevant
DEBUG: Found 0 offers with relevance >= 1.0
DEBUG: Backfilling with 0 offers with relevance >= 0.9
DEBUG: Backfilling with 1 offers with relevance >= 0.8
Choosing a Great Communication & Media Studies School for Your Associate Degree
Your choice of communication & media studies for getting your associate degree school matters. Important measures of a quality communications 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
The overall quality of a associate degree school is important to ensure a quality 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 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
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to communication & media studies students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - How many other communication & media studies students want to attend this school to pursue a associate degree.
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 easy is it for communication & media studies to pay back their student loans after receiving their associate degree.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized communication & media studies related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for communication & media studies students working on their associate degree.
More Ways to Rank Communication & Media Studies Schools
The communications 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 Communication & Media Studies Associate Degree Schools in New York.
DEBUG: Raw major_slug = "communication-journalism-media//communication-media-studies"
Every student who is interested in an associate degree in communication & media studies has to take a look at Nassau Community College. Located in the large suburb of Garden City, Nassau Community College is a public college with a large student population.
Those communication & media studies students who get their associate degree from Nassau Community College earn $3,452 more than the typical communications grad.
Borough of Manhattan Community College is a wonderful decision for individuals pursuing an associate degree in communication & media studies. BMCC is a large public college located in the large city of New York.
Students who graduate with their associate from the communications program report average early career earnings of $26,437.
Dutchess Community College is a good option for students interested in an associate degree in communication & media studies. DCC is a medium-sized public college located in the large suburb of Poughkeepsie.
Students who graduate with their associate from the communications program state that they receive average early career income of $17,585.
Located in the large suburb of Syracuse, OCC is a public college with a moderately-sized student population.
Those communication & media studies students who get their associate degree from Onondaga Community College make $4,351 more than the typical communications graduate.
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 communication & media studies for getting your associate degree school matters. Important measures of a quality communications program can vary widely even among the top schools. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
,_Helsinki_Finland_(11643271925).jpg){kind=link}