an associate degree in computer programming is more popular than many other degrees. In fact, it ranks #38 out of 328 on popularity of all such degrees in the nation. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.
College Factual reviewed 15 schools in the Southeast Region to determine which ones were the best for associate degree seekers in the field of computer programming. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 705 associate degrees in computer programming during the 2022-2023 academic year.
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Choosing a Great Computer Programming School for Your Associate Degree
The programming associate degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality programming 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
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 include a college's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a collection 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 many resources a school devotes to computer programming students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - The number of computer programming students who choose to seek a associate degree at the school.
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 computer programming to pay back their student loans after receiving their associate degree.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized computer programming related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for computer programming 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 Computer Programming Associate Degree Schools in the Southeast Region ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
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Valencia College is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting an associate degree in computer programming. Valencia College is a fairly large public college located in the city of Orlando.
Associate graduates who receive their degree from the programming program make an average of $36,601 in the first couple years of working.
Gwinnett Technical College is a good decision for students interested in an associate degree in computer programming. GTC is a medium-sized public college located in the large suburb of Lawrenceville.
After graduation, programming associate recipients generally earn around $35,284 at the beginning of their careers.
It is difficult to beat ECPI University if you wish to pursue an associate degree in computer programming. Located in the city of Virginia Beach, ECPI University is a private for-profit university with a large student population.
Computer Programming associate degree recipients from ECPI University receive an earnings boost of around $2,225 above the average earnings of computer programming graduates.
HCC is a very large public college located in the city of Tampa.
Those computer programming students who get their associate degree from Hillsborough Community College earn $3,730 more than the standard programming grad.
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 programming associate degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality programming program can vary widely even among the top schools. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
