If you plan on getting your associate degree in computer programming, you won't be alone since the degree program is ranked #38 in the country in terms of popularity. This means you won't have too much trouble finding schools that offer the degree.
College Factual reviewed 14 schools in the Plains States 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 494 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
Your choice of computer programming for getting your associate degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. 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 much a school focuses on computer programming students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - How many other computer programming 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 much debt computer programming 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 computer programming related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for computer programming students working on their associate degree.
When choosing the right school for you, it's important to arm yourself with all the facts you can. To that end, we've created a number of major-specific rankings, including this Best Computer Programming Associate Degree Schools in the Plains States Region list to help you make the college decision.
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It is hard to beat Minneapolis Community and Technical College if you want to pursue an associate degree in computer programming. Minneapolis Community and Technical College is a medium-sized public college located in the city of Minneapolis.
Those computer programming students who get their associate degree from Minneapolis Community and Technical College receive $6,616 more than the average programming student.
Metropolitan Community College - Kansas City is a wonderful decision for individuals interested in an associate degree in computer programming. Located in the city of Kansas City, MCC is a public college with a large student population.
Students who graduate with their associate from the programming program report average early career earnings of $46,804.
Southeast Technical College is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting an associate degree in computer programming. Located in the city of Sioux Falls, Southeast Tech is a public college with a small student population.
Associate recipients from the computer programming program at Southeast Technical College make $5,421 above the standard college grad with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
IHCC is a small public college located in the remote town of Ottumwa.
Computer Programming associate degree recipients from Indian Hills Community College earn a boost of about $15,106 above the average earnings of computer programming majors.
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).