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 3 schools in Iowa to determine which ones were the best for associate degree seekers in the field of computer programming. Combined, these schools handed out 129 associate degrees in computer programming to qualified students.
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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 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 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 complete 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 Iowa list to help you make the college decision.
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Any student who is interested in an associate degree in computer programming has to check out Indian Hills Community College. IHCC is a small public college located in the remote town of Ottumwa.
Computer Programming associate degree recipients from Indian Hills Community College receive an earnings boost of around $12,172 above the typical earnings of computer programming majors.
It's hard to beat Kirkwood Community College if you wish to pursue an associate degree in computer programming. Located in the midsize city of Cedar Rapids, Kirkwood Community College is a public college with a fairly large student population.
Soon after graduation, programming associate recipients generally make an average of $39,216 in the first five years of their career.
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).