If you plan on getting your associate degree in computer software & applications, you won't be alone since the degree program is ranked #54 in the country in terms of popularity. This means you won't have too much trouble finding schools that offer the degree.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 13 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Computer Software & Applications Associate Degree Schools in the Southeast Region ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 521 associate degrees in computer software & applications during the 2022-2023 academic year.
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Choosing a Great Computer Software & Applications School for Your Associate Degree
Your choice of computer software & applications for getting your associate degree school matters. Important measures of a quality computer software 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
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 consider a college's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a host of various factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
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
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 computer software & applications students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - The number of computer software & applications 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 much debt computer software & applications 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 software & applications related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for computer software & applications students working on their associate degree.
The computer software 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 Computer Software & Applications Associate Degree Schools in the Southeast Region.
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Learn the applied programming skills needed to fill in-demand tech roles when you earn your online AS in Computer Science at Southern New Hampshire University.
Every student pursuing a degree in an associate degree in computer software & applications has to look into Valencia College. Valencia College is a fairly large public college located in the city of Orlando.
Those computer software & applications students who get their associate degree from Valencia College receive $3,954 more than the typical computer software 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 computer software & applications for getting your associate degree school matters. Important measures of a quality computer software program can vary widely even among the top schools. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
