When it comes to popularity, an associate degree in construction trades sits in the middle of the road, ranking #22 out of 38 majors in the country. As such, the degree program isn't offered at every college in the United States, but there are schools that do have a program in the field that are top-notch when it comes to quality.
College Factual reviewed 17 schools in the Middle Atlantic Region to determine which ones were the best for associate degree seekers in the field of construction trades. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 1,123 associate degrees in construction trades during the 2022-2023 academic year.
DEBUG: Checking offer "MS in Management - Construction Management" with relevance 0.8
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "MS in Management - Construction Management" ACCEPTED (relevance 0.8)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Construction Management (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" with relevance 0.6
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "Construction Management (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" ACCEPTED (relevance 0.6)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Construction Management (I Have a Bachelors)" with relevance 0.6
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "Construction Management (I Have a Bachelors)" ACCEPTED (relevance 0.6)
DEBUG: relevant_offers count = 7
DEBUG: relevant_offers > 0, checking for ESYOH offers
DEBUG: ESYOH filtering - found 6 ESYOH offers with relevance >= 0.5
DEBUG: esyoh_offers count = 6
DEBUG: ESYOH offers found, rendering ESYOH widget
DEBUG: most_relevant_only = true, filtering for most relevant
DEBUG: Found 1 offers with relevance >= 1.0
Choosing a Great Construction Trades School for Your Associate Degree
The construction trades associate degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality construction trades 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 take this into account we include a college's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a collection of different 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 construction trades students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - How many other construction trades students want to attend this school to pursue a associate degree.
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 construction trades 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 construction trades related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for construction trades students working on their associate degree.
The construction trades 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 Construction Trades Associate Degree Schools in the Middle Atlantic Region.
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.
by our College Data Analytics Team
The construction trades associate degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality construction trades program can vary widely even among the top schools. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
