Construction Trades isn't the most popular associate program in the world, but it's not the least popular either. To be more precise it ranks #22 in popularity out of 38 majors in the country. So, it might take a little more work to find colleges and universities that offer the degree program.
College Factual looked at 19 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Construction Trades Associate Degree Schools in the Plains States Region ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 1,256 associate degrees in construction trades to qualified students.
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
Your choice of construction trades 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. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
A Great Overall School
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.
Early-Career Earnings
Average early-career salary of those graduating with their associate degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. That is, everyone wants their associate degree to be worth something, and salaries are one measure of determining that.
Other Factors We Consider
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to construction trades students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - The number of construction trades students who choose to seek a associate degree at the school.
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 easy is it for construction trades to pay back their student loans after receiving their associate degree.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized construction trades related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for construction trades students working on their associate degree.
Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Construction Trades Associate Degree Schools in the Plains States Region list, to help you choose the best school for you.
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
Your choice of construction trades 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. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
