an associate degree in drafting & design engineering technology is more popular than many other degrees. In fact, it ranks #48 out of 328 on popularity of all such degrees in the nation. This means you won't have too much trouble finding schools that offer the degree.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 2 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Drafting & Design Engineering Technology Associate Degree Schools in Virginia ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 33 associate degrees in drafting & design engineering technology to qualified students.
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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 drafting & design engineering technology students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - The number of drafting & design engineering technology 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 much debt drafting & design engineering technology 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 drafting & design engineering technology related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for drafting & design engineering technology students working on their associate degree.
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Drafting & Design Engineering Technology Associate Degree Schools in Virginia ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
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Tidewater Community College is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting an associate degree in drafting & design engineering technology. Tidewater Community College is a large public college located in the midsize city of Norfolk.
Associate graduates who receive their degree from the design engineering tech program earn about $41,114 in their early career salary.
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).
