If you're seeking an Associate Degree in legal professions, you will have fewer peers than average since the major degree program is the #23 one in the country in terms of popularity.This may make is a little harder to find a school that is a good fit for you.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 2 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Legal Professions Associate Degree Schools in North Carolina ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 122 associate degrees in legal professions to qualified students.
DEBUG: Checking offer "Legal Studies (I Have a Bachelors)" with relevance 1
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "Legal Studies (I Have a Bachelors)" ACCEPTED (relevance 1)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Criminal Justice & Law Bachelors Programs (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" with relevance 0.7
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "Criminal Justice & Law Bachelors Programs (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" ACCEPTED (relevance 0.7)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Legal Services & Studies (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" with relevance 0.7
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "Legal Services & Studies (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" ACCEPTED (relevance 0.7)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Legal Services (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" with relevance 0.6
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "Legal Services (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" ACCEPTED (relevance 0.6)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Paralegal (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" with relevance 0.5
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "Paralegal (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" ACCEPTED (relevance 0.5)
DEBUG: relevant_offers count = 5
DEBUG: relevant_offers > 0, checking for ESYOH offers
DEBUG: ESYOH filtering - found 5 ESYOH offers with relevance >= 0.5
DEBUG: esyoh_offers count = 5
DEBUG: ESYOH offers found, rendering ESYOH widget
DEBUG: most_relevant_only = true, filtering for most relevant
DEBUG: Found 1 offers with relevance >= 1.0
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
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 legal professions students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - The number of legal professions 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 easy is it for legal professions to pay back their student loans after receiving their associate degree.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized legal professions related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for legal professions 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 Legal Professions Associate Degree Schools in North Carolina ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
DEBUG: Raw major_slug = "legal-studies-and-professions"
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).
by our College Data Analytics Team