Ranked #1 in popularity, liberal arts general studies is one of the most sought-after associate degree programs in the nation. So, there are lots of possibilities to explore when you're trying to determine where you want to get your degree.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 32 schools in the New England Region to determine which ones were the best for liberal arts general studies students pursuing a associate degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 6,125 associate degrees in liberal arts general studies during the 2022-2023 academic year.
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Choosing a Great Liberal Arts General Studies School for Your Associate Degree
Your choice of liberal arts general studies 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. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
Overall Quality Is a Must
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 various factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
Average Early-Career Salaries
To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their associate degree from the school. After all, your associate degree won't mean much if it doesn't help you find a job that will help you earn a living.
Other Factors We Consider
The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.
Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to liberal arts general studies students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - How many other liberal arts general studies 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 liberal arts general studies 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 liberal arts general studies related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for liberal arts general studies students working on their associate degree.
More Ways to Rank Liberal Arts General Studies Schools
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Liberal Arts General Studies Associate Degree Schools in the New England Region ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
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It's difficult to beat Southern New Hampshire University if you want to pursue an associate degree in liberal arts general studies. SNHU is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the suburb of Manchester.
Associate recipients from the liberal arts general studies program at Southern New Hampshire University get $15,998 more than the standard college grad in this field shortly after graduation.
Capital Community College is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting an associate degree in liberal arts general studies. Located in the midsize city of Hartford, Capital Community College is a public college with a fairly large student population.
Students who graduate with their associate from the liberal arts program state that they receive average early career wages of $25,072.
Community College of Rhode Island is one of the best schools in the country for getting an associate degree in liberal arts general studies. CCRI is a large public college located in the small city of Warwick.
Students who graduate with their associate from the liberal arts program report average early career earnings of $27,952.
North Shore Community College is one of the finest schools in the country for getting an associate degree in liberal arts general studies. Located in the suburb of Danvers, North Shore Community College is a public college with a small student population.
Those liberal arts general studies students who get their associate degree from North Shore Community College earn $5,545 more than the average liberal arts graduate.
Bristol is a medium-sized public college located in the suburb of Fall River.
Those liberal arts general studies students who get their associate degree from Bristol Community College earn $3,398 more than the average liberal arts grad.
Located in the suburb of Bedford, Middlesex Community College is a public college with a medium-sized student population.
Those liberal arts general studies students who get their associate degree from Middlesex Community College make $3,643 more than the typical liberal arts grad.
STCC is a small public college located in the medium-sized city of Springfield.
Associate recipients from the liberal arts general studies program at Springfield Technical Community College earn $2,605 above the average college graduate in this field shortly after graduation.
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.
Your choice of liberal arts general studies 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. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
