If you pursue a associate degree in liberal arts general studies, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #1 most popular program in the country. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.
College Factual looked at 25 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Liberal Arts General Studies Associate Degree Schools in Minnesota ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 5,665 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. 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 account for this we consider a school's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a combination 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 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 complete 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
When choosing the right school for you, it's important to arm yourself with all the facts you can. To that end, we've created a number of major-specific rankings, including this Best Liberal Arts General Studies Associate Degree Schools in Minnesota list to help you make the college decision.
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Central Lakes College - Brainerd is a great decision for students pursuing an associate degree in liberal arts general studies. Central Lakes College is a small public college located in the remote town of Brainerd.
Students who graduate with their associate from the liberal arts program report average early career income of $26,133.
It is hard to beat Normandale Community College if you wish to pursue an associate degree in liberal arts general studies. Located in the small city of Bloomington, Normandale Community College is a public college with a moderately-sized student population.
Those liberal arts general studies students who get their associate degree from Normandale Community College earn $2,028 more than the typical liberal arts grad.
St Cloud Technical and Community College is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting an associate degree in liberal arts general studies. St Cloud Technical and Community College is a small public college located in the city of Saint Cloud.
Those liberal arts general studies students who get their associate degree from St Cloud Technical and Community College receive $6,021 more than the standard liberal arts student.
Century College is a wonderful decision for individuals interested in an associate degree in liberal arts general studies. Century College is a medium-sized public college located in the suburb of White Bear Lake.
Associate recipients from the liberal arts general studies degree program at Century College earn $6,595 more than the average college grad with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Located in the large suburb of Inver Grove Heights, IHCC is a public college with a small student population.
Associate recipients from the liberal arts general studies major at Inver Hills Community College make $10,125 more than the average college graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
Located in the suburb of Coon Rapids, Anoka-Ramsey Community College-Coon Rapids Campus is a public college with a moderately-sized student population.
Associate graduates who receive their degree from the liberal arts program make around $32,056 for their early career.
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. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
