If you pursue a associate degree in biological & physical science, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #6 most popular program in the country. This means there are lots of options to choose from when you decide to get your degree.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 34 schools in the Great Lakes Region to determine which ones were the best for biological & physical science students pursuing a associate degree. Combined, these schools handed out 4,503 associate degrees in biological & physical science to qualified students.
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Choosing a Great Biological & Physical Science School for Your Associate Degree
The biological science associate degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality biological science program can vary widely even among the top schools. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
A Great Overall School
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 host of various factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
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 biological & physical science students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - The number of biological & physical science 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 much debt biological & physical science 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 biological & physical science related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for biological & physical science students working on their associate degree.
The biological science school you choose to invest your time and money in matters. To help you make the decision that is right for you, we've developed a number of major-specific rankings, including this list of the Best Biological & Physical Science Associate Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region.
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Waubonsee Community College is one of the best schools in the United States for getting an associate degree in biological & physical science. Waubonsee is a medium-sized public college located in the rural area of Sugar Grove.
Soon after graduation, biological science associate recipients usually make about $24,939 in their early careers.
City Colleges of Chicago - Olive-Harvey College is one of the best schools in the country for getting an associate degree in biological & physical science. Olive-Harvey College is a small public college located in the city of Chicago.
Soon after graduation, biological science associate recipients typically make about $26,939 in the first five years of their career.
Any student pursuing a degree in an associate degree in biological & physical science has to take a look at College of Lake County. Located in the large suburb of Grayslake, College of Lake County is a public college with a fairly large student population.
Associate recipients from the biological & physical science major at College of Lake County make $11,304 above the average college grad in this field when they enter the workforce.
Located in the suburb of Belleville, SWIC is a public college with a medium-sized student population.
Associate recipients from the biological & physical science degree program at Southwestern Illinois College get $3,258 above the typical college grad with the same degree 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.
The biological science associate degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality biological science program can vary widely even among the top schools. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
