an associate degree in cosmetology is more popular than many other degrees. In fact, it ranks #81 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.
College Factual reviewed 4 schools in the Southwest Region to determine which ones were the best for associate degree seekers in the field of cosmetology. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 252 associate degrees in cosmetology during the 2022-2023 academic year.
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Choosing a Great Cosmetology School for Your Associate Degree
Your choice of cosmetology 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 take this into account we include a college'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 cosmetology students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - The number of cosmetology 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 cosmetology 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 cosmetology related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for cosmetology students working on their associate degree.
Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Cosmetology Associate Degree Schools in the Southwest Region list, to help you choose the best school for you.
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It's hard to beat Houston Community College if you want to pursue an associate degree in cosmetology. Houston Community College is a very large public college located in the large city of Houston.
After graduation, cosmetology associate recipients usually make about $15,372 at the beginning of their careers.
Any student who is interested in an associate degree in cosmetology needs to take a look at Central New Mexico Community College. CNM is a fairly large public college located in the large city of Albuquerque.
Soon after graduation, cosmetology associate recipients typically make about $16,496 at the beginning of their careers.
Every student who is interested in an associate degree in cosmetology has to take a look at Lone Star College System. Located in the medium-sized city of The Woodlands, North Harris Montgomery is a public college with a very large student population.More information about a associate in cosmetology from Lone Star College System
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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).