2025 Best Cosmetology Associate Degree Schools in the Plains States Region
2Colleges in the Plains States Region
82Associate Degrees
Cosmetology is above average in terms of popularity with it being the #81 most popular associate degree program in the country. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 2 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Cosmetology Associate Degree Schools in the Plains States Region ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 82 associate degrees in cosmetology during the 2022-2023 academic year.
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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 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 picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Cosmetology Associate Degree Schools in the Plains States Region ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
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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).
by our College Data Analytics Team