If you pursue a associate degree in precision metal working, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #30 most popular program in the country. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 3 schools in Montana to determine which ones were the best for precision metal working students pursuing a associate degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 79 associate degrees in precision metal working during the 2022-2023 academic year.
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Choosing a Great Precision Metal Working School for Your Associate Degree
Your choice of precision metal working 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 various 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 much a school focuses on precision metal working students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - The number of precision metal working 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 easy is it for precision metal working to pay back their student loans after receiving their associate degree.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized precision metal working related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for precision metal working students working on their associate degree.
The precision metal working 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 Precision Metal Working Associate Degree Schools in Montana.
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Montana State University - Billings is a great option for students interested in an associate degree in precision metal working. Located in the city of Billings, Montana State University - Billings is a public university with a small student population.
Students who graduate with their associate from the precision metal working program report average early career wages of $41,875.
It is hard to beat Flathead Valley Community College if you want to pursue an associate degree in precision metal working. Located in the town of Kalispell, Flathead Valley Community College is a public college with a small student population.
Soon after graduating, precision metal working associate recipients usually earn an average of $43,711 in the first five years of their 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.
by our College Data Analytics Team
Your choice of precision metal working 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:
