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 13 schools in the Southwest Region 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 858 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
The precision metal working associate degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality precision metal working program can vary widely even among the top schools. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
Quality Overall Is Important
The overall quality of a associate degree school is important to ensure a quality education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
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
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to precision metal working students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - How many other precision metal working students want to attend this school to pursue a associate degree.
Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
Student Debt - How much debt precision metal working 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 precision metal working related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for precision metal working 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 Precision Metal Working Associate Degree Schools in the Southwest Region list, to help you choose the best school for you.
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Any student who is interested in an associate degree in precision metal working has to check out Texas State Technical College. Located in the medium-sized city of Waco, TSTC is a public college with a fairly large student population.
Precision Metal Working associate degree recipients from Texas State Technical College get an earnings boost of approximately $4,875 over the typical earnings of precision metal working majors.
It's difficult to beat South Texas College if you wish to pursue an associate degree in precision metal working. South Texas College is a fairly large public college located in the midsize city of McAllen.
Associate graduates who receive their degree from the precision metal working program make about $33,167 in the first couple years of working.
Any student pursuing a degree in an associate degree in precision metal working has to take a look at Austin Community College District. Austin Community College District is a fairly large public college located in the large city of Austin.
Those precision metal working students who get their associate degree from Austin Community College District make $10,920 more than the standard precision metal working student.
Located in the city of Albuquerque, CNM is a public college with a fairly large student population.
Precision Metal Working associate degree recipients from Central New Mexico Community College earn a boost of about $7,803 above the average income of precision metal working graduates.
Located in the city of Tucson, Pima County Community College District is a public college with a fairly large student population.
Associate recipients from the precision metal working program at Pima Community College make $6,773 above the typical college graduate 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 precision metal working associate degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality precision metal working program can vary widely even among the top schools. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
