Criminal Justice & Corrections is of the hottest associate degree programs in the United States, coming in as the #4 most popular major in the country. This means there are lots of options to choose from when you decide to get your degree.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 16 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Criminal Justice & Corrections Associate Degree Schools in Michigan ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 521 associate degrees in criminal justice & corrections during the 2022-2023 academic year.
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Choosing a Great Criminal Justice & Corrections School for Your Associate Degree
The criminal justice associate degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality criminal justice 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
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.
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
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to criminal justice & corrections students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - How many other criminal justice & corrections 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 criminal justice & corrections 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 criminal justice & corrections related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for criminal justice & corrections students working on their associate degree.
The criminal justice 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 Criminal Justice & Corrections Associate Degree Schools in Michigan.
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It is hard to beat Lake Superior State University if you wish to pursue an associate degree in criminal justice & corrections. Lake Superior State University is a small public university located in the remote town of Sault Ste Marie.
Associate recipients from the criminal justice & corrections degree program at Lake Superior State University get $2,603 more than the standard college grad in this field shortly after graduation.
It's hard to beat Ferris State University if you want to pursue an associate degree in criminal justice & corrections. Located in the remote town of Big Rapids, Ferris is a public university with a moderately-sized student population.
Those criminal justice & corrections students who get their associate degree from Ferris State University receive $6,171 more than the standard criminal justice student.
Grand Rapids Community College is a large public college located in the medium-sized city of Grand Rapids.
Those criminal justice & corrections students who get their associate degree from Grand Rapids Community College make $6,017 more than the average criminal justice student.
Oakland Community College is a fairly large public college located in the large suburb of Auburn Hills.
Associate recipients from the criminal justice & corrections degree program at Oakland Community College make $9,795 above the standard graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Delta College is a medium-sized public college located in the rural area of University Center.
Criminal Justice & Corrections associate degree recipients from Delta College receive an earnings boost of approximately $2,605 above the average earnings of criminal justice & corrections majors.
Located in the small city of Livonia, Schoolcraft College is a public college with a moderately-sized student population.
Criminal Justice & Corrections associate degree recipients from Schoolcraft College get an earnings boost of around $7,192 above the average earnings of criminal justice & corrections majors.
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 criminal justice associate degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality criminal justice program can vary widely even among the top schools. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
