If you pursue a associate degree in criminal justice & corrections, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #4 most popular program in the country. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.
College Factual reviewed 26 schools in the Plains States Region to determine which ones were the best for associate degree seekers in the field of criminal justice & corrections. Combined, these schools handed out 1,045 associate degrees in criminal justice & corrections to qualified students.
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Choosing a Great Criminal Justice & Corrections School for Your Associate Degree
Your choice of criminal justice & corrections 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 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 much a school focuses on criminal justice & corrections students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - The number of criminal justice & corrections 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 criminal justice & corrections to pay back their student loans after receiving their associate degree.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized criminal justice & corrections related body.
Our complete 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.
More Ways to Rank Criminal Justice & Corrections Schools
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 the Plains States Region.
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It is difficult to beat Alexandria Technical & Community College if you want to pursue an associate degree in criminal justice & corrections. ATCC is a small public college located in the town of Alexandria.
Students who graduate with their associate from the criminal justice program report average early career earnings of $46,511.
Century College is one of the best schools in the country for getting an associate degree in criminal justice & corrections. Century College is a medium-sized public college located in the suburb of White Bear Lake.
Those criminal justice & corrections students who get their associate degree from Century College earn $9,582 more than the standard criminal justice grad.
Rasmussen University - Minnesota is one of the best schools in the country for getting an associate degree in criminal justice & corrections. Located in the city of St. Cloud, Rasmussen University - Minnesota is a private for-profit university with a medium-sized student population.
Those criminal justice & corrections students who get their associate degree from Rasmussen University - Minnesota earn $2,855 more than the standard criminal justice graduate.
Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College is a small public college located in the town of Cloquet.
Associate recipients from the criminal justice & corrections major at Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College get $6,552 more than the standard graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
North Hennepin Community College is a medium-sized public college located in the suburb of Brooklyn Park.
Criminal Justice & Corrections associate degree recipients from North Hennepin Community College receive an earnings boost of around $9,205 over the typical earnings of criminal justice & corrections graduates.
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.
Your choice of criminal justice & corrections 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:
