If you plan on getting your associate degree in security science and technology, you won't be alone since the degree program is ranked #106 in the country in terms of popularity. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 2 schools in the Far Western US Region to determine which ones were the best for security science and technology students pursuing a associate degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 143 associate degrees in security science and technology during the 2022-2023 academic year.
DEBUG: Checking offer "Homeland Security (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" with relevance 0.8
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "Homeland Security (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" ACCEPTED (relevance 0.8)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Grad Cert - Homeland Security (I Have a Bachelors)" with relevance 0.8
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "Grad Cert - Homeland Security (I Have a Bachelors)" ACCEPTED (relevance 0.8)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Homeland Security (I Have a Bachelors)" with relevance 0.8
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "Homeland Security (I Have a Bachelors)" ACCEPTED (relevance 0.8)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Emergency Management (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" with relevance 0.5
DEBUG: ✗ Offer "Emergency Management (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" REJECTED (relevance 0.5)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Emergency Management (I Have a Bachelors)" with relevance 0.5
DEBUG: ✗ Offer "Emergency Management (I Have a Bachelors)" REJECTED (relevance 0.5)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Emergency Management (I Have a Bachelors)" with relevance 0.5
DEBUG: ✗ Offer "Emergency Management (I Have a Bachelors)" REJECTED (relevance 0.5)
DEBUG: relevant_offers count = 3
DEBUG: relevant_offers > 0, checking for ESYOH offers
DEBUG: ESYOH filtering - found 3 ESYOH offers with relevance >= 0.8
DEBUG: esyoh_offers count = 3
DEBUG: ESYOH offers found, rendering ESYOH widget
DEBUG: most_relevant_only = true, filtering for most relevant
DEBUG: Found 0 offers with relevance >= 1.0
DEBUG: Backfilling with 0 offers with relevance >= 0.9
DEBUG: Backfilling with 3 offers with relevance >= 0.8
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 security science and technology students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - The number of security science and technology 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 security science and technology 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 security science and technology related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for security science and technology 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 Security Science and Technology Associate Degree Schools in the Far Western US Region list, to help you choose the best school for you.
DEBUG: Raw major_slug = "protective-security-safety-services//security-science-and-technology"
College of Southern Nevada is a good choice for students pursuing an associate degree in security science and technology. Located in the city of Las Vegas, CSN is a public college with a fairly large student population.
After graduating, security science and technology associate recipients usually earn around $29,354 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.