Security Science and Technology is above average in terms of popularity with it being the #106 most popular associate degree program in the country. This means you won't have too much trouble finding schools that offer the degree.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 3 schools in the Southwest Region to determine which ones were the best for security science and technology students pursuing a associate degree. Combined, these schools handed out 107 associate degrees in security science and technology to qualified students.
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
Choosing a Great Security Science and Technology School for Your Associate Degree
Your choice of security science and technology 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 take this into account we include a school's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a collection 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 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 Southwest Region list, to help you choose the best school for you.
DEBUG: Raw major_slug = "protective-security-safety-services//security-science-and-technology"
It's hard to beat Rose State College if you want to pursue an associate degree in security science and technology. Located in the suburb of Midwest City, RSC is a public college with a moderately-sized student population.
Students who graduate with their associate from the security science and technology program state that they receive average early career income of $58,988.
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.