2025 Best Anthropology Associate Degree Schools in California
7Colleges in California
720Associate Degrees
an associate degree in anthropology is more popular than many other degrees. In fact, it ranks #92 out of 328 on popularity of all such degrees in the nation. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.
College Factual looked at 7 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Anthropology Associate Degree Schools in California ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 720 associate degrees in anthropology to qualified students.
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Choosing a Great Anthropology School for Your Associate Degree
Your choice of anthropology 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. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
Overall Quality Is a Must
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 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
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How much a school focuses on anthropology students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - The number of anthropology students who choose to seek a associate degree at the school.
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 easy is it for anthropology to pay back their student loans after receiving their associate degree.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized anthropology related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for anthropology students working on their associate degree.
When choosing the right school for you, it's important to arm yourself with all the facts you can. To that end, we've created a number of major-specific rankings, including this Best Anthropology Associate Degree Schools in California list to help you make the college decision.
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Merced College is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting an associate degree in anthropology. Located in the small city of Merced, Merced Community College District is a public college with a large student population.More information about a associate in anthropology from Merced College
Sierra College is one of the best schools in the country for getting an associate degree in anthropology. Located in the large suburb of Rocklin, Sierra College is a public college with a fairly large student population.More information about a associate in anthropology from Sierra College
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.
Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
by our College Data Analytics Team
Your choice of anthropology 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. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
