Ranked #12 in popularity, general social sciences is one of the most sought-after associate degree programs in the nation. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 2 schools in New Jersey to determine which ones were the best for general social sciences students pursuing a associate degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 419 associate degrees in general social sciences during the 2022-2023 academic year.
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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
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to general social sciences students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - The number of general social sciences 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 much debt general social sciences 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 general social sciences related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for general social sciences students working on their associate degree.
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best General Social Sciences Associate Degree Schools in New Jersey ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
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Essex County College is a great choice for students pursuing an associate degree in general social sciences. Located in the city of Newark, Essex is a public college with a medium-sized student population.
Associate graduates who receive their degree from the social sciences program earn an average of $22,053 for their early career.
Brookdale Community College is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting an associate degree in general social sciences. Located in the large suburb of Lincroft, Brookdale Community College is a public college with a moderately-sized student population.
Those general social sciences students who get their associate degree from Brookdale Community College receive $2,089 more than the typical social sciences grad.
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).
