General Visual & Performing Arts is above average in terms of popularity with it being the #70 most popular associate degree program in the country. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.
College Factual looked at 3 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best General Visual & Performing Arts Associate Degree Schools in the Southwest Region ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 218 associate degrees in general visual & performing arts to qualified students.
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Choosing a Great General Visual & Performing Arts School for Your Associate Degree
Your choice of general visual & performing arts for getting your associate degree school matters. Important measures of a quality visual arts program can vary widely even among the top schools. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
Overall Quality Is a Must
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 consider a school's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a host of different factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
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 much a school focuses on general visual & performing arts students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - The number of general visual & performing arts 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 general visual & performing arts to pay back their student loans after receiving their associate degree.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized general visual & performing arts related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for general visual & performing arts 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 Visual & Performing Arts Associate Degree Schools in the Southwest Region ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
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It's difficult to beat Austin Community College District if you want to pursue an associate degree in general visual & performing arts. Located in the city of Austin, Austin Community College District is a public college with a very large student population.
Associate recipients from the general visual & performing arts program at Austin Community College District get $4,274 above the standard college graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
San Jacinto Community College is a good choice for individuals pursuing an associate degree in general visual & performing arts. Located in the medium-sized city of Pasadena, San Jacinto College is a public college with a very large student population.
Soon after graduating, visual arts associate recipients typically earn about $21,173 in their early careers.
Pima Community College is a wonderful decision for individuals pursuing an associate degree in general visual & performing arts. Pima County Community College District is a large public college located in the city of Tucson.
Soon after graduating, visual arts associate recipients generally make about $25,344 at the beginning of their careers.
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).
Your choice of general visual & performing arts for getting your associate degree school matters. Important measures of a quality visual arts program can vary widely even among the top schools. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
