Theology isn't the most popular associate program in the world, but it's not the least popular either. To be more precise it ranks #471 in popularity out of 1020 majors in the country. As such, the degree program isn't offered at every college in the United States, but there are schools that do have a program in the field that are top-notch when it comes to quality.
In 2024, College Factual analyzed 3 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Theology Associate Degree Schools ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 54 associate degrees in theology to qualified students.
Choosing a Great Theology School for Your Associate Degree
Your choice of theology for getting your associate degree school matters. Important measures of a quality theology program can vary widely even among the top schools. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
Quality Overall Is Important
The overall quality of a associate degree school is important to ensure a good 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.
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 theology students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - How many other theology students want to attend this school to pursue a associate degree.
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.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized theology related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for theology 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 Theology Associate Degree Schools list to help you make the college decision.
Best Schools for Associate Students to Study Theology in the United States
Explore the top ranked colleges and universities for theology students seeking a an associate degree.
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).