2022 Best Value Associate Degree Colleges for Communication & Media Studies in the Plains States Region

When pursuing a degree in today’s world, students have many different options to choose from. College Factual was founded, in part, to help students make the decision as to what would be the best school for them. Our “Best Value Communications Schools for an Associate in the Plains States Region” ranking is part of that endeavor.

With 68,079 degrees handed out in 2019-2020, communication and media studies is the 9th most popular major in the United States. In 2017-2018, communication and media studies graduates who were awarded their degree in 2015-2017, earned an average of $32,728 and had an average of $24,931 in loans still to pay off.

Across the Plains States region, there were 3,723 communication and media studies graduates with average earnings and debt of $34,583 and $25,858 respectively. At the associate degree level specifically, there were 27 communication and media studies graduates with average earnings and debt of $34,069 and $19,434 respectively.

Not only do the schools that top this list have excellent communication and media studies programs, but they also cost less that schools of similar quality.

When determining these rankings, we looked at things such as overall quality of the communication and media studies program at the school and the cost to attend the school once aid has been awarded. See our ranking methodology to learn more.

More Ways to Rank Communication & Media Studies Schools

Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we’ve developed the “Best Value Communications Schools for an Associate in the Plains States Region” ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.

In addition to College Factual’s rankings, you may want to take a look at College Combat, our unique tool that lets you pit your favorite schools head-to-head and compare how they rate on factors that most interest you. Test it out when you get a chance! You may also want to bookmark the link and share it with others who are trying to make the college decision.

Best Value Communications Schools for an Associate in the Plains States Region

The following schools top our list of the Best Best Value Communications Schools for an Associate in the Plains States Region.

Top 1 Best Value Associate Degree Colleges for Communication & Media Studies in the Plains States Region

#1

Waldorf University

Forest City, Iowa

#1 in overall quality

$20,036 Average Net Price

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Waldorf University. The school came in at #1 for the Best Value Communications Schools for an Associate in the Plains States Region. Waldorf is a private for-profit institution located in Forest City, Iowa. The school has a small population, and it awarded 4 associates’s degrees in 2019-2020.

Waldorf also made our “Best Communication & Media Studies Associate Degree Schools in the Plains States Region” list, coming in at #1. It costs about $20,036 for Plains States Region Associate Degree Communications students per year to attend Waldorf.

Read full report on Communication & Media Studies at Waldorf

• Best Value Associate Degree Colleges for Communication & Media Studies

Notes and References

References

• 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 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).
• Information about the national average student loan default rate is from the U.S. Department of Education and refers to data about the 2016 borrower cohort tracking period for which the cohort default rate (CDR) was 10.1%.

Read more about our data sources and methodologies

Footnotes

• *Average salary, average net price, and average tuition and fees are for the top schools only.
• Some schools otherwise deserving of recognition may have been removed from this ranking in the event that new data identified post-publication warranted it, or at the request of the school.

Credits

• Credit for the banner image above goes to UNU-WIDER from Helsinki, Finland.

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