If you pursue a associate degree in communication & media studies, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #24 most popular program in the country. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.
In 2024, College Factual analyzed 2 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Communication & Media Studies Associate Degree Schools in the Southwest Region ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 384 associate degrees in communication & media studies during the 2020-2021 academic year.
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 communication & media studies students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - How many other communication & media studies 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.
Student Debt - How easy is it for communication & media studies to pay back their student loans after receiving their associate degree.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized communication & media studies related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for communication & media studies students working on their associate degree.
More Ways to Rank Communication & Media Studies Schools
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 Communication & Media Studies Associate Degree Schools in the Southwest Region list to help you make the college decision.
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Featured Communication & Media Studies Programs
Learn about start dates, transferring credits, availability of financial aid, and more by contacting the universities below.
With an online bachelor's degree in communication you'll have the opportunity to pursue a multitude of career options. From journalism and social media, to public relations, advertising and mass media, earning your BA in communication will allow you to strategize and communicate your ideas.
Effective communicators are always in demand, no matter the industry. The Master's in Communication degree from Southern New Hampshire University is a cutting-edge program designed for forward-thinking professionals.
It's hard to beat Central New Mexico Community College if you want to pursue an associate degree in communication & media studies. Located in the city of Albuquerque, CNM is a public college with a fairly large student population.
Associate students who receive their degree from the communications program make an average of $28,067 in the first couple years of their career.
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).
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