If you pursue a associate degree in information technology, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #20 most popular program in the country. So, there are lots of possibilities to explore when you're trying to determine where you want to get your degree.
For its 2024 ranking, College Factual looked at 3 schools in North Carolina to determine which ones were the best for information technology students pursuing a associate degree. Combined, these schools handed out 31 associate degrees in information technology to qualified students.
Choosing a Great Information Technology School for Your Associate Degree
The it associate degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality it 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 combination 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 information technology students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - How many other information technology students want to attend this school to pursue a associate degree.
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 much debt information technology 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 information technology related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for information technology 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 Information Technology Associate Degree Schools in North Carolina ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
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Featured Information Technology Programs
Learn about start dates, transferring credits, availability of financial aid, and more by contacting the universities below.
Gain the specialized knowledge and critical-thinking skills required to begin a career in tech with this online associate degree from Southern New Hampshire University.
Every student who is interested in an associate degree in information technology has to take a look at Wake Technical Community College. Wake Technical Community College is a very large public college located in the large suburb of Raleigh.
Those information technology students who get their associate degree from Wake Technical Community College make $4,056 more than the typical it graduate.
Strayer University - North Carolina is a wonderful option for students pursuing an associate degree in information technology. Strayer University - North Carolina is a small private for-profit university located in the large city of Greensboro.
Information Technology associate degree recipients from Strayer University - North Carolina earn a boost of approximately $4,381 above the average income of information technology graduates.
Every student who is interested in an associate degree in information technology has to look into Miller-Motte College Wilmington. Located in the medium-sized city of Wilmington, MMC Wilmington is a private for-profit college with a fairly small student population.
Soon after graduating, it associate recipients generally make an average of $35,901 in the first five 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).