Nursing is of the hottest associate degree programs in the United States, coming in as the #2 most popular major in the country. So, there are lots of possibilities to explore when you're trying to determine where you want to get your degree.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 954 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Nursing Associate Degree Schools ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 82,967 associate degrees in nursing during the <nil> academic year.
Choosing a Great Nursing School for Your Associate Degree
Your choice of nursing for getting your associate degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. 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 take this into account we consider a college'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 many resources a school devotes to nursing students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - How many other nursing 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 easy is it for nursing to pay back their student loans after receiving their associate degree.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized nursing related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for nursing students working on their associate degree.
The nursing school you choose to invest your time and money in matters. To help you make the decision that is right for you, we've developed a number of major-specific rankings, including this list of the Best Nursing Associate Degree Schools.
Best Schools for Associate Students to Study Nursing in the United States
Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing an associate degree in nursing. Only those schools that rank in the top 20% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
It's hard to beat Keiser University - Ft Lauderdale if you want to pursue an associate degree in nursing. Located in the city of Fort Lauderdale, Keiser University - Ft Lauderdale is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.
Students who graduate with their associate from the nursing program report average early career income of $67,368.
Rasmussen University - Minnesota is one of the best schools in the United States for getting an associate degree in nursing. Located in the city of St. Cloud, Rasmussen University - Minnesota is a private for-profit university with a medium-sized student population.
Students who graduate with their associate from the nursing program report average early career earnings of $68,119.
It is difficult to beat Galen College of Nursing - Louisville if you want to pursue an associate degree in nursing. Galen College of Nursing - Louisville is a small private for-profit college located in the city of Louisville.
After graduating, nursing associate recipients usually earn about $68,114 at the beginning of their careers.
Any student pursuing a degree in an associate degree in nursing has to take a look at Valencia College. Valencia College is a fairly large public college located in the city of Orlando.
Students who graduate with their associate from the nursing program state that they receive average early career income of $70,422.
PA College is a small private not-for-profit college located in the rural area of Lancaster.
Associate recipients from the nursing program at Pennsylvania College of Health Sciences get $5,389 more than the average college grad with the same degree shortly after graduation.
Located in the city of Fort Worth, Tarrant County College is a public college with a fairly large student population.
Associate recipients from the nursing major at Tarrant County College District make $2,782 more than the typical college grad with the same degree shortly after graduation.
Located in the city of Hartford, Capital Community College is a public college with a fairly large student population.
Nursing associate degree recipients from Capital Community College earn a boost of approximately $7,077 above the typical earnings of nursing graduates.
Located in the midsize city of Santa Rosa, SRJC is a public college with a large student population.
Nursing associate degree recipients from Santa Rosa Junior College receive an earnings boost of approximately $31,513 above the average earnings of nursing graduates.
This list represents the remainder of the colleges awarded a Best Nursing Associate Degree Schools badge.
Showing in this list means the college was ranked in the top 20% of the 954 different United States nursing schools we analyzed.
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).
by our College Data Analytics Team
Your choice of nursing for getting your associate degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
8
41
45
