Ranked #23 in popularity, culinary arts is one of the most sought-after associate degree programs in the nation. This means there are lots of options to choose from when you decide to get your degree.
In 2024, College Factual analyzed 3 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Culinary Arts Associate Degree Schools in the Rocky Mountains Region ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 556 associate degrees in culinary arts during the 2020-2021 academic year.
Choosing a Great Culinary Arts School for Your Associate Degree
Your choice of culinary arts for getting your associate degree school matters. Important measures of a quality culinary arts program can vary widely even among the top schools. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
A Great Overall School
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 include a school's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a collection of various factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
Early-Career Earnings
Average early-career salary of those graduating with their associate degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. That is, everyone wants their associate degree to be worth something, and salaries are one measure of determining that.
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 culinary arts students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - How many other culinary arts 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 culinary arts to pay back their student loans after receiving their associate degree.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized culinary arts related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for culinary arts 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 Culinary Arts Associate Degree Schools in the Rocky Mountains Region ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
Best Schools for Associate Students to Study Culinary Arts in the Rocky Mountains Region
Explore the top ranked colleges and universities for culinary arts students seeking a an associate degree.
Top Rocky Mountains Region Schools for an Associate in Culinary Arts
It's difficult to beat Pikes Peak Community College if you want to pursue an associate degree in culinary arts. PPCC is a large public college located in the large suburb of Colorado Springs.
Associate graduates who receive their degree from the culinary arts program make an average of $26,520 for their early career.
Utah Valley University is one of the best schools in the country for getting an associate degree in culinary arts. UVU is a very large public university located in the small city of Orem.
After graduating, culinary arts associate recipients typically earn around $20,828 at the beginning of their careers.
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).