If you pursue a associate degree in culinary arts, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #23 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.
College Factual looked at 2 colleges and universities when compiling its 2024 Best Culinary Arts Associate Degree Schools in Missouri ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 64 associate degrees in culinary arts during the 2020-2021 academic year.
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
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to culinary arts students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - The number of culinary arts students who choose to seek a associate degree at the school.
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 much debt culinary arts 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 culinary arts related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for culinary arts students working on their associate degree.
Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Culinary Arts Associate Degree Schools in Missouri list, to help you choose the best school for you.
Best Schools for Associate Students to Study Culinary Arts in Missouri
Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing an associate degree in culinary arts.
Top Missouri Schools for an Associate in Culinary Arts
Ozarks Technical Community College is a wonderful choice for students pursuing an associate degree in culinary arts. OTC is a fairly large public college located in the medium-sized city of Springfield.
Associate students who receive their degree from the culinary arts program make about $23,062 for their early career.
It's hard to beat Saint Louis Community College if you wish to pursue an associate degree in culinary arts. Saint Louis Community College is a large public college located in the large suburb of Bridgeton.
After graduating, culinary arts associate recipients generally earn around $22,897 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).