Associate degree · earnings 4 years after completing
Highest-Paying Colleges for Business Administration (Associate)
Graduates who complete a associate degree in Business Administration earn a median of $48,733 four years after finishing, and the middle half earn between $31,704 and $67,604. We rank the 254 U.S. colleges whose Business Administration programs have at least 25 graduates in the Scorecard earnings sample, 25,791 graduates in all. That puts Business Administration at #11 of 27 associate degree fields we rank by national median earnings.
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Daytona Beach, in Florida, leads at $85,869, 71% above the median ranked school ($50,201). Most schools are tightly bunched: the middle half of ranked schools earn between $45,276 and $55,109, and the lowest earns $31,214, so outside the leaders the choice of school moves earnings less than the choice of major. 154 of the 254 ranked schools (61%) match or beat the national median.
Public universities dominate the top 20: 16 public, 3 private nonprofit and 1 for-profit. Across all ranked schools, 85% are public. California places 10 schools in the top 20, ahead of Florida (2).
The top 20 schools cost about the same as the rest of the list: a median net price of $7,344 a year, against $8,002 across all 254 ranked schools. Their graduates who borrowed carry a median of $14,375 in federal loans, about 21% of one year of earnings. Measured against a typical high-school graduate in the same state, the median top-20 school recovers its net cost in about 0.5 years.
Showing the top 50 of 254 ranked schools. Select a column heading to re-sort the table. † = fewer than 40 graduates in the earnings sample.
| 1 | Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Daytona Beach Daytona Beach, FL Private nonprofit · 4-year | $85,869 | 64 | $22,925 | $41,272 | 1.6 |
| 2 | Utah Valley University Orem, UT Public · 4-year | $77,740 | 32 † | $9,500 | $6,376 | 0.3 |
| 3 | De Anza College Cupertino, CA Public · 4-year | $75,297 | 146 | $6,500 | $6,642 | 0.3 |
| 4 | Canada College Redwood City, CA Public · 2-year | $73,129 | 25 † | — | $32 | <0.1 |
| 5 | College of San Mateo San Mateo, CA Public · 2-year | $72,390 | 56 | — | $536 | <0.1 |
| 6 | Gavilan College Gilroy, CA Public · 2-year | $71,548 | 30 † | — | $6,542 | 0.4 |
| 7 | Park University Parkville, MO Private nonprofit · 4-year | $71,051 | 101 | $14,662 | $21,032 | 1.2 |
| 8 | Sierra College Rocklin, CA Public · 2-year | $68,877 | 31 † | — | $7,245 | 0.5 |
| 9 | Evergreen Valley College San Jose, CA Public · 2-year | $67,761 | 88 | — | $12,414 | 0.8 |
| 10 | Anne Arundel Community College Arnold, MD Public · 2-year | $67,675 | 39 † | — | $14,915 | 1.0 |
| 11 | Baker University Baldwin City, KS Private nonprofit · 4-year | $66,875 | 41 | $19,932 | $25,301 | 1.6 |
| 12 | Coastline Community College Fountain Valley, CA Public · 2-year | $66,566 | 27 † | — | $16,341 | 1.1 |
| 13 | American Public University System Charles Town, WV For-profit · 4-year | $65,318 | 98 | $22,707 | $9,597 | 0.6 |
| 14 | Los Medanos College Pittsburg, CA Public · 2-year | $64,818 | 26 † | — | $7,443 | 0.5 |
| 15 | Skyline College San Bruno, CA Public · 4-year | $64,294 | 63 | — | $1,738 | 0.1 |
| 16 | San Diego Miramar College San Diego, CA Public · 4-year | $64,293 | 87 | — | $3,337 | 0.2 |
| 17 | Middlesex College Edison, NJ Public · 2-year | $62,991 | 184 | $9,000 | $2,288 | 0.2 |
| 18 | Florida State College at Jacksonville Jacksonville, FL Public · 4-year | $62,248 | 65 | $15,375 | $4,128 | 0.3 |
| 19 | University of Cincinnati-Main Campus Cincinnati, OH Public · 4-year | $61,998 | 161 | $14,087 | $25,648 | 2.0 |
| 20 | Northern Virginia Community College Annandale, VA Public · 2-year | $61,649 | 550 | $10,217 | $9,919 | 0.8 |
| 21 | West Valley College Saratoga, CA Public · 2-year | $61,612 | 84 | — | $3,423 | 0.3 |
| 22 | Warner Pacific University Portland, OR Private nonprofit · 4-year | $61,464 | 32 † | $28,646 | $25,629 | 2.1 |
| 23 | Columbia Southern University Orange Beach, AL For-profit · 4-year | $61,433 | 356 | $16,640 | $14,580 | 1.0 |
| 24 | Mount Wachusett Community College Gardner, MA Public · 2-year | $61,089 | 32 † | $12,000 | $7,931 | 0.8 |
| 25 | Cornerstone University Grand Rapids, MI Private nonprofit · 4-year | $61,067 | 30 † | $27,250 | $20,301 | 1.5 |
| 26 | Southern New Hampshire University Manchester, NH Private nonprofit · 4-year | $60,698 | 622 | $19,000 | $36,708 | 3.9 |
| 27 | Franklin University Columbus, OH Private nonprofit · 4-year | $60,440 | 28 † | $25,000 | $25,243 | 2.1 |
| 28 | Ocean County College Toms River, NJ Public · 2-year | $60,411 | 70 | $10,875 | $11,411 | 1.0 |
| 29 | College of the Canyons Santa Clarita, CA Public · 4-year | $60,290 | 66 | — | $3,702 | 0.3 |
| 30 | North Hennepin Community College Brooklyn Park, MN Public · 2-year | $60,146 | 83 | $17,750 | $12,186 | 1.1 |
| 31 | Normandale Community College Bloomington, MN Public · 2-year | $60,034 | 34 † | $21,050 | $12,972 | 1.2 |
| 32 | Portland Community College Portland, OR Public · 2-year | $59,792 | 70 | $12,800 | $10,405 | 0.9 |
| 33 | Cape Cod Community College West Barnstable, MA Public · 2-year | $59,462 | 40 | — | $8,296 | 0.9 |
| 34 | Bunker Hill Community College Boston, MA Public · 2-year | $59,381 | 104 | $7,100 | $7,818 | 0.9 |
| 35 | Holyoke Community College Holyoke, MA Public · 2-year | $59,378 | 138 | $7,874 | $8,068 | 0.9 |
| 36 | San Diego Mesa College San Diego, CA Public · 4-year | $59,220 | 214 | — | $5,814 | 0.5 |
| 37 | Western Wyoming Community College Rock Springs, WY Public · 4-year | $59,183 | 25 † | — | $6,591 | 0.7 |
| 38 | County College of Morris Randolph, NJ Public · 2-year | $59,132 | 177 | $9,125 | $8,895 | 0.8 |
| 39 | Middlesex Community College Bedford, MA Public · 2-year | $59,103 | 207 | $6,500 | $2,624 | 0.3 |
| 40 | Massachusetts Bay Community College Wellesley Hills, MA Public · 2-year | $58,870 | 49 | $6,480 | $7,169 | 0.8 |
| 41 | Post University Waterbury, CT For-profit · 4-year | $58,801 | 78 | $34,470 | $21,634 | 2.1 |
| 42 | Oakland Community College Auburn Hills, MI Public · 2-year | $58,757 | 170 | $9,837 | $5,777 | 0.5 |
| 43 | Chaffey College Rancho Cucamonga, CA Public · 2-year | $58,657 | 63 | — | $5,672 | 0.5 |
| 44 | Rockland Community College Suffern, NY Public · 2-year | $58,497 | 41 | — | $11,282 | 1.0 |
| 45 | College of DuPage Glen Ellyn, IL Public · 2-year | $58,233 | 53 | $15,500 | $7,401 | 0.7 |
| 46 | Bucks County Community College Newtown, PA Public · 2-year | $57,980 | 214 | $10,807 | $6,389 | 0.6 |
| 47 | Quinsigamond Community College Worcester, MA Public · 2-year | $57,791 | 143 | $14,415 | $9,090 | 1.1 |
| 48 | Central Oregon Community College Bend, OR Public · 2-year | $57,555 | 42 | $11,322 | $12,266 | 1.2 |
| 49 | Cosumnes River College Sacramento, CA Public · 2-year | $57,450 | 74 | — | $5,981 | 0.6 |
| 50 | Ferris State University Big Rapids, MI Public · 4-year | $57,164 | 38 † | $16,500 | $8,624 | 0.8 |
How this ranking is built
A school appears here only if it meets every condition below.
- Which programs count
- Main campuses only, one entry per institution. Scorecard reports program outcomes for the whole six-digit federal ID (OPEID6), so branch campuses share their parent’s numbers and are not listed twice.
- Only associate degree programs in Business Administration (CIP 5202, the four-digit code Scorecard uses to group related programs).
- At least 25 graduates in the earnings sample. Smaller samples are left out because their medians swing too much and the counts carry a little privacy noise.
- A major gets a page only when at least 20 schools qualify. This one has 254.
- Ranked by median earnings 4 years after completing, highest first. Ties go to the larger sample, then to the school name.
- Schools missing earnings or a sample size are left out rather than estimated.
- What the numbers mean
- Earnings: median annual earnings of graduates four years after completing. The cohort completed in academic years 2017-18 and 2018-19 and was measured in calendar years 2022 and 2023, in 2024 dollars.
- Who is counted: graduates who received federal student aid (Title IV grants or loans), and only those who were working and not enrolled in more school that year. Graduates without federal aid, those who went on to further study and those with no earnings are not in the median.
- Scorecard adds privacy noise to counts and medians and hides values it cannot protect, so a gap of a few percent between two schools is not meaningful.
- Graduates: the number of graduates in that earnings sample. A † marks fewer than 40, where the figure is less precise.
- Debt: median federal loan debt (Stafford and Grad PLUS loans disbursed at that school) of graduates who borrowed, from the 2018-19 and 2019-20 completers. Parent PLUS and private loans are not included.
- Net price: average yearly cost after grants and scholarships for the whole institution, not this major, academic year 2023-24.
- Payback: 2 years of net price divided by how much these earnings exceed a high-school graduate’s in the school’s state. Shown only when that gap is at least $2,000, the same formula as the rest of the site.
- Source: U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard field-of-study data, June 2026 release.
Top states for Business Administration earnings
Median of the school medians for states with at least 3 ranked schools. The best school in each state is shown.
| State | Median earnings | Ranked schools | Top school |
|---|---|---|---|
| Massachusetts | $58,870 | 11 | Mount Wachusett Community College |
| Oregon | $57,555 | 5 | Warner Pacific University |
| California | $54,670 | 36 | De Anza College |
| Minnesota | $54,415 | 8 | North Hennepin Community College |
| New Jersey | $53,328 | 11 | Middlesex College |
| Virginia | $53,059 | 6 | Northern Virginia Community College |
| Florida | $52,331 | 13 | Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Daytona Beach |
| Ohio | $51,413 | 9 | University of Cincinnati-Main Campus |
| New Hampshire | $50,863 | 3 | Southern New Hampshire University |
| Missouri | $50,243 | 5 | Park University |
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