Associate degree · earnings 4 years after completing
Highest-Paying Colleges for Liberal Arts and General Studies (Associate)
Graduates who complete a associate degree in Liberal Arts and General Studies earn a median of $44,125 four years after finishing, and the middle half earn between $28,893 and $61,611. We rank the 588 U.S. colleges whose Liberal Arts and General Studies programs have at least 25 graduates in the Scorecard earnings sample, 144,928 graduates in all. That puts Liberal Arts and General Studies at #16 of 27 associate degree fields we rank by national median earnings.
Maria College of Albany, in New York, leads at $79,266, 84% above the median ranked school ($43,047). Most schools are tightly bunched: the middle half of ranked schools earn between $39,982 and $46,812, and the lowest earns $26,650, so outside the leaders the choice of school moves earnings less than the choice of major. 251 of the 588 ranked schools (43%) match or beat the national median.
The top 20 mix sectors: 10 public, 8 private nonprofit and 2 for-profit. The top 20 are spread across 16 states, with California the most common (3).
The top 20 schools cost more than most: a median net price of $16,231 a year, against $8,621 across all 588 ranked schools. Their graduates who borrowed carry a median of $14,750 in federal loans, about 25% 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 1.5 years.
Showing the top 50 of 588 ranked schools. Select a column heading to re-sort the table. † = fewer than 40 graduates in the earnings sample.
| 1 | Maria College of Albany Albany, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $79,266 | 63 | — | $13,082 | 0.6 |
| 2 | University of Bridgeport Bridgeport, CT Private nonprofit · 4-year | $65,875 | 26 † | $33,500 | $27,807 | 2.0 |
| 3 | American Public University System Charles Town, WV For-profit · 4-year | $63,895 | 391 | $9,500 | $9,597 | 0.6 |
| 4 | Mid-America Christian University Oklahoma City, OK Private nonprofit · 4-year | $62,432 | 37 † | $22,250 | $16,692 | 1.2 |
| 5 | Columbia Southern University Orange Beach, AL For-profit · 4-year | $62,009 | 91 | $16,266 | $14,580 | 1.0 |
| 6 | University of Massachusetts Global Aliso Viejo, CA Public · 4-year | $61,186 | 26 † | — | $32,654 | 2.7 |
| 7 | Charter Oak State College New Britain, CT Public · 4-year | $60,478 | 60 | — | $15,815 | 1.4 |
| 8 | National University San Diego, CA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $60,134 | 65 | $10,500 | $22,878 | 2.0 |
| 9 | University of La Verne La Verne, CA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $59,398 | 27 † | — | $20,161 | 1.8 |
| 10 | University of West Florida Pensacola, FL Public · 4-year | $59,240 | 116 | $14,000 | $9,364 | 0.8 |
| 11 | University of Alaska Fairbanks Fairbanks, AK Public · 4-year | $59,114 | 36 † | $21,000 | $10,892 | 1.3 |
| 12 | Austin Community College District Austin, TX Public · 4-year | $58,802 | 998 | $9,000 | $6,390 | 0.5 |
| 13 | Emory University Atlanta, GA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $57,474 | 307 | $11,170 | $22,585 | 1.9 |
| 14 | University of Maryland Global Campus Adelphi, MD Public · 4-year | $56,881 | 369 | $7,912 | $22,063 | 2.3 |
| 15 | Saint Cloud State University Saint Cloud, MN Public · 4-year | $56,168 | 116 | $15,500 | $13,529 | 1.5 |
| 16 | Indiana Wesleyan University-Marion Marion, IN Private nonprofit · 4-year | $56,136 | 145 | $16,500 | $22,866 | 2.3 |
| 17 | New Mexico Military Institute Roswell, NM Public · 2-year | $55,247 | 75 | $5,500 | $4,571 | 0.4 |
| 18 | Highline College Des Moines, WA Public · 4-year | $54,874 | 345 | $6,615 | $9,879 | 1.4 |
| 19 | Shorter University Rome, GA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $54,784 | 37 † | $20,000 | $16,646 | 1.6 |
| 20 | Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus University Park, PA Public · 4-year | $54,654 | 95 | $16,500 | $32,875 | 3.6 |
| 21 | Columbia Basin College Pasco, WA Public · 4-year | $54,447 | 41 | — | $8,317 | 1.2 |
| 22 | Central Texas College Killeen, TX Public · 2-year | $54,183 | 324 | $7,126 | $10,265 | 1.1 |
| 23 | Empire State University Saratoga Springs, NY Public · 4-year | $54,122 | 76 | — | $11,676 | 1.3 |
| 24 | Columbia College (MO) Columbia, MO Private nonprofit · 4-year | $53,896 | 527 | $17,447 | $22,715 | 2.4 |
| 25 | North Shore Community College Danvers, MA Public · 2-year | $53,596 | 244 | $8,000 | $9,000 | 1.4 |
| 26 | Northern Virginia Community College Annandale, VA Public · 2-year | $53,107 | 990 | $10,850 | $9,919 | 1.2 |
| 27 | West Valley College Saratoga, CA Public · 2-year | $52,708 | 89 | — | $3,423 | 0.4 |
| 28 | Bellevue College Bellevue, WA Public · 4-year | $52,664 | 426 | $10,354 | $11,430 | 1.9 |
| 29 | Southern New Hampshire University Manchester, NH Private nonprofit · 4-year | $52,547 | 549 | $13,168 | $36,708 | 6.9 |
| 30 | Upper Iowa University Fayette, IA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $52,322 | 54 | $18,625 | $20,942 | 2.8 |
| 31 | Weber State University Ogden, UT Public · 4-year | $52,252 | 726 | $12,000 | $10,258 | 1.5 |
| 32 | Troy University Troy, AL Public · 4-year | $52,248 | 93 | $21,227 | $16,527 | 1.6 |
| 33 | Saint Leo University Saint Leo, FL Private nonprofit · 4-year | $52,156 | 472 | $24,000 | $21,293 | 2.4 |
| 34 | Trident Technical College Charleston, SC Public · 2-year | $51,912 | 109 | $10,256 | $1,406 | 0.2 |
| 35 | Community College of Aurora Aurora, CO Public · 4-year | $51,823 | 361 | $12,000 | $8,656 | 1.6 |
| 36 | Bismarck State College Bismarck, ND Public · 4-year | $51,767 | 304 | $10,887 | $10,270 | 1.4 |
| 37 | Contra Costa College San Pablo, CA Public · 2-year | $51,699 | 75 | — | $9,490 | 1.3 |
| 38 | College of the Canyons Santa Clarita, CA Public · 4-year | $51,561 | 228 | $8,000 | $3,702 | 0.5 |
| 39 | Marion Technical College Marion, OH Public · 4-year | $51,396 | 62 | $7,733 | $7,417 | 1.0 |
| 40 | University of Mount Olive Mount Olive, NC Private nonprofit · 4-year | $51,374 | 139 | $25,250 | $18,853 | 2.2 |
| 41 | Collin County Community College District McKinney, TX Public · 4-year | $51,130 | 789 | $6,918 | $8,969 | 1.1 |
| 42 | Lewis-Clark State College Lewiston, ID Public · 4-year | $51,092 | 299 | $15,250 | $15,635 | 2.1 |
| 43 | College of DuPage Glen Ellyn, IL Public · 2-year | $51,089 | 557 | $9,000 | $7,401 | 1.0 |
| 44 | Winona State University Winona, MN Public · 4-year | $50,823 | 44 | $12,000 | $17,503 | 2.7 |
| 45 | Inver Hills Community College Inver Grove Heights, MN Public · 2-year | $50,707 | 352 | $11,802 | $11,636 | 1.8 |
| 46 | Baltimore City Community College Baltimore, MD Public · 2-year | $50,635 | 177 | — | $15,987 | 2.4 |
| 47 | Bemidji State University Bemidji, MN Public · 4-year | $50,528 | 27 † | — | $15,261 | 2.4 |
| 48 | Macomb Community College Warren, MI Public · 2-year | $50,409 | 473 | $6,000 | $1,618 | 0.2 |
| 49 | Community College of Denver Denver, CO Public · 4-year | $50,401 | 399 | $11,250 | $9,450 | 1.9 |
| 50 | Lake Superior College Duluth, MN Public · 2-year | $50,382 | 330 | $10,500 | $15,492 | 2.5 |
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 Liberal Arts and General Studies (CIP 2401, 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 588.
- 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 Liberal Arts and General Studies 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Connecticut | $52,181 | 4 | University of Bridgeport |
| Colorado | $48,123 | 5 | Community College of Aurora |
| Indiana | $48,071 | 3 | Indiana Wesleyan University-Marion |
| North Dakota | $47,735 | 5 | Bismarck State College |
| Minnesota | $47,591 | 20 | Saint Cloud State University |
| Wisconsin | $46,976 | 7 | University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee |
| Washington | $46,751 | 26 | Highline College |
| Maryland | $46,146 | 14 | University of Maryland Global Campus |
| Idaho | $45,898 | 6 | Lewis-Clark State College |
| Utah | $45,892 | 6 | Weber State University |
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