According to College Navigator, Massachusetts has 23 institutions that offer two-year associate degree programs.
During the 2022-23 school year, it was estimated that the average Massachusetts student paid $6,893 in tuition and fees at public in-district community colleges.
Many American students pursuing higher education rely on financial aid. During the 2019-20 school year, 452,493 students enrolled in two-year institutions received some kind of aid, such as scholarships, loans, and work-study opportunities.
This list features some of the best community colleges in Massachusetts. Each school featured is a nonprofit, accredited institution — either public or private — with a high standard of academic quality for post-secondary institutions. We included small, midsize, and large colleges as well as trade, technical, and vocational programs. Next, we compared this comprehensive list to a list of aggregated college rankings from reputable publications like the U.S. News & World Report among others to simplify a student’s college search. We pored through these rankings so students don’t have to.
The colleges on our list are accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE), a reputable organization that examines objectives, quality and overall effectiveness of education programs in the northeastern United States.
We evaluated each school on tuition costs, admission, retention and graduation rates, faculty, and reputation as well as the student resources provided for students. Then we calculated the Intelligent Score on a scale of 0 to 100. Read more about our ranking methodology.
When deciding on which community college to attend, it’s important to take into account your earning potential. According to 2021 data, the highest-paying careers that require an associate degree in Massachusetts are radiation therapists, dental hygienists, diagnostic medical sonographers, MRI technicians, and nuclear medicine technologists.
Associate degree holders looking for jobs in Massachusetts should consider which fields have the most job openings. Occupations expected to have the most availability between 2021 to 2031 are preschool teachers, paralegal and legal assistants, radiologic technicians, veterinary technicians, and dental hygienists.
While deciding between different career options, you should also consider which jobs have low employment rates. This offers guidance on what types of careers you may want to avoid. Occupations projected to have the largest drops in employment over the next 10 years for associate degree holders in Massachusetts include nuclear technicians, desktop publishers, and mechanical drafters.
For those pursuing financial aid, we have assembled a list of federal and state resources that detail the grants, scholarships, and other opportunities for associate degree students in Massachusetts.