Community colleges that offer engineering degrees online are growing in number and diversity. An affordable associate degree in engineering is more accessible today than it has ever been. Community college engineering programs are available in numerous specializations. This means that you can earn a 2-year engineering degree and immediately begin working as a technician in a wide range of settings, including automotive engineering, electrical engineering, software engineering, and a host of other high-growth fields. The best engineering community colleges will also help you make the jump from your 2-year degree into a 4-year degree program, which is an important threshold if you ultimately plan to become a licensed Professional Engineer (PE).
The Best Online Engineering Community Colleges Ranking
The Best Online Engineering Community Colleges FAQ
What Is an Online Associate in Engineering Degree?
An online associate in engineering is a practical degree program where you’ll learn the basic principles of engineering and build a foundation of technical skill in areas such as mechanics, electronics, and computing. You can also expect a math-intensive program, including classes in calculus, physics, differential equations, and more. The associate in engineering will qualify you for entry-level work as a technician or drafter, and it can prepare you to transfer into a bachelor’s degree in engineering program.
What Can I Do With an Online Associate in Engineering Degree?
Many engineering associates use their degree to begin accumulating field experience as working technicians. As an engineering technician, your responsibilities might include building machinery, setting up equipment, collecting data about functionality, testing products, conducting quality control, and more. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Electrical Engineering Technicians earned a median salary of $65,260 in 2019; Mechanical Engineering Technicians earned $56,980; and Civil Engineering Technicians made $53,410.
How Long Does It Take To Get an Online Associate Degree in Engineering?
The typical online associate’s degree in engineering will require you to earn 60 credits. For full-time students, this can typically be completed over the course of two years, though some engineering associate’s degrees are designed to be completed over three years.
What Is the Best Online Associate in Engineering Degree?
If you plan to pursue a career as a technician, machinist, drafter or one of the many other high-growth entry-level positions open to graduates with an associate degree in engineering, choose from our ranking of The Best Online Engineering Community Colleges.
An institution’s program specfic score is calculated with seven data points: (1) its student-to-faculty ratio, (2) its the graduation rate, (3) its retention rate, (4) its percentage of online students, (5) its concentrated Influence (a measure of the academic importance of a school), (6) its desirability (a measure of how many students chose to go to an institution), and (7) its exclusivity (a measure of how selective the insitutionis).
For each data point, we score schools based on where they fall compared to the other institutions on our site. Because our scores are based only on institutions with engineering programs and not tied to institutions without these programs, they accurately reflect an institutions’s value to the engineering student. Institutions with missing data receive a zero for that data point.
We weigh each data point and calculate an institution’s raw score. Then we create an adjusted raw score by combining a schools's score with a base score of 50. Finally, we score and rank institutions based on their adjusted score’s comparison to the top scoring relevant program.
We weren’t able to get all the data we needed for this institution. This score is based on the information they have reported. An institution’s program specfic score is calculated with seven data points: (1) its student-to-faculty ratio, (2) its the graduation rate, (3) its retention rate, (4) its percentage of online students, (5) its concentrated Influence (a measure of the academic importance of a school), (6) its desirability (a measure of how many students chose to go to an institution), and (7) its exclusivity (a measure of how selective the insitutionis).
For each data point, we score schools based on where they fall compared to the other institutions on our site. Because our scores are based only on institutions with engineering programs and not tied to institutions without these programs, they accurately reflect an institutions’s value to the engineering student. Institutions with missing data receive a zero for that data point.
We weigh each data point and calculate an institution’s raw score. Then we create an adjusted raw score by combining a schools's score with a base score of 50. Finally, we score and rank institutions based on their adjusted score’s comparison to the top scoring relevant program.
Focused on online engineering colleges, our relative cost score compares the average in-state tuitions of institutions with online engineering programs.