An associate degree in general studies is the most flexible two-year degree a college offers, and the least explained. It has no major, so the questions that matter are practical ones: what it costs, whether the college gets students through, and whether the credits will count somewhere else afterward. The general studies programs below are ordered on the first two, and the third is covered in depth underneath, because for most people who choose this degree it's the one that decides whether the two years were worth it.
Source: IPEDS, as of September 2026.
colleges award an associate's degree in general studies
588
median in-state tuition a year across ranked general studies programs
$5,760
median graduation rate at the colleges behind them
35%
This general studies associate degree ranking orders 429 programs on three federal figures and shows the 25 that score highest.
The 25 Best Associate Degrees in General Studies, Ranked
The 25 best associate degrees in general studies are the programs that combine a high college graduation rate, low tuition and a large graduating class. Each score is out of 100, and the weights are set out on the methodology page.
1
New Mexico Junior College
Associate of Arts General Studies
New Mexico
90.4- Public
- Fully Online Option
- College graduation rate
- 58%
- In-state tuition and fees
- $1,920 a year
- Degrees awarded, latest year
- 185
About the Program
Think of this as a degree built for moving on, because the college describes the Associate of Arts as a university parallel or transfer degree. The 60 credit hours usually fit majors outside science, math and engineering, which the Associate of Science serves. So if your intended major sits in one of those areas, look at the Associate of Science before you settle on this plan.
Credit moves in both directions here. Coming in, at least 15 semester hours have to be earned at NMJC and the rest may be transfer credit, so part of the 60 can arrive with you. Going out, the general education requirements you complete as a rule meet the lower-division general education requirements of all public bachelor's-granting colleges and universities in New Mexico, which is the part that carries your work forward.
Developmental courses don't count toward the degree, so if you take transitional classes, those hours sit on top of the 60. You also need a cumulative GPA of at least 2.0 to graduate. Meet with an academic advisor or counselor before you make degree plans, which is what the college tells you to do.
2
Brazosport College
Associate of Arts (General)
Texas
88.5- Public
- College graduation rate
- 56%
- In-state tuition and fees
- $3,286 a year
- Degrees awarded, latest year
- 258
About the Program
Breadth is the design, because the degree does not allow enough hours of concentration in a single discipline for you to declare a major. Inside the minimum of 60 semester hours you get at least 16 semester hours of academic electives, plus 2 semester hours of science labs that correspond to the core science courses you choose. So the electives are where you lean toward a field without formally claiming one.
The pathway comes with a recommended order. The college suggests you start in Foundations with a Learning Framework course, then move to Knowledge Building courses, which it recommends you complete before Preparing for Completion. Before the third set of courses you complete the Application for Graduation and meet your coach or advisor, so the paperwork and the transfer planning begin while you still have courses left.
Suggested courses of study are listed for a reason, which is so that you can receive the maximum number of transfer credit hours toward a planned baccalaureate major at other Texas institutions. So follow the suggested course of study that matches your planned major. Your coach or advisor helps you begin preparing applications for transfer before the final set of courses.
3
Brigham Young University-Idaho
General Studies (A.S.)
Idaho
85.5- Private nonprofit
- Fully Online Option
- College graduation rate
- 55%
- In-state tuition and fees
- $4,656 a year
- Degrees awarded, latest year
- 866
About the Program
Not having a major yet is the starting point this degree assumes. General Studies (A.S.) lets you explore many different subjects, from English and math to science and social studies, and you earn college credit while you do it. BYU-Idaho names College Success and Writing and Reasoning Foundations among the courses for this major, and the College Success courses teach you how to thrive in your classes.
Finishing the degree clears general education in full, because General Studies (A.S.) meets all your general education requirements at BYU-Idaho. So if you move into another major at BYU-Idaho, you can start right away without taking further general education coursework. That's what makes the associate degree a sound place to decide: the credit you earn while exploring can be used toward a four-year degree.
Transferring out is possible, but the rules aren't BYU-Idaho's to set. The college says each university has its own transfer rules, while many accept an associate degree in General Studies in place of their own general education credits. Check with the university you're aiming for before you count on it. BYU-Idaho awards this degree as General Studies (A.S.).
4
Northeast Texas Community College
Associate of Science in General Studies
Texas
84.5- Public
- College graduation rate
- 56%
- In-state tuition and fees
- $4,282 a year
- Degrees awarded, latest year
- 267
About the Program
The plan includes language and state-specific courses. You take Beginning Spanish I and Texas Government alongside Federal Government. For American history, one of your choices is Texas History, at 3 credit hours. One physical education course is required as well, so leave room for it when you map out your terms.
Electives take up 7 credit hours of the plan, and the college says they should be chosen in consultation with your faculty or academic advisor, so talk to one of them before you fill those hours. If you're still in high school, the recommended endorsement for this degree is Multidisciplinary Studies.
Think of the Associate of Science in General Studies as the first 2 years toward a 4-year university degree, because that's what the college says it's intended to be. The college adds that it can serve as the foundation for a variety of different majors, which means the 60 program hours are meant as the start of a longer degree.
5
Itawamba Community College
Associate of Arts in General Studies
Mississippi
83.8- Public
- Fully Online Option
- College graduation rate
- 50%
- In-state tuition and fees
- $3,420 a year
- Degrees awarded, latest year
- 198
About the Program
Sixty hours is the whole degree, and the college splits it into a general education core of 35 to 37 hours and 23 to 25 hours of electives in your program of study. The core is where the reading and the labs live: college algebra or a higher math, plus a lab science you choose from fields such as anatomy and physiology, astronomy, biology, chemistry, microbiology, physics and zoology. The electives are yours to shape, because the college says you build that part of the coursework around your own interests.
Reading the fine print on the core matters here, because several caps decide what counts. No more than three hours of a foreign language can go toward the humanities requirement, history counts in both humanities and social science but only six hours of it can be used across the two, and only four non-academic activity hours count toward graduation. Technical courses don't apply to the degree at all, so a class from a career program won't shorten your path, though it can satisfy the computer competency requirement.
Two requirements sit outside the hour counts. A College Life course has been required for graduation since Fall 2012, and you have to take it within your first 12 hours, so it belongs in your first term rather than your last. You also have to show basic computer competency before you graduate, which the college lets you meet in one of three ways. Passing any online course with a C or higher is one of them, and since the whole degree runs online, that box checks itself once you pass your first course.
Picking your electives means picking a university first. The college tells you to complete the remaining hours as prescribed by the catalog of the university you intend to transfer to, so the 23 to 25 elective hours are chosen from that school's requirements rather than from what looks interesting. Program length is listed as variable, which means the pace is yours to set, but the transfer plan should be settled before the elective hours start.
6
Northwest Mississippi Community College
General College, A.A.
Mississippi
83.0- Public
- College graduation rate
- 45%
- In-state tuition and fees
- $3,660 a year
- Degrees awarded, latest year
- 481
About the Program
Electives are the part of the General College, A.A. that you choose. The third semester of the 62 credit hour degree map, in the sophomore year, includes a Humanities Elective and a General College Elective at 3 credits each. The college says a general college degree plan lets you select electives that directly align with transfer requirements for specific majors, pathways or programs at a university, so pick them with a destination in mind.
Half is the ceiling to know about. A four-year institution's acceptance of community college work is limited to one-half of the total degree hours required for graduation in a given curriculum, which means credits beyond that limit won't shorten your bachelor's degree. Checking what counts is your job, because the catalog makes it the student's responsibility to review the Mississippi Statewide Articulation Agreement, called the MATT Transfer Tool, for courses each Mississippi public university accepts.
Subject-specific degree plans exist beside the general map, and you'll find them in myNWCC under the Degree Plans tab and in the MS Articulation and Transfer Tool, so if you already know your major, work from its plan and ask your advisor for the details. The general map, which the catalog calls a recommended guide, places Computer Applications I in the opening semester.
7
Hinds Community College
Associate of Arts, Interdisciplinary Studies – Fine Arts & Humanities
Mississippi
82.3- Public
- College graduation rate
- 43%
- In-state tuition and fees
- $3,825 a year
- Degrees awarded, latest year
- 800
About the Program
Arriving without a major is a common starting point, and this degree is built for it. Hinds built it for people who come to college with no particular major in mind but with enthusiasm for multiple fields, and the courses cover physical science, mathematics, composition and literature, art, and multiple social sciences. By the fourth semester of the sample curriculum you're taking Intro to World Religions and Old/New Testament Survey.
Delivery is face-to-face, with select required courses available online, and the degree is listed at Jackson, Rankin, Raymond, Utica and Vicksburg as well as online. So before you plan a term, find out which of your required courses run in which format. Getting in is the easy part, because Hinds has an open-door admission policy and no application fee. Your program contact is the Social Sciences Curriculum Coordinator.
One example the college gives of where this leads is someone fascinated by both art and psychology who combines those interests to earn an advanced degree and work as an art therapist. That path runs through a university, so the transfer step matters. If you're heading to a Mississippi public university, you're told to consult your advisor about course transferability under the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning/Community College Articulation Agreement.
8
Lamar State College-Port Arthur
Associate of Arts in Academic Studies
Texas
81.8- Public
- College graduation rate
- 45%
- In-state tuition and fees
- $1,770 a year
- Degrees awarded, latest year
- 147
About the Program
Undecided is the intended starting point. The catalog says the Academic Studies curriculum is built for students who plan to pursue a baccalaureate degree but haven't settled on a major, so the degree plan does two jobs at once. Its core covers the general education requirements of almost any bachelor's degree, and the electives beyond it are meant for sampling different disciplines until one of them turns into a major, which means the second year can be spent testing fields rather than marking time.
Forty-two of the 60 credit hours are the core curriculum, and the remaining 18 are electives. Because the core is a fixed set of categories, in effect since Fall 2021, you can expect two labs in the life and physical sciences, government and political science, and a component area option where you pick one course from speech or geography. That leaves the electives as the only part of the degree that's really yours to steer.
Transfer is where the core earns its size. Texas Education Code Chapter 61 requires every state-supported college and university to set a core curriculum, and this college's is 42 semester credit hours, so a student who completes all of it can transfer that block of courses to any other Texas state-supported institution as a unit. The catalog makes the same promise for the Academic Studies plan, whose core will transfer to any state-supported college or university in Texas, which is why finishing the whole core before you leave matters.
Advising is built into the elective choice. The catalog notes that you should consult with an advisor to pick the appropriate electives, and every one of the 18 elective hours must be an academic transfer course, which rules out filling the second year with anything that won't count at a university. The catalog also lays out a recommended two-year course of study, so you can see, term by term, what a two-year finish looks like before you register for the first one.
9
Arkansas State University-Beebe
Associate of General Studies
Arkansas
80.3- Public
- Fully Online Option
- College graduation rate
- 42%
- In-state tuition and fees
- $3,216 a year
- Degrees awarded, latest year
- 347
About the Program
Work is the reason this degree exists. The Associate of General Studies is designed for people who are working and need a degree plus specific skills for their current job or a job upgrade. You work closely with an advisor to choose the right electives for the degree. If your plan is a bachelor's, take note: many courses transfer, but the degree isn't particularly designed for transfer to a four-year institution.
Finishing takes a cumulative GPA of 2.0 or better and a minimum of 15 hours completed at ASU-Beebe, which means you can't assemble the whole degree from credits earned elsewhere. Plan on at least 15 of your hours being completed here. Your advisor is the person to sort this out with, since the college tells you to work closely with them on which electives belong in the degree.
10
Southern Utah University
General Studies (AA/AS)
Utah
79.6- Public
- Fully Online Option
- College graduation rate
- 61%
- In-state tuition and fees
- $6,770 a year
- Degrees awarded, latest year
- 1,730
About the Program
The Associate of Arts option adds a language requirement. The Associate of Arts option requires 8 credits of one foreign language beyond the 1010 level, so pick it if you want language study on your record and have room for it in your 60 credit hours. General education takes 28 or more credits, split into 12 or more of core courses and 16 or more across breadth areas.
Transfer credit can carry part of this degree, but not all of it. You need a minimum of 60 credit hours, and a minimum of 24 credits must be completed through SUU. Your grades are checked twice if you transfer in, because you need a 2.0 cumulative GPA on the work you complete at SUU and a 2.0 on your combined SUU and transfer record.
11
Northeast Alabama Community College
Associate in Arts
Alabama
79.4- Public
- College graduation rate
- 56%
- In-state tuition and fees
- $4,980 a year
- Degrees awarded, latest year
- 230
About the Program
Built for transfer to a senior institution in a liberal arts area, the Associate in Arts runs 60 to 64 credit hours. Area V holds 19 to 23 of those hours for pre-professional, pre-major and elective courses, and that's where your intended major shows up. Your Area V concentration can reach back into the other areas too, because certain variations may exist in Areas I through IV depending on it.
Some requirements are spelled out exactly. You must complete a six-semester-hour sequence in either Literature or History, so a single course from each won't satisfy it. Area III asks for at least eight semester hours in the natural sciences, and those hours must include laboratory experiences, which means your science credit can't come from lecture courses alone.
Bachelor's programs at Alabama public and private universities run 120 to 128 semester credit hours, and two-year colleges are authorized to provide only 50 percent of that total, which is 60 to 64 hours depending on the hours allocated for the bachelor's. So the Associate in Arts is sized to be the first half. What carries over is decided course by course. Courses approved for transfer by the AGSC and appropriate to your major may transfer with credit applicable to your degree program.
12
Eastern Arizona College
Associate of General Studies
Arizona
79.3- Public
- College graduation rate
- 42%
- In-state tuition and fees
- $2,352 a year
- Degrees awarded, latest year
- 189
About the Program
Everything in the Associate of General Studies rests on the Arizona General Education Curriculum, which here means 32 to 35 credits across six categories. Written and oral communication takes 6 to 10 credits, the first 6 in English composition and the rest in communication studies or languages. Arts and humanities and social and behavioral sciences each run 6 to 9 credits, natural sciences 4 to 8, quantitative reasoning 3 to 4, plus a 3-credit Institutions of the Americas course, so the ranges leave room to lean toward science or the arts.
Competency, not seat time, is how the college frames the general education requirement. You fulfill it by demonstrating the college's Essential Learning Outcomes: communication, creativity, critical thinking, diverse and global perspectives, and technology and information literacy. That framing matters because the AGEC categories are the vehicle and the outcomes are the destination, which gives you a way to judge whether a course you're considering for the core is teaching you something the college says you'll have to show.
Finishing the AGEC before you leave is the decision that matters. Complete it and it fulfills the lower-division general education requirements of the corresponding bachelor's degree at each of the three Arizona state universities, and the college certifies the completed AGEC on your transcript. Leave with it unfinished and your courses aren't packaged together but evaluated one by one by the university you transfer to, which is why the college advises completing the AGEC here first. Courses transferred in from another college can count toward it, so credits you already hold aren't wasted.
Some majors need more than the AGEC. If the one you want isn't listed in the college's catalog, or is flagged as a Transfer Guide-Extra Requirements degree, you're told to consult the target university's catalog or its curriculum transfer guide before choosing courses, because the general core alone won't cover the extra requirements. The college strongly recommends getting help from an advisor at the university you plan to transfer to, so the planning conversation happens at both ends rather than only here.
13
Black River Technical College
Associate of General Studies
Arkansas
79.1- Public
- Fully Online Option
- College graduation rate
- 55%
- In-state tuition and fees
- $4,584 a year
- Degrees awarded, latest year
- 145
About the Program
Building the Associate of General Studies starts with a choice, because the college says the degree may be used as a basis for general studies courses, technical electives, or both. That means academic and technical courses can sit inside the same degree. The college also describes it as less scheduled than the Associate of Applied Science degrees, so the comparison to make is with the applied science degrees at the same college, where more of the plan is set for you.
Where you take the Associate of General Studies next is left to you, because the college presents the degree for a student who wants direct employment or transfer for a baccalaureate degree. The college says both the Associate of Arts and the Associate of General Studies transfer to all Arkansas public 4-year universities. That statement is about the degree as a whole, so ask the university you have in mind how each course applies to the bachelor's degree you want.
14
Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College
Associate of Arts
Mississippi
79.0- Public
- College graduation rate
- 48%
- In-state tuition and fees
- $3,950 a year
- Degrees awarded, latest year
- 156
About the Program
Built as the first two years of a four-year university curriculum, the Associate of Arts asks for 60 semester hours with an overall GPA of 2.0 or above, split into a 38-hour general education core and 22 hours of academic electives. The college organizes that core around four skills it expects every graduate to show, adaptability, communication, problem solving and responsibility, so the categories aren't arbitrary. Academic is the operative word for the electives, because none of the 22 elective hours can be career or developmental classes.
Two semesters of English composition open the core, and the rest of the 38-hour core covers social science, math, natural science, humanities and communication. Social science is 6 hours from economics, psychology, sociology, marriage and family, or human growth and development, humanities is 6 hours from literature, history, foreign language or philosophy, and math is 3 hours of college algebra or higher. Natural science is 8 hours of 4-hour lab courses, and communication is 3 hours of public speaking or interpersonal communication with 2 public speeches, so you'll present either way.
Transferring in works, with limits. Transfer students must earn at least 25 percent of the required semester hours at the college to receive the degree, and credit earned by non-traditional means is capped at 38 semester hours, so a transcript full of outside credit still leaves a real share of the degree to be completed here. Where you complete it has some give, because the college offers credit courses online through the Mississippi Virtual Community College consortium.
Leaving for a Mississippi public university is the path the degree is built for, and articulation agreements are in place with all Mississippi public universities through the state's Board of Trustees of Institutions of Higher Learning. The list doesn't stop at the state system, since the college also holds agreements with Alcorn State University, Belhaven University, Columbia Southern University, Middle Georgia State University, Millsaps College, University of South Alabama, University of West Alabama and William Carey University, which means a private college or an out-of-state option can be planned for from the first term.
15
Ensign College
Utah
77.8- Private nonprofit
- College graduation rate
- 43%
- In-state tuition and fees
- $3,888 a year
- Degrees awarded, latest year
- 219
About the Program
Based in Salt Lake City, Utah, Ensign College is a private nonprofit college with 7,594 students on its rolls. The program's last federal report shows 219 associate's degrees conferred, so it is larger than 77 in every 100 programs measured here. Of the students who start at Ensign College, 43% graduate, and that beats 74 in every 100 institutions on this measure. Tuition and fees hold at $3,888 a year whichever state you come from. What lifts it most is price, where it reaches the 84th percentile.
16
George C Wallace State Community College-Hanceville
Associate in Science (A.S.) in General Studies
Alabama
77.6- Public
- College graduation rate
- 51%
- In-state tuition and fees
- $4,980 a year
- Degrees awarded, latest year
- 274
About the Program
Transfer is the purpose of this degree, and the concentrations show it. Pathway maps include 2+2 concentrations in Animal Sciences and Poultry Science Production, along with Pre-Nursing Transfer and a Childhood Development Apprenticeship, so you can aim the Associate in Science at a specific field from the start. A General Studies Short-Term Certificate is also available.
Credit you bring in has limits. Non-traditional sources such as AP, CLEP, military training and certification can supply no more than 25 percent of the total semester hours. A transfer grade of D may transfer if your cumulative GPA is 2.0 or above at the time of admission, but it can only be applied to general education courses.
Alabama Transfers is a name to learn early. Its full name is the Statewide Articulation Reporting System, and it is a computerized articulation system that matters here because the A.S. is designed for students who plan to transfer. Online options are available in General Studies, so ask which of your courses can be taken that way.
17
Panola College
Associate of Arts/Science - General Studies (Multidisciplinary Studies)
Texas
77.6- Public
- Fully Online Option
- College graduation rate
- 43%
- In-state tuition and fees
- $3,960 a year
- Degrees awarded, latest year
- 231
About the Program
Transfer is what this plan is for. The Associate of Arts/Science - General Studies (Multidisciplinary Studies) is a 60-credit suggested degree plan written for students who intend to move on to a four-year college or university, and the Core Curriculum credits are counted inside that total. So the core isn't an extra layer on top of the 60 credits. You finish the core and the degree in the same set of courses.
Several slots in the plan come as a choice between courses, which is where you get to shape the degree. Your second writing course can be Technical & Business Writing or Composition II, and the speech requirement is met by either Public Speaking or Interpersonal Communication. Film Appreciation counts for Creative Arts. So two people on the same 60-credit plan can finish with different writing and speech courses.
Texas is written into the coursework. Texas Government is required, and Texas History is one of the options for the American History elective, so your government course is about the state itself and your history course can be too. Each Life & Physical Science slot in the core carries 4 credits, which is worth knowing when you add up the credits in a term.
Learning Framework is part of the plan. The step that matters for transfer is a conversation, though. If you plan to move to a four-year college or university, the catalog encourages you to meet with an academic advisor at the university you intend to transfer to, so you can check the either-or courses against the bachelor's you want before you choose.
18
Snow College
General Education, Associate of Arts (AA) and Associate of Science (AS)
Utah
76.8- Public
- Fully Online Option
- College graduation rate
- 46%
- In-state tuition and fees
- $4,564 a year
- Degrees awarded, latest year
- 238
About the Program
Choosing between the AS and the AA comes down to language study. Both versions of the General Education degree run 60 credits in total, but the AA asks you to spend some of those credits on the foreign language requirement. You can't collect both, because the college won't award two general associate degrees, so decide early which version you want.
General education fills at least 27 of the sixty credits, and those have to be specific general education credits, so general education is a floor inside the degree and not the whole of it. An American Institutions GE class sits among the required classes. If you started under an earlier catalog, the college says the changes shouldn't hurt you, because the associate degree requirements were lowered and no requirements were added.
Exam credit has a limit here that's easy to miss. You need 15 resident credits earned at the college, and credits from AP, CLEP, PLA or credit by exam don't count toward that residency, so they can't stand in for credits earned at the college itself. You have 3 years under your catalog to finish the associate degree. When you move on, the college has agreements with each school in Utah.
19
Texarkana College
Associate of Arts Degree in General Studies
Texas
75.3- Public
- College graduation rate
- 47%
- In-state tuition and fees
- $3,916 a year
- Degrees awarded, latest year
- 96
About the Program
Undecided is an acceptable starting point here. The college says the degree is for students who are undecided in their majors, or who plan to transfer and find that these course choices meet their needs, so you don't need a chosen field to begin. The degree is 60 semester credit hours, listed as a 2-year associate degree, and the page describes it for people preparing to start or start over.
Scheduling is where you get choices. You can complete the degree online or in person, and the options cover full-time, part-time, day classes and night classes, which matters if you're fitting 60 semester credit hours around the rest of your week. If you want someone to ask about the degree, the listed contact is the Dean of Liberal & Performing Arts.
Cost is published as an approximate total for the whole degree. For a full-time in-district student, meaning Bowie County, the approximate total program cost is $6,010. That figure is tied to full-time study and to living in the district, so if you're part-time or outside Bowie County, ask the college what your total looks like.
20
Cossatot Community College of the University of Arkansas
Associate of General Studies
Arkansas
75.2- Public
- College graduation rate
- 54%
- In-state tuition and fees
- $4,416 a year
- Degrees awarded, latest year
- 80
About the Program
Electives fill 31 of the credit hours in the Associate of General Studies, beside 29 credit hours of general education, so a large part of the degree is yours to direct. You can structure it to closely resemble an Associate of Arts degree for transferability, point it toward a business or technical career focus, or build it around your own educational objectives.
Whether your credits transfer depends on which credits you mean. The general education coursework is largely expected to transfer to four-year institutions, but the transferability of the elective credit hours depends on the requirements of the receiving institution. So choose electives with a destination in mind. The college describes the degree as often a good choice for students planning to transfer to out-of-state colleges or universities.
A transfer agreement maps the Associate of General Studies to a Bachelor of Arts in Organizational Leadership, so the degree has a named bachelor's degree on the far side of it. The Associate of General Studies is aimed at people who already hold college credits and want to complete an associate degree, as well as students beginning their college education.
21
American Public University System
Associate of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies
West Virginia
74.9- Private for-profit
- Fully Online Option
- College graduation rate
- 57%
- In-state tuition and fees
- $8,400 a year
- Degrees awarded, latest year
- 1,444
About the Program
Thirty elective credits sit beside 30 semester hours of general education in the 60-hour Associate of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies. You can use the 30 elective credits to build your own specialization or to sample broader interests, but the electives must be lower-division courses at the 100 to 200 level that you haven't already used. Additional general education courses can count as electives too.
Online is the format, with courses starting monthly and running from 8 to 16 weeks, so a start date is never far off. Inside general education, the communication block asks for 9 semester hours of writing, oral and multimedia courses. The catalog also says completing it can serve as a springboard to a baccalaureate degree.
Finishing a degree you started elsewhere is one use the university names for this degree. You can transfer up to 45 credits into the 60 semester hours, and the university positions the degree for people who want to apply previous college credits or work experience toward an associate degree. So if you arrive with credits already earned, up to 45 of the 60 hours may already be behind you, depending on what transfers.
Cost is charged per credit, currently $360 per credit, $250 at the preferred military rate, or $324 with a Veteran Grant or Opportunity Grant. But read the note that comes with those figures, because the degree is not eligible for federal student aid. That means you'd be paying by other means, so work out the per-credit total for the credits you still need before you apply.
22
University of Arkansas Community College-Morrilton
Associate of General Studies
Arkansas
74.8- Public
- College graduation rate
- 42%
- In-state tuition and fees
- $3,744 a year
- Degrees awarded, latest year
- 146
About the Program
Forty-five of the hours in this degree are electives, approved by your advisor or based on your specific area of study. The college intends the Associate of General Studies for students whose needs cannot be met by the rest of its programs. Introduction to Computers, CPSI 10003, is a required course at 3 credit hours, while the degree as a whole can be finished in as few as 60 semester hours.
Your advisor helps you select classes for a focus area, and the college publishes recommended courses for a health-related focus. But the focus stays between you and your advisor on paper, because the listing of Associate of General Studies is what appears on the transcript and diploma. So the focus area itself won't be named there, and the courses on your transcript are what show it.
Credit from elsewhere can come in. UACCM transfers military credit based on the Joint-Services Transcript it receives from you, and two courses with D grades may be accepted as transfer credit, so a weak grade at a previous college doesn't always have to be repeated. If you plan to leave before finishing, the college has a Certificate of General Studies designed for students taking general education courses who'll transfer before completing an associate or bachelor's degree.
Bachelor's programs, direct employment and educational enrichment are the three things the college says the degree provides a foundation for. For the first of those, transferring to four-year universities runs through the Arkansas Course Transfer System, which the college says simplifies the move.
23
Utah State University
General Studies - AS, AA
Utah
74.5- Public
- Fully Online Option
- College graduation rate
- 59%
- In-state tuition and fees
- $8,305 a year
- Degrees awarded, latest year
- 767
About the Program
Your course of study here is personal, drawing on multiple departments, programs and colleges, so the degree is defined by what you put in it. Advisors work with you to design an individualized semester-by-semester plan that builds on your goals and experiences. You can take the degree at the Logan campus, at statewide campuses or through USU Online, which means you choose the setting as well as the courses.
Graduation requires a minimum 2.0 GPA, a total of 60 or more credits, and at least 20 USU credits. That last one limits what you can bring in, so transfer credit can't cover the whole degree. Most associate degrees at USU Eastern and USU Blanding are open without a minimum high school GPA or an ACT/SAT result.
24
East Central College
Missouri
74.5- Public
- College graduation rate
- 48%
- In-state tuition and fees
- $5,064 a year
- Degrees awarded, latest year
- 280
About the Program
Based in Union, Missouri, East Central College is a public community college with 2,371 students on its rolls. It conferred 280 associate's degrees in the latest reported year, which is more than 81% of the associate's programs ranked at this level. A 48% graduation rate puts the college at the 81st percentile, though that figure counts every student who started there and not this degree alone. Tuition and fees are $5,064 a year for residents and $6,984 for students from out of state, which makes it cheaper than 59% of programs at this level. Its strongest mark is the number of degrees it awards, at the 81st percentile.
25
Kilgore College
Texas
74.3- Public
- College graduation rate
- 39%
- In-state tuition and fees
- $4,056 a year
- Degrees awarded, latest year
- 449
About the Program
Based in Kilgore, Texas, Kilgore College is a public community college with 7,198 students on its rolls. It conferred 449 associate's degrees in the latest reported year, which is more than 89% of the associate's programs ranked at this level. A 39% graduation rate puts the college at the 62nd percentile, though that figure counts every student who started there and not this degree alone. Expect tuition and fees of $4,056 a year as a resident and $5,256 otherwise. On the number of degrees it awards it does best, reaching the 89th percentile.
How We Rank
Every eligible program at this level is scored out of 100. Each figure becomes a percentile against the 429 ranked programs, and the percentiles are weighted as below. The methodology page explains each choice.
- College graduation rate: 45%. Share of first-time, full-time students at the college who finish within 150% of the normal time. It describes the college, not this one program.
- In-state tuition and fees: 30%. Published in-state tuition plus required fees for a full-time year. Lower cost scores higher.
- Degrees awarded, latest year: 25%. General studies degrees the program conferred in the latest reported year. The one figure here that belongs to the program itself.
Reading the cards. Graduation rate is the share of first-time, full-time students at the whole college who finish within 150% of the normal time, as reported to IPEDS. Cost is published tuition plus required fees for a full-time year, 2023-24. Percentiles compare a program with all 429 ranked at this level.
Source: federal IPEDS records for each college, as of September 2026. Scores are this site's own.
What Is an Associate Degree in General Studies?
An associate degree in general studies is a two-year college degree built from general education courses and electives, with no major attached. The federal classification that colleges report it under describes it as an undifferentiated program that includes instruction in the general arts, general science, or unstructured studies. In practice you'll take composition, college math, a lab science, a social science and a humanities course, then fill the rest of the 60 credits with courses you pick, sometimes inside loose groupings the college calls areas of interest.
The degree goes by several names, and the name tells you something about the structure. An Associate of General Studies is the most open form, and at many colleges it's the degree with the fewest fixed requirements in the catalog. An Associate of Arts or Associate of Science in general studies is usually built on a transfer core, with the electives sitting on top. Colleges can report all three under the same federal code, so the diploma title alone won't tell you which you're getting. Read the degree plan, the page that lists every requirement, and count how many of the credits are chosen for you.
That freedom is the whole point of the degree, and it's also its weakness. A general studies associate degree lets you count credits from an abandoned major, a previous college or a year of scattered classes toward something finished. But no department owns it, so nobody is checking that your electives add up to anything a bachelor's program or an employer will recognize. You do that yourself, or you find an adviser who will.
Ask the college two things at the start: which named degree it's offering you under the general studies heading, and who signs off on your course choices each term. A program that requires an advising meeting before registration is telling you it takes the second problem seriously.
Which Colleges Award an Associate Degree in General Studies?
An associate degree in general studies is awarded mainly by public community colleges. 255 of the 429 programs ranked here are at one, 124 are at public colleges and universities that also award bachelor's degrees, and 48 are at private nonprofit colleges. Put another way, 88% of ranked general studies associate programs are public, on what each college reports to IPEDS. That shapes everything else on this page, from the tuition figures to the graduation rates.
The programs also differ enormously in size. The median ranked program awarded 76 general studies associate degrees in the latest reported year, and the largest awarded 5,426. 89 programs awarded fewer than 25, while 42 awarded 500 or more. Between them, the 429 ranked programs conferred 89,247 degrees in a single year.
Size tells you how the degree is used at a given college. A program awarding hundreds of degrees a year is being used as the college's standard degree for students who finish the general education core without declaring a major, and the advising office there has seen your situation many times. A program awarding fifteen exists so that a student with an unusual mix of credits can graduate, and you may be one of a handful of people in it. Neither is wrong, but they ask different things of you. In the small program, more of the route to the next degree is yours to work out.
At a public college that mainly awards bachelor's degrees, ask why it awards this degree at all: whether students enroll in it on its own, or whether it's conferred on the way through a bachelor's or to students who leave before finishing one. The answer tells you whether the program is a destination or a milestone, and which of those you want.
Are General Studies Associate Programs Accredited?
General studies associate programs are accredited through the college that awards them, because no agency accredits general studies as a subject. When a college describes its accredited general studies program, the accreditation it's pointing to is institutional: an agency the U.S. Department of Education recognizes has reviewed the whole college, its finances, its faculty and its degrees, and the general studies degree is covered by that review along with every other one.
Institutional accreditation is the one that matters to you, for two reasons. The first is money. The Department states that an institution must be accredited by a nationally recognized agency for its students to receive federal student aid, so an unaccredited college is a college where you'll pay every dollar yourself. The second is transfer. Expect a university evaluating your general studies credits to ask first who accredits the college that issued them, before it looks at a single course.
Check it rather than take it on trust. Look the college up in the Department's accreditation database, which lists the institutions each recognized accreditor covers, and read the entry for the college's own name and campus rather than a parent system. Be wary of any accredited program whose college you can't find there.
Two things accreditation doesn't do. It doesn't promise that your credits will transfer, since the Department is explicit that acceptance is always the prerogative of the receiving institution. And it doesn't rate one general studies program against another. It's a floor, not a ranking. Ask the college when its accreditation was last reaffirmed and whether it carries any sanction, both of which the accreditor publishes.
How Much Does a General Studies Associate Degree Cost in 2026?
A general studies associate degree costs a median of $5,760 a year in tuition and fees for state residents and $10,080 for students from out of state, across the 429 programs ranked here from federal IPEDS records. The cheapest tenth of ranked programs charge residents $3,286 or less a year, and the dearest tenth charge $13,320 or more. The kind of college decides most of that spread.
Public community colleges anchor the low end, and they're also where most of the programs are. For comparison, the College Board puts average published tuition and fees at public two-year colleges at $4,150 for 2025-26 for in-district students, so a general studies degree at a community college costs about what any other associate degree there does. Private nonprofit colleges charge about 4 times as much, and the general studies degree there is a small program inside an institution priced for its bachelor's degrees: the median private nonprofit program awarded 23 degrees in the latest year, against 85 at the median community college program.
The published price is not the bill. Every figure here is 2023-24 tuition plus required fees, before books, housing or aid. The bill also depends on where you live: in-district, in-state and out-of-state are three different rates at many community colleges, and the figure on the card is the in-state one. Then aid comes off. The College Board reports that first-time, full-time students at public two-year colleges have on average received enough grant aid to cover tuition and fees since 2009-10. That's an average, and your own number depends on your family's finances and your state's grant programs.
Ask the college's business office for the full cost of a term at your residency rate, fees included, and file the FAFSA before you compare colleges. A college whose published price is a thousand dollars higher can come out cheaper once aid is applied.
Does an Associate Degree in General Studies Transfer to a Bachelor's Program?
An associate degree in general studies transfers to a bachelor's program course by course, and how much of it counts is decided by the college you transfer to. The U.S. Department of Education is direct about it: accreditation does not provide automatic acceptance of credit earned at another institution, and acceptance is always the prerogative of the receiving one. The question is how many of its 60 credits land on a requirement at the university you choose, and how many become electives that count toward nothing you still need.
The Government Accountability Office estimated that students who transferred between 2004 and 2009 lost an average of 43 percent of their credits, and that those moving between public colleges lost an estimated 37 percent. The same report found that students face the most trouble at colleges without statewide policies or articulation agreements, which set out how credits earned at one college will transfer to another. A general studies degree is more exposed than a named major, because you chose its electives and no department chose them with a receiving program in mind.
Three protections help. First, ask the community college whether it has a written agreement with the university you want and whether the general studies degree, by name, is covered by it, since an agreement that names the Associate of Arts may say nothing about the Associate of General Studies. Second, get the university's own list of the courses it accepts from your college, and pick your electives from it. Third, if your state has a transfer core, a set of general education courses its public universities agree to accept, build the degree on that core and treat the rest of the credits as the part at risk.
Ask the university to evaluate the courses you've taken before you've finished, because waiting until you've graduated is how a semester of credit turns into a semester of electives.
Why Do Community Colleges on This List Have Low Graduation Rates?
Community colleges on this list have low graduation rates partly because of who the federal figure counts and partly because of who attends them. IPEDS collects graduation rates for full-time, first-time degree-seeking students and counts those who finish within 150% of the normal time, which is three years for an associate degree. The median across the colleges ranked here is 35%, with the lowest tenth of colleges under 21% and the highest tenth above 55%. The National Center for Education Statistics reports that about 34 percent of first-time, full-time students who started at two-year colleges in fall 2017 finished within that window, so the colleges here sit close to the national picture.
The measure leaves out most of the people a general studies degree serves. Part-time students aren't in it. Students who already hold credits from another college aren't in it, because they're not first-time. And students who transfer to a university before finishing the associate degree are reported separately and don't count as completions, even though for a general studies student transfer is often the goal. A college that does its job by moving students into bachelor's programs after three semesters gets no credit for it in this number.
The rate also differs by the kind of college. Among ranked programs, the median graduation rate is 33% at public community colleges, 35% at public colleges that also award bachelor's degrees and 43% at private nonprofit colleges. Part of that gap is admissions, since a college that admits everyone who applies is measuring a different group of students than one that selects.
Read the rate as a comparison between colleges measured the same way, and as a signal about how well a college supports the students it takes, not as your own odds of finishing. Then ask the college what share of its general studies graduates transferred, and where. A college that tracks that will tell you.
How Long Does a General Studies Associate Degree Take?
A general studies associate degree takes two years of full-time study at 15 credits a term, because the degree is 60 semester credits. That figure is the commonly accepted minimum program length for an associate degree, as the Higher Learning Commission states it. At 12 credits a term it takes 5 terms. At six credits a term it takes 10 terms, which is five years without summers.
Credit you already hold is what shortens it, and general studies is the degree built to absorb it. The same Higher Learning Commission guidance says institutions typically require 15 of the 60 credits to be earned at the college awarding the degree, so a student arriving with 45 usable credits could finish in one full-time term. Expect the number of usable credits to be smaller than the number on your old transcript, because the college applies its own rules about the age of a credit, the minimum grade and whether a course matches one of its requirements. Ask how many of your credits apply to requirements rather than to open electives. A general studies degree with 30 elective credits can absorb almost anything and still leave you owing the core.
Two things stretch the timeline. Developmental courses in math or writing, assigned on a placement test, don't count toward the 60 and can add a term before you begin the courses that do. And a sequence that has to be taken in order, such as the math that leads to a required statistics or algebra course, can't be compressed however many other credits you carry. Ask what the placement process is and whether a transcript or a test score lets you skip it, and ask which of your required courses sit at the end of a chain.
Summer sessions are the cheapest way to buy time back, where the courses you need run in them. Check that before you count on it.
How Do Online and Campus General Studies Associate Programs Differ?
Online and campus general studies associate programs differ less on the federal record than you'd expect, and the difference that matters is in the courses rather than the numbers. 171 of the 429 ranked programs are reported to IPEDS as available entirely at a distance. Their median resident tuition and fees come to $5,544, against $5,987 for the campus-only programs, a gap of $443. The median graduation rate at the colleges behind them is 36%, against 33%. Every program is scored the same way whichever list it's on, so an online program's rank here is the rank it holds among all 429 programs.
Which kind of college offers the degree online varies. 106 of the 255 community college programs are available fully online, 40 of the 124 at public four-year colleges and 23 of the 48 at private nonprofit colleges. The online flag is reported by the college, and it describes whether the degree can be completed at a distance, not whether it usually is. A campus program can run half its sections online without reporting the degree as a distance program.
For a general studies student the real distinction is what the online format does to elective choice. Ask for the list of courses offered online in the term you'd start and count how many of the electives you have in mind are on it. Then ask the same question of the term after, since a program that offers a course online every other year is hard to finish on a schedule.
Choose the format by how you'll use the degree. If transfer is the goal, both formats produce the same degree from the same college under the same accreditation. If the goal is finishing around a job, start with the ranking of online general studies associate degrees, which orders those 171 programs under the same scores they carry here.
What Can You Do With an Associate Degree in General Studies?
With an associate degree in general studies you can apply for any job that asks for an associate degree without naming a field, and you can carry 60 credits into a bachelor's degree with the general education requirements largely behind you. It's a qualification in level, not in subject. It won't satisfy a posting that asks for an associate degree in nursing, accounting or any other named field, and no license or certification is issued on the strength of it. Where the requirement is the level, it counts in full.
The second use is the stronger one for most students, and the arithmetic says why. The degree is 60 credits, which is half of the 120 the Higher Learning Commission gives as the minimum for a bachelor's degree, and a bachelor's program's general education requirements are what those credits are meant to cover. A student who finishes the associate degree and then transfers into a bachelor's degree in general studies arrives with exactly the transcript those programs were built to take. Many transfer into named majors instead, and the associate degree gives them a completed credential to hold if the bachelor's takes longer than planned or stops.
The degree also does quiet work inside a job you already have. Employers that set pay grades or promotions by education level count an associate degree as an associate degree, whatever the field, and a general studies degree is built to reach the level with credits you already hold. Ask your own employer's HR office whether a general studies degree qualifies before you assume it does or doesn't. The careers section covers the occupations that ask for the level alone.
What Should You Ask a College Before You Enroll in a General Studies Associate Program?
Ask a college six things before you enroll in a general studies associate program, and get each answer in writing, because every one changes what the degree is worth to you and none appears on a program's web page.
- Which degree, by its full name, am I enrolling in? An Associate of General Studies and an Associate of Arts in general studies can sit under the same federal code and transfer differently. The answer decides which agreements cover you.
- How many of the 60 credits are chosen for me, and who approves the rest? The fewer fixed requirements, the more the degree depends on advising. A program that requires an advising meeting before registration is doing that work with you.
- Which universities have a written transfer agreement with this college, and does it name this degree? This is the question that most affects what the degree is worth. The GAO found that about 29 percent of college websites didn't list their agreement partners, so you may have to ask.
- How many of my existing credits apply to requirements, and how many only to electives? Credit accepted as electives can still leave you owing the whole core. Absorbing any credit is a strength only if it shortens the time you'll take.
- What does a term cost at my residency rate, fees included? The figures on this page are 2023-24 tuition and required fees, and the rate depends on whether you live in the college's district, its state or neither.
- What happens to my aid if I drop below full time? Grants and loans are awarded on the enrollment you declare, and dropping one course can change the award for the whole term. Know the number before you drop it.
Take the answers to the university you're aiming at and ask it the transfer question from its side. Where they disagree, the university's answer is the one enforced.
How Were the Best General Studies Associate Programs Ranked?
The best general studies associate programs were ranked on three federal figures: the college's graduation rate, weighted 45%, in-state tuition, weighted 30%, and the number of general studies degrees awarded, weighted 25%. Each figure is turned into a percentile against all 429 ranked programs, the percentiles are combined under those weights, and the result is a score out of 100. A score of 80 means the program beat most of the field on the weighted mix, not that it is 80% of anything.
The weights follow what each figure can tell you. Graduation rate carries the most because it's the only one of the three that says anything about whether students finish, even though it describes the whole college. Tuition carries 30% because price is the largest difference between two general studies degrees that are otherwise the same 60 credits, and lower tuition scores higher. Degrees awarded carries the least, 25%, because it's the one figure that belongs to the program itself and a big program is evidence of an established one, but size is not quality, and the weight is set so a large program can't win on volume alone.
A program needed at least 10 graduates in the latest reported year to be ranked, which 429 of 588 met. The threshold exists so that a degree awarded to three students doesn't sit beside one awarded to three thousand with the same claim on your attention. Programs under it are counted in the population and left out of the percentiles.
Read the order as a shortlist, not a verdict. Two programs a few places apart are separated by points on figures about the college, not the program, and the difference between them for you will be settled by transfer agreements and cost after aid, which the score can't see. The full model, with the reasoning behind each weight, is on the methodology page.
What Does This General Studies Ranking Leave Out?
This general studies ranking leaves out everything a college says about its own program: the courses in the degree plan, the advising, the transfer agreements it holds and the credit it gives for prior learning. Two of the three figures describe the college as a whole, and only the count of degrees awarded belongs to the program. A college with a strong general studies advising office and a weak overall graduation rate ranks below one with the reverse, and for a transfer-minded student the first may be the better choice.
The figures also describe a different student than you may be. The graduation rate follows first-time, full-time students, and a general studies degree is built for people who arrive with credits from somewhere else, who by definition aren't first-time. Degrees awarded counts every general studies graduate, and that can include students who were steered into the degree late because their credits fit nothing else. A large count can mean a well-run transfer pathway or a large number of undeclared students, and the figure alone won't say which.
The scope is one federal code. A college that reports its transfer degree as liberal arts and sciences is not on this list, even where the coursework is close to identical, and neither is a college that awards the general studies degree to fewer than 10 students a year. If a college near you is missing, check how it names the degree before you read the absence as a verdict. The rankings hub shows the field under all four federal headings.
Common Questions About General Studies Associate Degrees
Is an Associate Degree in General Studies a Real Degree?
What Is the Difference Between an Associate of General Studies and an Associate of Arts?
Can You Get a General Studies Associate Degree if You Already Have College Credits?
How Much Does the Cheapest General Studies Associate Degree on This List Cost?
Do Employers Accept an Associate Degree in General Studies?
What Is the Graduation Rate for General Studies Associate Programs?
How Much Does a General Studies Associate Degree Cost at a Community College?
Is an Associate Degree in General Studies Worth It?
Where Do the Figures in This General Studies Ranking Come From?
- Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS)
- Classification of Instructional Programs, code 24.0102
- IPEDS Graduation Rates survey component
- Assumed Practices, Higher Learning Commission
- Accreditation in the U.S., U.S. Department of Education
- Overview of Accreditation in the United States, U.S. Department of Education
- Database of Accredited Postsecondary Institutions and Programs
- Trends in College Pricing, highlights, College Board
- Students Need More Information to Help Reduce Challenges in Transferring College Credits, GAO-17-574
- Fast Facts: Undergraduate graduation rates, National Center for Education Statistics
The figures in this general studies ranking come from federal records that each college reports about itself, as of the dates shown.
Show the federal record for all 25 colleges ranked, in 10 states and territories
New Mexico Junior College Brazosport College Brigham Young University-Idaho Northeast Texas Community College Itawamba Community College Northwest Mississippi Community College Hinds Community College Lamar State College-Port Arthur Arkansas State University-Beebe Southern Utah University Northeast Alabama Community College Eastern Arizona College Black River Technical College Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College Ensign College George C Wallace State Community College-Hanceville Panola College Snow College Texarkana College Cossatot Community College of the University of Arkansas American Public University System University of Arkansas Community College-Morrilton Utah State University East Central College Kilgore College