Best Online Associate Degrees in North Carolina 2025

Badge for BEST ONLINE ASSOCIATE'S IN NORTH CAROLINA

Published: Jul 22, 2022
Updated: Oct 7, 2024

Find the best online associate degrees in North Carolina ranked by the academic success of faculty and alumni associated with the colleges and universities and their online degree programs.

Key Takeaways

Many community colleges in North Carolina offer online associate degree programs with Comprehensive Articulation Agreements that guarantee seamless credit transfer to four-year universities like UNC-Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University, helping students easily transition to a bachelor’s program.
Many of North Carolina’s best online associate degree programs, particularly in technical and healthcare fields, include access to virtual labs, simulations, and interactive learning tools that provide hands-on experiences remotely, ensuring students get practical skills despite learning online.
Many colleges in North Carolina provide fully online associate degrees in high-demand fields such as healthcare administration, cybersecurity, and business management, allowing students to complete coursework at their own pace while gaining industry-relevant certifications for immediate workforce entry.

Table of Contents

Top Online Associate Degree Programs in North Carolina in 2025

Campbell University
Montreat College
+1
University of Mount Olive
–1
Wake Technical Community College
+1
Gaston College
–1
Guilford Technical Community College
+1
Cape Fear Community College
+3
Southwestern Community College
+14
Durham Technical Community College
+3
Sandhills Community College
–4

2025 Ranking Update

Our Influence Ranking Engine™ leverages machine learning to track the real-world influence of colleges and universities over time. Below you’ll see which schools gained or lost ground for the 2025 school year.

In 2025, the top schools in our ranking of the best online associate degrees in North Carolina experienced a substantial amount of shift. Southwestern Community College, in particular, was able to gain fourteen ranking positions as a result of the university expanded the Advanced Technology Center, offering students access to state-of-the-art equipment and training in fields like engineering, mechatronics, and computer science. The college has also enhanced its healthcare programs, adding new simulation labs for nursing and allied health students, providing hands-on experience with the latest medical technology.

Additionally, Southwestern has improved its online course offerings, making it easier for students to complete degrees remotely while still gaining access to virtual labs and interactive tools. These updates reflect the college’s focus on technology, healthcare, and flexible learning options.

Featured Programs

Best Online Associate Degrees in North Carolina

North Carolina is just one of many states offering excellent online associate’s degrees. To check out our rankings, look into the best online associate’s degrees in Washington, Tennessee, Alaska, and more!

Online Degree Frequently Asked Questions

If this is your first time taking an online course, the experience may require a time of adjustment. Although you’ll typically learn the same material and take the same exams as your on-campus peers, going online will require greater independence and responsibility than going in person. You’ll be accountable for your own time management, for harnessing the online educational technology that you’ll need to use, and for completing the course requirements, such as listening to lectures, learning lessons, reading texts, and handing in assignments. This means you’ll need to create a suitable workspace for yourself, maintain a realistic schedule, and take the initiative in building relationships with your instructors and classmates. With online college, your goal is to find a balance between independence and engagement.

No. The only part of online education that’s easier than campus-based education is ease of access: all you need is a computer and an internet connection for online education. But even this seeming advantage of online education can be misleading: what’s easier, studying online with your computer and internet connection from your home where you need to cook, clean, pay rent, and maintain a job? Or studying on campus in a dorm where all your living needs are handled by the school, and college staff are there to help you every step of the way?

If you take the commute to campus out of the equation, campus-based education is easier. All the support structures available on campus for students, especially with real people to help you in person, are not there online. The demands on you as an online student will largely be the same as for your campus-based counterpart, but without the same helps.

In general, your online courses will present the same material and test you in the same way as traditional in-person courses. In many cases, you’ll even have the same instructors as your on-campus counterparts. In fact, if you are adjusting to the experience of independent learning with remote educational technology for the first time, online college may be considerably more challenging than campus-based college. For a few insights on how to manage this new online experience, check out our 10 Tips for Adjusting to School Online.

Accreditation is especially important when it comes to online college. This is because the online education landscape is a mix of highly-reputable non-profit institutions on the one end and less-than-reputable for-profit institutions on the other end. Accreditation gives you the power to identify the more reputable actors in online education. Accreditation is a stamp of approval from an independent accrediting agency indicating that a college or university is meeting standards of quality and credibility. School-wide accreditation falls into two major categories: regional and national accreditation. Regional accreditors generally hold jurisdiction only over schools in the states comprising their region, whereas national accreditors hold jurisdiction over schools in all states. Regional accreditation is widely regarded as a more rigorous standard of quality and credibility than national accreditation.

Attending a college or university that is not regionally accredited could limit your opportunities. For students seeking an online education, we strongly recommend that they opt for regionally accredited schools. Regional accreditation ensures eligibility for federal loans and grants, ensures your college credits can be transferred between schools, and ensures that your degree credits can be accepted if you wish to earn an advanced degree. For more on this important topic, check out our What is Accreditation and Why Does It Matter? College & University Accreditation Guide.

As long as your online college degree is regionally accredited (see the previous point), you should have little difficulty transferring most of your credits or credentials to another regionally accredited undergraduate school. Every school carries its own standards and procedures for granting a transfer of credits. In many cases, you will encounter some bureaucratic haggling in which some of your credits will be transferred and others may be refused. However, provided that you have attended an online school with recognized regional accreditation, you should be in good shape in transferring your credits earned online.

In most cases, as long you graduate from a well-regarded, regionally-accredited online college, prospective employers won’t look sideways at your degree. In fact, unless you attend an exclusively online college or university, there will likely be no specific indicator on your degree, transcript, or resumé differentiating your school from its brick-and-mortar counterpart. This means that your employer will likely only differentiate between an online and in-person degree if you mention this distinction.

Some employers may express the concern that because you did your degree online, you may need to transition from an online education experience to in-person workplace experience. But in an age of Covid, that concern seems much diminished. The fact is that much employment these days is remote. And collaboration increasingly happens online over Zoom. Many employers will therefore view your online degree as evidence of valuable 21st century professional skills such as independence, self-motivation, time management, and tech savvy.

If you are a student who thrives on the dynamic energy of in-person discussion, who requires the physical surroundings of a classroom to feel engaged, or who considers the social aspects of education to be of equal importance to the actual content of your courses, online education will be less than ideal for you (though depending on your circumstances, it may also be the only viable option).

While there is much in traditional campus-based education that can be substituted or simulated through the online medium, some students may find that there is nothing that can replace the conversation, collaboration, and motivation that occur in an actual in-person classroom setting. As you transition to online education, one of the biggest challenges you will likely face in getting the most out of your online classes is overcoming this difference between “real reality” and “virtual reality.” Fortunately, we’ve got some great Tips for Online Education Beginners.

The advantages of online classes are many. Above all, online courses give you the freedom and flexibility to attend class from anywhere that works for you, whether you’re at home, in a coffee shop, or in a quiet conference room at work. In many cases, you’ll also enjoy the convenience of asynchronous learning opportunities-educational experiences that you can complete at your own pace and on your own schedule. This may include pre-taped lectures, ongoing chat-board discussions, and 24/7 access to digital materials. And of course, just as there are some learners who prefer the energy of a live classroom, there are those who learn best when working in their own personal space, free from distractions. If this sounds like you, you might find the solitude of online learning to be a major advantage.

Whether you’re just getting started on your college search, you’re looking for survival tips on your way to a bachelor’s degree, or you’re preparing for the transition into grad school, we’ve got guides, how to’s and tons of other valuable resources to keep you moving forward in your educational journey.

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Best Online Associate Degrees in North Carolina 2025

Key Takeaways

Top Online Associate Degree Programs in North Carolina in 2025

2025 Ranking Update

Featured Programs

Best Online Associate Degrees in North Carolina

Last Year’s Ranking:

Career Outlook for degree at Campbell University

Online Associate Degrees

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Career Outlook for degree at Montreat College

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Career Outlook for degree at University of Mount Olive

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Career Outlook for degree at Wake Technical Community College

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Career Outlook for degree at Gaston College

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Career Outlook for degree at Guilford Technical Community College

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Career Outlook for degree at Cape Fear Community College

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Career Outlook for degree at Durham Technical Community College

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Career Outlook for degree at Fayetteville Technical Community College

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Career Outlook for degree at Alamance Community College

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Career Outlook for degree at Lenoir Community College

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Career Outlook for degree at Mid-Atlantic Christian University

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Career Outlook for degree at Caldwell Community College & Technical Institute