 So you want to get a college degree that's going to lead to a good job. So you watch a bunch of YouTube day in the life videos, you do a bunch of research on different career websites, and you end up scrolling through TikTok way too much. But then you realize that a bachelor's degree on average takes 5.1 years and costs $500,000 over a lifetime. Plus, 40% of people drop out and of the ones that finish, nearly 50% of people regret their degree. Ouch. So you decide you're interested in a two year associates degree instead. Well, you're in luck because today I'm going to be revealing the best associate degrees and the first one on the list is going to be the frontline worker, the warrior of the healthcare industry. And this is a degree that is pretty much always going to lead to a stable, high paying job and that is going to be a nursing degree. Now you might be thinking, Shane, I'm a male, I do not want to be a male nurse. And that makes sense because 80% of the people that watch my channel are guys. But I have two things to say to that. One, you're not allowed to have an opinion because you don't have a girlfriend. And two, nursing is an especially good career for guys. There is a massive shortage of nurses and there's even more of a shortage of male nurses. And there are certain activities in the hospitals that they tend to have male nurses do. So it's actually much easier for you to get a good job in nursing if you are a guy. So if you want to make some really good money, go ahead, put your ego aside, realize that it's 2023 and consider this one. Now as a nurse at the entry level, you'll make around $69,000 a year. And according to BLS, it's growing at around 6% over the next 10 years. So back when I was in pharmacy school, I was actually going to an accelerated program and we were in the same building as a bunch of different nurses. So we would do a lot of the same activities with them and we would eat lunch with them. And some of them were actually doing accelerated programs where they were basically getting their nursing degree in less than two years. And of course they ended up graduating before us. And so we kind of got to see what kind of lifestyle they were living and they were making really good money right off the bat. So some of the pros of getting this is of course it is a shorter duration. You can get an associate's degree in nursing in less than two years easily. And this means you can start working and make money right away. And if you ever want to make more money, add on more responsibility, you can always go back to school, learn more, get educated, get your bachelor's, get your master's, sometimes even a doctorate. And there's tons of opportunities for nurse practitioners, for instance. And some of them, like nurse anesthetists, can make almost as much as a doctor. Now some of the cons here are as an associate degree level nurse, you may be stuck doing jobs that you don't necessarily want to do forever. And additionally, the education is way less comprehensive. The next one on the list is going to be a degree that can be done in two to three years where you can make really good money, but you're going to have to be okay with sticking your hands in other people's mouths. And this of course is dental hygienist. Now, back when I was going to college, I actually had a roommate whose girlfriend was a dental hygienist and they started college at the same time. And of course, because she got an associate's degree, she was able to finish way before him and she was making really good money. She was actually making six figures a year. And so she was basically my roommate's sugar mama. Mike was a smart guy. So this one, according to Glassdoor, you can make about $110,000 a year. And it's growing at 9% over the next 10 years, according to BLS. So some of the pros of getting this one is of course, shorter program again, although some dental hygienist programs can be two to three years instead of two. Another pro is the lower cost of getting an associate's degree versus getting a bachelor's. Another pro is there is very high demand for this career. And of course, you have an insanely good salary for a two year degree. Now, some of the cons for this one are there are limited advancement opportunities. So once you're a dental hygienist, you can't really go much further than that. You could be maybe a dental hygienist manager, but after that, there's not much room for career growth. It also can be somewhat physically demanding. And then another con to this one, and this is just from what I've heard, it's better if you're kind of a young female. So dentists tend to hire younger females to do this type of job. And I guess it's just because customers feel more comfortable with kind of a younger woman working on their teeth. Now, the next one, you're going to be assisting a career that has extremely high meaning score, right? Extremely high job satisfaction and long term happiness with their job. And on top of that, you can make really good money. So what I'm talking about is a physical therapy assistant. Now, I've talked about physical therapy before on the channel, and it's one of those careers that has ridiculously high meaning and job satisfaction scores. And I think the reason for that is because you get to see people all the way through from the time that, you know, something bad happened to them, their injury, all the way through to the point where they are actually good to go. Whereas there's a lot of other healthcare careers where you might see somebody at, you know, one of the worst times of their life, they're down bad, and then you take care of them. Maybe you give them some medication or something like that, but you never actually get to see the outcome. So it's extremely satisfying to see somebody, you know, right after their injury, work with them for maybe three to six months, and then see it through to the point where they're able to live a normal life. Now, Glassdoor has physical therapist assistance making about $91,000 a year. And according to BLS, the job growth over the next 10 years is going to be around 33%, which is phenomenal. The next one on the list is one that got incredibly popular over the last few years with the whole, you know, cough cough situation. And of course, there's a ton of demand for this one, but it also was probably extremely stressful as well. And that is going to be respiratory therapy. And you're going to be working with patients who are having trouble breathing, such as patients who have asthma or COPD. Now, of course, these types of positions can be extra stressful when certain situations happen in the world, especially when the government does a terrible job responding to the situation. Daddy, chill. What the... Anyways, speaking of respiratory therapy, it would take my breath away if you gently tap the like button on this video. But according to BLS, they make around $61,000 a year and it's growing at 14%, which is much faster than average. And I have kind of a funny story about this one. So a pharmacist I knew that I actually worked with, her husband was a respiratory therapist. And of course, pharmacists make around $120,000, $130,000 a year. And her husband, with an associate's degree, was making around the same amount of money. And she kind of like jokingly complained about it a little bit because she had to get a doctorate to make that much money. Anyways, some of the pros here are there's really good job prospects, especially with everything that happened in the world. And the training programs tend to be really hands-on and fast, right? Because they had to kind of train people incredibly fast as a response to the pandemic. So some of the cons here are extremely high stress levels. And in some cases, you might have to work long hours. And that's relatively common in different medical careers. For instance, I worked as a pharmacist and there were many times where I had to stay extra, stay late because patients needed extra help. And there were many times where I actually did not get paid for that. The next one on the list is gonna be for people who are bone aficionados. People who like using the machines that create x-rays so that you can see into the human body. And that, of course, is radiologic technology. So at this degree, you're gonna be learning how to take x-rays, MRIs, and CT scans. And during school, you're gonna focus on technical knowledge, clinical skills, and hands-on training. And with this one, you can expect to make about $61,000 a year and it's growing at 6% over the next 10 years. So some of the pros here are there is extremely high demand for radiologic technicians. And in the healthcare industry, that means you're gonna have a super stable job. It also pays a really good salary, especially at the associate level. Some of the cons here are you are going to be exposed to radiation. So of course, there's lots of safety procedures to minimize the amount of radiation you're exposed to, but it can cause problems over time. And another con is it can be somewhat physically demanding. You're gonna have to help patients move. And that can sometimes cause back injuries over time. Now the next one on the list is gonna be very similar to physical therapy assistants. And that is going to be occupational therapy assistant. And I've broken down the differences before between physical therapy and occupational therapy, but they definitely do have a lot of similarities. And occupational therapy also has very high meaning and extremely high job satisfaction as well. So according to Glassdoor, occupational therapy assistants make about $86,000 a year and it's expected to grow at about 25% over the next 10 years. So some of the pros here are you are gonna be helping people get a grip on life, sometimes literally. If you're working with kids, you might learn how to make therapy sessions fun by playing games and doing arts and crafts. And the demand for OTAs is extremely high, meaning you're gonna have good pay and good job security. Some of the cons here are it can be relatively physical as well and there is limited room for growth. Now you might have noticed that there is a bunch of health related degrees that dominate at the associate level. And I do think that health related degrees are the best at this level. But there's also some really good technology related degrees as well. And I'm gonna go over two of them. But before I get into them, I do want to say that there's a little bit of controversy about technology related careers and degrees. Because a lot of these degrees are really good when you look at the numbers. But with that being said, you can get into it without going to college and getting a degree. It's not as straightforward of a path, but the great thing about the technology industry is there's not as many gatekeepers, right? So as long as you have the skills, you can get hired for the career. But with that being said, getting a degree in many cases is a great way to get the skills. And in certain cases, getting a degree will give you an advantage. So you really do have to take this on a case by case basis. But with that being said, if you want to break into the technology industry as fast as possible, I highly recommend checking out course careers. I've interviewed a bunch of people on this channel that have used course careers in order to get into IT, for instance. And the best entry level IT job to get into is help desk. And I've interviewed people on this channel that have gotten in in seven days, 10 days, and 14 days. And they started off with zero knowledge of IT. So check out course careers free introductory course. I'll put it down in the description as well as the pinned comment below. And they also have a full cohort based course where you go through it with an instructor and other people. And that costs around $450 if you use the coupon code Shane 50, which I'll put down there as well. Now the next one on the list is incredibly important because as we have all this technology, as we're all using and relying on this technology, cyber crime has been on the rise. So people are stealing passwords and breaking into bank accounts. And in some cases, they might just be stealing your data and data is incredibly valuable. And so of course, I'm talking about a cyber security degree. Now according to Glassdoor, cyber security makes around $81,000 a year. With an associates degree, it would probably be a little bit less than that. And information security jobs are growing at about 35% over the next 10 years. Now interestingly enough, during this recession, there were many tech workers who got laid off, but it seems like cyber security was one of the jobs that was least affected. And that's probably because it's incredibly important for companies to keep their own data and people's data safe. So some of the pros here are there's very high demand for cybersecurity professionals. There's great earning potential. The duration is going to be shorter to get into it. And there's lots of opportunity for career advancement. Some of the cons here are that some of the positions may either require a bachelor's degree or prefer it. Now by the way, if a job posting says that they prefer a bachelor's degree, 100% of the time still apply to it. Even if they say they require a bachelor's degree, I recommend most of the time to apply. I can't tell you how many people I've worked with who've gotten hired by companies that required a bachelor's degree in technology. So it's really just a suggestion and you should probably ignore it. But with that being said, some companies are extremely stubborn. They're stuck in the mud. They're stuck in their old ways. And they do actually require a bachelor's degree. Another con is this is a fast pace and evolving field. You have to stay up to date with the newest stuff that's happening. And it can be a very stressful and high pressure job, especially if you have a breach or a leak. Now the next one on the list is relatively similar, but instead of focusing on defense in technology, it focuses on offense. And that's going to be computer science. So there's insanely high demand for this degree. It actually ranked number one on my bachelor's degree tier list. And as an associate degree, it's also really good. Now again, this is one where a lot of people would argue that you don't need to go to college to get a degree. And in many cases, people actually start off by going to college to get a computer science degree. And then they end up getting hired halfway through. So they drop out. And that's why when you look up computer science degrees, they do have some of the highest dropout rates. Now computer scientists make about $115,000 a year and computer related occupations are expected to grow by 15% over the next 10 years. Now at this one, there are certain specialties that are going to be better than others. And it's extremely important if you go into software development that you specialize. So some of the best ones that I recommend going into are going to be related to the cloud. So AWS, Amazon Web Services, as well as Microsoft Azure. Now some of the pros here are extremely high earning potential. And it's also a constantly evolving field with room for growth. And it's extremely flexible. There's lots of opportunities for remote jobs. And on top of that, you can move into many different roles. Some of the cons here are it does require very strong problem solving skills. So computer science is not an easy major. And you might be responsible for programming the next technology that tears the fabric of society apart like TikTok. No, real talk for a second though. If you look at the graphs for depression and anxiety in the United States, as well as like all over the world, what you'll find is they started spiking around the time that social media came out. So this is something I talk about on my channel sometimes like delete most of social media, right? TikTok, Instagram, all these sorts of things. I highly recommend that you either delete it or use it in extreme moderation. But I digress the next one on the list is going to be another healthcare related degree. And this might be my favorite one at the associate level. And this is where you're going to be using ultrasounds in order to see into people's bodies. And that is diagnostic medical sonography. Now at this one you can make about $80,000 a year and it's growing at about 15% over the next 10 years. Some of the pros here are extremely good salary and it actually has a pretty good opportunity to work in a variety of different healthcare settings. Some of the cons are it does require pretty good physical stamina and you have to stand for long periods of time. So you might be leaning over people in an awkward angle and that can cause back problems same as dental hygienists. And then another con is you might be working with patients who are in pain. Now if you're still looking into associate degrees I actually created an associate degree tier list that ranks the best and the worst associate degrees from S tier which is the best to F tier which is the worst. And you can check that out by clicking right here.