Associate degree · earnings 4 years after completing
Highest-Paying Colleges for Human Development and Family Studies (Associate)
Graduates who complete a associate degree in Human Development and Family Studies earn a median of $34,184 four years after finishing, and the middle half earn between $22,583 and $45,132. We rank the 25 U.S. colleges whose Human Development and Family Studies programs have at least 25 graduates in the Scorecard earnings sample, 1,098 graduates in all. That puts Human Development and Family Studies at #27 of 27 associate degree fields we rank, toward the lower end of the pay scale.
Mount Wachusett Community College, in Massachusetts, leads at $44,193, 22% above the median ranked school ($36,280). Most schools are tightly bunched: the middle half of ranked schools earn between $33,709 and $39,830, and the lowest earns $21,159, so outside the leaders the choice of school moves earnings less than the choice of major. 17 of the 25 ranked schools (68%) match or beat the national median.
Public universities dominate the top 20: 16 public, 2 private nonprofit and 2 for-profit. Across all ranked schools, 84% are public. California places 5 schools in the top 20, ahead of Pennsylvania (3).
The top 20 schools cost about the same as the rest of the list: a median net price of $8,811 a year, against $8,621 across all 25 ranked schools. Their graduates who borrowed carry a median of $13,483 in federal loans, about 37% of one year of earnings.
Showing the top 25 of 25 ranked schools. Select a column heading to re-sort the table. † = fewer than 40 graduates in the earnings sample.
| 1 | Mount Wachusett Community College Gardner, MA Public · 2-year | $44,193 | 25 † | $4,691 | $7,931 | 5.0 |
| 2 | North Shore Community College Danvers, MA Public · 2-year | $42,652 | 42 | $7,000 | $9,000 | — |
| 3 | Pasadena City College Pasadena, CA Public · 2-year | $41,808 | 27 † | — | $3,864 | 1.6 |
| 4 | Tulsa Community College Tulsa, OK Public · 2-year | $41,439 | 58 | $13,965 | $6,288 | 1.9 |
| 5 | Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus University Park, PA Public · 4-year | $40,545 | 43 | $22,250 | $32,875 | 16.2 |
| 6 | Community College of Allegheny County Pittsburgh, PA Public · 2-year | $40,493 | 31 † | $12,255 | $13,970 | 7.0 |
| 7 | Harcum College Bryn Mawr, PA Private nonprofit · 2-year | $39,830 | 91 | $18,440 | $24,776 | 14.9 |
| 8 | Modesto Junior College Modesto, CA Public · 4-year | $39,536 | 25 † | — | $2,818 | 2.2 |
| 9 | American Public University System Charles Town, WV For-profit · 4-year | $38,583 | 95 | $20,756 | $9,597 | 4.2 |
| 10 | Saint Louis Community College Bridgeton, MO Public · 4-year | $36,882 | 35 † | — | $8,440 | 8.1 |
| 11 | Grand Rapids Community College Grand Rapids, MI Public · 2-year | $36,584 | 34 † | $12,614 | $8,621 | — |
| 12 | Carl Albert State College Poteau, OK Public · 2-year | $36,363 | 37 † | — | $14,607 | — |
| 13 | Post University Waterbury, CT For-profit · 4-year | $36,280 | 48 | $28,361 | $21,634 | — |
| 14 | Midlands Technical College West Columbia, SC Public · 2-year | $35,648 | 49 | $11,250 | $4,647 | — |
| 15 | Butte College Oroville, CA Public · 2-year | $35,456 | 37 † | — | $5,520 | — |
| 16 | Northern Virginia Community College Annandale, VA Public · 2-year | $34,814 | 34 † | $13,000 | $9,919 | — |
| 17 | Erie Community College Buffalo, NY Public · 2-year | $34,751 | 26 † | — | $7,765 | — |
| 18 | Southwestern College (CA) Chula Vista, CA Public · 2-year | $33,801 | 28 † | — | $12,671 | — |
| 19 | Baker College Owosso, MI Private nonprofit · 4-year | $33,709 | 116 | $21,699 | $13,157 | — |
| 20 | Antelope Valley Community College District Lancaster, CA Public · 4-year | $32,925 | 27 † | — | $3,860 | — |
| 21 | Tidewater Community College Norfolk, VA Public · 2-year | $30,269 | 47 | $16,642 | $11,762 | — |
| 22 | Ozarks Technical Community College Springfield, MO Public · 4-year | $28,862 | 37 † | $18,185 | $6,936 | — |
| 23 | Ohio University-Main Campus Athens, OH Public · 4-year | $25,999 | 35 † | $10,576 | $21,637 | — |
| 24 | Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College Perkinston, MS Public · 2-year | $23,495 | 39 † | $10,940 | $6,962 | — |
| 25 | Hinds Community College Raymond, MS Public · 2-year | $21,159 | 32 † | $18,500 | $4,060 | — |
How this ranking is built
A school appears here only if it meets every condition below.
- Which programs count
- Main campuses only, one entry per institution. Scorecard reports program outcomes for the whole six-digit federal ID (OPEID6), so branch campuses share their parent’s numbers and are not listed twice.
- Only associate degree programs in Human Development and Family Studies (CIP 1907, the four-digit code Scorecard uses to group related programs).
- At least 25 graduates in the earnings sample. Smaller samples are left out because their medians swing too much and the counts carry a little privacy noise.
- A major gets a page only when at least 20 schools qualify. This one has 25.
- Ranked by median earnings 4 years after completing, highest first. Ties go to the larger sample, then to the school name.
- Schools missing earnings or a sample size are left out rather than estimated.
- What the numbers mean
- Earnings: median annual earnings of graduates four years after completing. The cohort completed in academic years 2017-18 and 2018-19 and was measured in calendar years 2022 and 2023, in 2024 dollars.
- Who is counted: graduates who received federal student aid (Title IV grants or loans), and only those who were working and not enrolled in more school that year. Graduates without federal aid, those who went on to further study and those with no earnings are not in the median.
- Scorecard adds privacy noise to counts and medians and hides values it cannot protect, so a gap of a few percent between two schools is not meaningful.
- Graduates: the number of graduates in that earnings sample. A † marks fewer than 40, where the figure is less precise.
- Debt: median federal loan debt (Stafford and Grad PLUS loans disbursed at that school) of graduates who borrowed, from the 2018-19 and 2019-20 completers. Parent PLUS and private loans are not included.
- Net price: average yearly cost after grants and scholarships for the whole institution, not this major, academic year 2023-24.
- Payback: 2 years of net price divided by how much these earnings exceed a high-school graduate’s in the school’s state. Shown only when that gap is at least $2,000, the same formula as the rest of the site.
- Source: U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard field-of-study data, June 2026 release.
Top states for Human Development and Family Studies earnings
Median of the school medians for states with at least 3 ranked schools. The best school in each state is shown.
| State | Median earnings | Ranked schools | Top school |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pennsylvania | $40,493 | 3 | Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus |
| California | $35,456 | 5 | Pasadena City College |
Related majors
Other fields to compare, by what graduates earn.
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Human Development and Family Studies (Bachelor's)
Same major, Bachelor's level
$48,568 national median · 119 schools
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Health Administration (Associate)
$37,073 national median · 77 schools
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Teacher Education (Levels and Methods) (Associate)
$37,656 national median · 66 schools
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Design and Applied Arts (Associate)
$38,127 national median · 40 schools
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Psychology (Associate)
$39,288 national median · 52 schools
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Human Services (Associate)
$39,422 national median · 26 schools
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Culinary Arts (Associate)
$39,605 national median · 44 schools
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Veterinary Technology (Associate)
$41,460 national median · 43 schools
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