Bachelor’s degree · earnings 4 years after completing
Highest-Paying Colleges for Human Resources Management (Bachelor's)
Graduates who complete a bachelor's degree in Human Resources Management earn a median of $68,069 four years after finishing, and the middle half earn between $50,156 and $90,619. We rank the 127 U.S. colleges whose Human Resources Management programs have at least 25 graduates in the Scorecard earnings sample, 11,274 graduates in all. That puts Human Resources Management at #44 of 131 bachelor's degree fields we rank by national median earnings.
Cornell University, in New York, leads at $112,713, 67% above the median ranked school ($67,452). The gap between schools is moderate: the middle half of ranked schools earn between $62,257 and $75,811, and the lowest earns $47,739. 56 of the 127 ranked schools (44%) match or beat the national median.
Private nonprofit colleges dominate the top 20: 15 private nonprofit, 5 public and 0 for-profit. Across all ranked schools, 54% are public. The top 20 are spread across 15 states, with Minnesota the most common (3).
The top 20 schools cost more than most: a median net price of $22,199 a year, against $18,106 across all 127 ranked schools. Their graduates who borrowed carry a median of $23,250 in federal loans, about 26% of one year of earnings. Measured against a typical high-school graduate in the same state, the median top-20 school recovers its net cost in about 1.7 years.
Showing the top 50 of 127 ranked schools. Select a column heading to re-sort the table. † = fewer than 40 graduates in the earnings sample.
| 1 | Cornell University Ithaca, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $112,713 | 280 | $14,000 | $28,690 | 1.5 |
| 2 | Bethel University (MN) Saint Paul, MN Private nonprofit · 4-year | $101,195 | 27 † | $25,000 | $28,556 | 1.8 |
| 3 | University of Michigan-Ann Arbor Ann Arbor, MI Public · 4-year | $99,594 | 42 | $14,225 | $13,138 | 0.8 |
| 4 | George Washington University Washington, DC Private nonprofit · 4-year | $97,126 | 36 † | $20,939 | $36,586 | 2.6 |
| 5 | Brigham Young University Provo, UT Private nonprofit · 4-year | $96,354 | 33 † | — | $15,564 | 1.1 |
| 6 | Waldorf University Forest City, IA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $94,822 | 38 † | $28,125 | $19,693 | 1.4 |
| 7 | University of Richmond University of Richmond, VA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $92,389 | 63 | $19,500 | $31,309 | 2.2 |
| 8 | Benedictine University Lisle, IL Private nonprofit · 4-year | $90,891 | 42 | $29,048 | $22,313 | 1.6 |
| 9 | University of St Francis Joliet, IL Private nonprofit · 4-year | $90,495 | 25 † | — | $13,006 | 1.0 |
| 10 | Idaho State University Pocatello, ID Public · 4-year | $89,887 | 28 † | $24,043 | $12,193 | 0.9 |
| 11 | Baylor University Waco, TX Private nonprofit · 4-year | $89,102 | 25 † | $20,475 | $41,104 | 3.0 |
| 12 | Michigan State University East Lansing, MI Public · 4-year | $85,886 | 78 | $23,250 | $19,680 | 1.5 |
| 13 | Saint Joseph's University - Philadelphia Philadelphia, PA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $83,692 | 32 † | $23,970 | $29,689 | 2.5 |
| 14 | Saint Mary's University of Minnesota Winona, MN Private nonprofit · 4-year | $83,079 | 28 † | — | $11,704 | 1.0 |
| 15 | Ohio State University-Main Campus Columbus, OH Public · 4-year | $82,371 | 68 | $19,500 | $17,339 | 1.5 |
| 16 | Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus University Park, PA Public · 4-year | $81,755 | 349 | $27,000 | $32,875 | 2.9 |
| 17 | Concordia University-Saint Paul Saint Paul, MN Private nonprofit · 4-year | $79,708 | 41 | $20,832 | $18,462 | 1.8 |
| 18 | Concordia University-Wisconsin Mequon, WI Private nonprofit · 4-year | $79,286 | 42 | $25,789 | $36,201 | 3.5 |
| 19 | Johnson & Wales University-Providence Providence, RI Private nonprofit · 4-year | $79,056 | 33 † | $27,000 | $31,027 | 3.2 |
| 20 | Southern Nazarene University Bethany, OK Private nonprofit · 4-year | $78,093 | 93 | $18,750 | $22,084 | 2.0 |
| 21 | University of Iowa Iowa City, IA Public · 4-year | $77,659 | 131 | $21,275 | $22,531 | 2.2 |
| 22 | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chapel Hill, NC Public · 4-year | $76,811 | 96 | $12,750 | $11,655 | 1.1 |
| 23 | Texas A&M University-College Station College Station, TX Public · 4-year | $76,593 | 123 | $16,053 | $21,315 | 2.0 |
| 24 | Lewis University Romeoville, IL Private nonprofit · 4-year | $76,485 | 30 † | $21,500 | $17,028 | 1.7 |
| 25 | Saint Louis University Saint Louis, MO Private nonprofit · 4-year | $76,354 | 57 | $27,000 | $24,398 | 2.3 |
| 26 | University of Michigan-Dearborn Dearborn, MI Public · 4-year | $76,343 | 33 † | $22,831 | $9,492 | 0.9 |
| 27 | Bluffton University Bluffton, OH Private nonprofit · 4-year | $76,243 | 29 † | — | $19,943 | 2.0 |
| 28 | Bryant University Smithfield, RI Private nonprofit · 4-year | $76,241 | 30 † | $26,000 | $41,219 | 4.6 |
| 29 | University of Arizona Tucson, AZ Public · 4-year | $76,013 | 137 | $19,500 | $16,674 | 1.7 |
| 30 | Capella University Minneapolis, MN For-profit · 4-year | $76,004 | 187 | $25,063 | $17,956 | 1.9 |
| 31 | Rutgers University-New Brunswick New Brunswick, NJ Public · 4-year | $75,850 | 585 | $23,000 | $24,406 | 2.5 |
| 32 | Ball State University Muncie, IN Public · 4-year | $75,822 | 56 | $19,500 | $14,940 | 1.5 |
| 33 | Grand Valley State University Allendale, MI Public · 4-year | $75,800 | 65 | $23,250 | $16,317 | 1.6 |
| 34 | Roberts Wesleyan University Rochester, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $75,523 | 74 | $18,750 | $23,130 | 2.3 |
| 35 | University of Minnesota-Twin Cities Minneapolis, MN Public · 4-year | $74,358 | 122 | $16,942 | $16,778 | 1.8 |
| 36 | Fresno Pacific University Fresno, CA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $74,265 | 89 | $24,981 | $13,630 | 1.5 |
| 37 | California State University-Long Beach Long Beach, CA Public · 4-year | $73,857 | 119 | $13,000 | $10,440 | 1.1 |
| 38 | Colorado State University Global Denver, CO Public · 4-year | $73,403 | 466 | $25,000 | $16,510 | 2.0 |
| 39 | Central Michigan University Mount Pleasant, MI Public · 4-year | $73,340 | 176 | $26,703 | $17,597 | 1.8 |
| 40 | Temple University Philadelphia, PA Public · 4-year | $73,127 | 167 | $25,750 | $28,198 | 3.1 |
| 41 | Rowan University Glassboro, NJ Public · 4-year | $73,035 | 69 | $19,500 | $22,408 | 2.5 |
| 42 | University of Massachusetts Global Aliso Viejo, CA Public · 4-year | $72,669 | 52 | $23,617 | $32,654 | 3.7 |
| 43 | John Carroll University University Heights, OH Private nonprofit · 4-year | $72,144 | 29 † | $19,500 | $28,746 | 3.2 |
| 44 | University of the Incarnate Word San Antonio, TX Private nonprofit · 4-year | $72,061 | 88 | $32,899 | $22,775 | 2.4 |
| 45 | Concordia University-Chicago River Forest, IL Private nonprofit · 4-year | $72,050 | 30 † | $22,495 | $18,436 | 2.1 |
| 46 | Western Michigan University Kalamazoo, MI Public · 4-year | $71,870 | 96 | $26,000 | $15,273 | 1.6 |
| 47 | North Central College Naperville, IL Private nonprofit · 4-year | $71,555 | 35 † | $18,384 | $21,044 | 2.4 |
| 48 | Oakland University Rochester Hills, MI Public · 4-year | $70,347 | 259 | $24,125 | $9,120 | 1.0 |
| 49 | Metropolitan State University Saint Paul, MN Public · 4-year | $70,299 | 84 | $22,789 | $16,863 | 2.1 |
| 50 | Western Illinois University Macomb, IL Public · 4-year | $70,157 | 25 † | $21,875 | $12,937 | 1.5 |
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 bachelor's degree programs in Human Resources Management (CIP 5210, 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 127.
- 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: 4 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 Resources Management 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minnesota | $74,358 | 9 | Bethel University (MN) |
| Michigan | $71,870 | 11 | University of Michigan-Ann Arbor |
| New Jersey | $71,579 | 4 | Rutgers University-New Brunswick |
| Illinois | $71,555 | 9 | Benedictine University |
| Pennsylvania | $69,258 | 6 | Saint Joseph's University - Philadelphia |
| Oklahoma | $69,235 | 3 | Southern Nazarene University |
| California | $68,673 | 6 | Fresno Pacific University |
| Wisconsin | $67,479 | 4 | Concordia University-Wisconsin |
| Indiana | $67,466 | 3 | Ball State University |
| Ohio | $66,648 | 9 | Ohio State University-Main Campus |
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