Bachelor’s degree · earnings 4 years after completing
Highest-Paying Colleges for Human Services (Bachelor's)
Graduates who complete a bachelor's degree in Human Services earn a median of $48,597 four years after finishing, and the middle half earn between $35,249 and $62,659. We rank the 64 U.S. colleges whose Human Services programs have at least 25 graduates in the Scorecard earnings sample, 6,466 graduates in all. That puts Human Services at #113 of 131 bachelor's degree fields we rank, toward the lower end of the pay scale.
Syracuse University, in New York, leads at $68,314, 38% above the median ranked school ($49,511). Most schools are tightly bunched: the middle half of ranked schools earn between $44,274 and $53,616, and the lowest earns $35,467, so outside the leaders the choice of school moves earnings less than the choice of major. 36 of the 64 ranked schools (56%) match or beat the national median.
The top 20 mix sectors: 11 public, 7 private nonprofit and 2 for-profit. New York places 5 schools in the top 20, ahead of Massachusetts (3).
The top 20 schools cost about the same as the rest of the list: a median net price of $18,756 a year, against $20,261 across all 64 ranked schools. Their graduates who borrowed carry a median of $24,650 in federal loans, about 44% 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 4.7 years.
Showing the top 50 of 64 ranked schools. Select a column heading to re-sort the table. † = fewer than 40 graduates in the earnings sample.
| 1 | Syracuse University Syracuse, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $68,314 | 30 † | $26,273 | $38,793 | 4.8 |
| 2 | Goodwin University East Hartford, CT Private nonprofit · 4-year | $66,583 | 28 † | $31,000 | $29,249 | 4.1 |
| 3 | Northeastern University Boston, MA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $61,152 | 27 † | $23,250 | $30,915 | 6.1 |
| 4 | St. Joseph's University-New York Brooklyn, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $60,091 | 28 † | $25,000 | $19,035 | 3.1 |
| 5 | University of Nevada-Las Vegas Las Vegas, NV Public · 4-year | $58,130 | 48 | $22,391 | $10,359 | 2.0 |
| 6 | University of Baltimore Baltimore, MD Public · 4-year | $58,117 | 29 † | $29,250 | $13,868 | 2.7 |
| 7 | Mount Saint Mary College Newburgh, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $57,910 | 32 † | $25,125 | $25,522 | 4.6 |
| 8 | CUNY New York City College of Technology Brooklyn, NY Public · 4-year | $56,827 | 148 | $8,025 | $5,127 | 1.0 |
| 9 | California State University-Monterey Bay Seaside, CA Public · 4-year | $56,719 | 162 | $13,750 | $13,663 | 2.8 |
| 10 | Monroe University Bronx, NY For-profit · 4-year | $56,245 | 61 | $27,751 | $14,522 | 2.8 |
| 11 | University of Delaware Newark, DE Public · 4-year | $55,209 | 109 | $23,250 | $17,799 | 3.8 |
| 12 | Walden University Minneapolis, MN For-profit · 4-year | $55,040 | 141 | $39,649 | $33,817 | 7.9 |
| 13 | Cambridge College Boston, MA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $55,038 | 26 † | $25,000 | $31,072 | 8.9 |
| 14 | Metropolitan State University of Denver Denver, CO Public · 4-year | $54,896 | 68 | $21,084 | $15,327 | 4.3 |
| 15 | Central Washington University Ellensburg, WA Public · 4-year | $54,318 | 45 | $17,523 | $18,476 | 5.4 |
| 16 | Western Washington University Bellingham, WA Public · 4-year | $53,788 | 120 | $19,500 | $21,193 | 6.4 |
| 17 | University of Oregon Eugene, OR Public · 4-year | $53,559 | 141 | $19,000 | $22,182 | 5.4 |
| 18 | Fitchburg State University Fitchburg, MA Public · 4-year | $52,945 | 43 | $25,000 | $14,262 | 4.8 |
| 19 | Colorado State University Global Denver, CO Public · 4-year | $52,742 | 123 | $29,051 | $16,510 | 5.5 |
| 20 | Ottawa University-Ottawa Ottawa, KS Private nonprofit · 4-year | $52,309 | 28 † | $24,300 | $27,963 | 6.4 |
| 21 | Towson University Towson, MD Public · 4-year | $52,223 | 122 | $20,482 | $17,413 | 4.8 |
| 22 | University of Scranton Scranton, PA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $52,172 | 47 | $26,000 | $32,568 | 8.3 |
| 23 | Touro University New York, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $51,886 | 58 | $28,834 | $29,627 | 7.3 |
| 24 | Doane University Crete, NE Private nonprofit · 4-year | $51,673 | 40 | $23,484 | $26,364 | 7.2 |
| 25 | Elizabethtown College Elizabethtown, PA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $51,224 | 27 † | — | $26,598 | 7.2 |
| 26 | Post University Waterbury, CT For-profit · 4-year | $51,181 | 68 | $45,694 | $21,634 | 6.4 |
| 27 | Metropolitan State University Saint Paul, MN Public · 4-year | $51,009 | 109 | $16,547 | $16,863 | 5.1 |
| 28 | Lincoln University (PA) Lincoln University, PA Public · 4-year | $50,390 | 65 | $29,000 | $14,977 | 4.3 |
| 29 | Shorter University Rome, GA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $50,113 | 28 † | $39,668 | $16,646 | 4.1 |
| 30 | Elmira College Elmira, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $49,723 | 31 † | $27,000 | $22,386 | 6.4 |
| 31 | Mercy University Dobbs Ferry, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $49,634 | 162 | $24,000 | $14,072 | 4.1 |
| 32 | Northern Illinois University Dekalb, IL Public · 4-year | $49,514 | 38 † | $27,000 | $13,391 | 4.0 |
| 33 | Southern New Hampshire University Manchester, NH Private nonprofit · 4-year | $49,508 | 341 | $24,084 | $36,708 | 19.5 |
| 34 | Wayland Baptist University Plainview, TX Private nonprofit · 4-year | $48,921 | 27 † | $25,000 | $20,590 | 5.8 |
| 35 | Fisher College Boston, MA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $48,902 | 60 | $23,422 | $26,649 | 13.6 |
| 36 | Grand Canyon University Phoenix, AZ Private nonprofit · 4-year | $48,766 | 745 | $26,963 | $22,472 | 7.3 |
| 37 | Upper Iowa University Fayette, IA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $48,461 | 146 | $28,337 | $20,942 | 7.4 |
| 38 | Chestnut Hill College Philadelphia, PA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $48,375 | 89 | $25,000 | $27,970 | 9.4 |
| 39 | University of Phoenix-Arizona Phoenix, AZ For-profit · 4-year | $47,742 | 1,117 | $43,775 | $13,520 | 4.8 |
| 40 | Grace Christian University Wyoming, MI Private nonprofit · 4-year | $47,559 | 40 | $28,346 | $12,404 | 3.9 |
| 41 | Kennesaw State University Kennesaw, GA Public · 4-year | $47,540 | 86 | $26,955 | $15,048 | 4.4 |
| 42 | Southern Wesleyan University Central, SC Private nonprofit · 4-year | $47,528 | 49 | $27,041 | $15,464 | 4.9 |
| 43 | Columbia College (MO) Columbia, MO Private nonprofit · 4-year | $46,785 | 260 | $30,612 | $22,715 | 7.6 |
| 44 | Florida State College at Jacksonville Jacksonville, FL Public · 4-year | $46,467 | 53 | $28,227 | $4,128 | 1.4 |
| 45 | Wingate University Wingate, NC Private nonprofit · 4-year | $45,558 | 47 | $27,000 | $20,748 | 7.2 |
| 46 | Mercer University Macon, GA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $45,484 | 37 † | $41,750 | $23,847 | 8.2 |
| 47 | Indian River State College Fort Pierce, FL Public · 4-year | $44,549 | 136 | $13,500 | $3,815 | 1.5 |
| 48 | Gordon State College Barnesville, GA Public · 4-year | $44,286 | 59 | $27,268 | $8,105 | 3.1 |
| 49 | East Central University Ada, OK Public · 4-year | $44,238 | 51 | $22,500 | $8,683 | 3.7 |
| 50 | Indiana Wesleyan University-Marion Marion, IN Private nonprofit · 4-year | $44,155 | 29 † | $25,668 | $22,866 | 11.9 |
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 Services (CIP 4400, 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 64.
- 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 Services 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | $56,536 | 8 | Syracuse University |
| Massachusetts | $53,992 | 4 | Northeastern University |
| Pennsylvania | $50,807 | 4 | University of Scranton |
| Georgia | $45,484 | 5 | Shorter University |
| Florida | $44,263 | 4 | Florida State College at Jacksonville |
| Indiana | $40,727 | 3 | Indiana Wesleyan University-Marion |
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