Master's · earnings grade

Is a Human Development, Family Studies degree worth it?

Graduates earn a median $42,123 two years after finishing, more than 18% of master's majors. Measured across 131 US programmes by the Department of Education — real graduate pay, not survey answers.

D

The verdict on the money

Financially it is a slower start than most majors at this level — worth planning your borrowing around.

Median earnings $42,123 2 years after finishing · per graduate
Typical range $38,289–$43,426 middle half of US programmes
Over no degree +$2,603 vs $39,520 high-school median
Graduates a year 1,373 131 programmes

Where a Human Development, Family Studies degree pays best US programmes ranked on their own graduates' median earnings two years out.

#University1 yr out2 yrs out3 yrs outGraduates/yr
1 Pacific Oaks College $48,319 $53,017 $56,106 33
2 University of La Verne cost & debt at this university → $52,231 $50,606 $54,479 57
3 California State University-Dominguez Hills cost & debt at this university → $52,085 $49,579 $59,633 —
4 Boston University cost & debt at this university → $42,687 $45,539 $48,140 17
5 Erikson Institute $42,469 $45,455 $43,338 32
6 Saint Mary's University of Minnesota cost & debt at this university → $44,411 $44,942 $41,030 1
7 University of Illinois Chicago cost & debt at this university → $48,629 $44,542 $51,312 3
8 University of Rhode Island $43,405 $44,356 $49,246 13
9 University of Nebraska-Lincoln cost & debt at this university → $41,644 $44,276 $48,131 24
10 National Louis University cost & debt at this university → $41,066 $43,798 $44,290 36
11 Michigan State University cost & debt at this university → $44,810 $43,426 not published 2
12 Loma Linda University cost & debt at this university → $44,302 $43,426 $48,360 9

What this figure does and does not tell you

Two medians are worth separating. $42,123 is what the typical graduate earns — each programme counted in proportion to how many students it graduates. $41,379 is what the typical programme reports, counting a class of twenty the same as a class of two thousand. The weighted figure is higher here, which means the larger programmes in this field are the better-paying ones.

It is the median of what real graduates of this exact major earned, taken from tax records two years after they completed. It is not a starting salary, not an average of job adverts, and not a projection. The median master's major in this dataset reports $52,837, so Human Development, Family Studies sits below the middle by $10,714.

Two years is early in a career. Fields with long training pipelines — medicine, law, research — look weaker at this point than they will at ten, while trades and applied technical fields peak sooner. Read a low figure in a long-pipeline subject as "slow start", not "bad degree".

There is no debt figure here on purpose. The Department of Education publishes earnings by field of study but not borrowing, so nobody can honestly tell you the debt of a specific major. Debt is published per institution — that is where our university cost pages carry it.

Human Development, Family Studies at other levels

Bachelor's — $29,978 (F)

Majors that pay more at this level Closest first — useful if you are still choosing.

Journalism — $41,863 Parks, Recreation — $41,937 Gerontology — $42,403 Psychology — $42,682 Physiology — $43,054 Library Science and Administration — $43,426

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Human Development, Family Studies: the questions people ask

How much do Human Development, Family Studies graduates earn?
The median master's graduate earns $42,123 two years after finishing (weighting each programme by how many students it graduates), across 38 US programmes that publish the figure. One year out it is $42,509.
Is a Human Development, Family Studies degree worth it?
Financially it is a slower start than most majors at this level — worth planning your borrowing around. The median graduate earns $2,603 a year more than a US worker whose highest qualification is a high-school diploma.
What is the salary range for Human Development, Family Studies?
Half of US programmes report medians between $38,289 and $43,426. Where you study moves this figure more than most applicants expect.
How many people graduate in Human Development, Family Studies each year?
About 1,373 students complete a master's in this field each year across 131 US programmes.
Does this include student debt?
No — and deliberately. The Department of Education publishes earnings by field of study but not debt, so any "debt by major" figure you see elsewhere is an estimate. Debt is published per institution, which is why our university pages carry it and this page does not.
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Classified by the Department of Education as Human Development, Family Studies, and Related Services (CIP 1907). Source: US Department of Education College Scorecard, field-of-study earnings (median earnings of graduates who received federal financial aid, measured 1–3 years after completion). Figures are per major and credential level, pooled across US programmes. Information only, not financial advice.