Human Development & Family Studies is above average in terms of popularity with it being the #97 most popular master's degree program in the country. As a result, there are many college that offer the degree, making your choice of school a hard one.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 2 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Human Development & Family Studies Master's Degree Schools in Illinois ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 85 master's degrees in human development & family studies during the 2021-2022 academic year.
One measure we use to determine the quality of a school is to look at the average salary of master's graduates during the early years of their career. That is, everyone wants their master's degree to be worth something, and salaries are one measure of determining that.
Other Factors We Consider
The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.
Major Focus - How much a school focuses on human development & family studies students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - The number of human development & family studies students who choose to seek a master's degree at the school.
Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
Student Debt - How much debt human development & family studies students go into to obtain their master's degree and how well they are able to pay back that debt.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized human development & family studies related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for human development & family studies students working on their master's degree.
More Ways to Rank Human Development & Family Studies Schools
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Human Development & Family Studies Master's Degree Schools in Illinois ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Human Development & Family Studies in Illinois
Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a master's degree in human development & family studies.
Top Illinois Schools for a Master's in Human Development
It's difficult to beat Northern Illinois University if you want to pursue a master's degree in human development & family studies. Located in the small suburb of Dekalb, NIU is a public university with a fairly large student population.
After graduating, human development master's recipients usually make an average of $48,734 at the beginning of their careers.
Every student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in human development & family studies needs to check out National Louis University. NLU is a medium-sized private not-for-profit university located in the city of Chicago.
Students who graduate with their master's from the human development program report average early career income of $47,754.
Human Development & Family Studies Related Rankings by Major
One of 8 majors within the Family, Consumer & Human Sciences area of study, Human Development & Family Studies has other similar majors worth exploring.
The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
