If you plan on getting your master's degree in human services, you won't be alone since the degree program is ranked #104 in the country in terms of popularity. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 3 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Human Services Master's Degree Schools in the Southeast Region ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 103 master's degrees in human services to qualified students.
Choosing a Great Human Services School for Your Master's Degree
Your choice of human services for getting your master's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality human services program can vary widely even among the top schools. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
Overall Quality Is a Must
A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
Average Early-Career Salaries
Average early-career salary of those graduating with their master's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your master's degree won't mean much if it doesn't help you find a job that will help you earn a living.
Other Factors We Consider
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How much a school focuses on human services students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - How many other human services students want to attend this school to pursue a master's degree.
Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
Student Debt - How much debt human services 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 services related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for human services students working on their master's degree.
The human services school you choose to invest your time and money in matters. To help you make the decision that is right for you, we've developed a number of major-specific rankings, including this list of the Best Human Services Master's Degree Schools in the Southeast Region.
Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Human Services in the Southeast Region
Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a master's degree in human services.
Top Southeast Region Schools for a Master's in Human Services
Lenoir - Rhyne University is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a master's degree in human services. Lenoir - Rhyne University is a small private not-for-profit university located in the small city of Hickory.
Students who graduate with their master's from the human services program report average early career wages of $39,939.
It's hard to beat East Tennessee State University if you want to pursue a master's degree in human services. Located in the small city of Johnson City, ETSU is a public university with a fairly large student population.
After graduating, human services master's recipients generally make about $44,716 in their early careers.
Saint Leo University is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a master's degree in human services. Located in the town of Saint Leo, St. Leo University is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Master's graduates who receive their degree from the human services program make an average of $39,740 in the first couple years of their career.
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).