a master's degree in human services is more popular than many other degrees. In fact, it ranks #104 out of 343 on popularity of all such degrees in the nation. As a result, there are many college that offer the degree, making your choice of school a hard one.
In 2024, College Factual analyzed 4 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Human Services Master's Degree Schools in the Plains States Region ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 365 master's degrees in human services during the 2020-2021 academic year.
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. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
A Great Overall School
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.
Early-Career Earnings
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
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 full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for human services students working on their master's degree.
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Human Services Master's Degree Schools in the Plains States Region ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Human Services in the Plains States Region
Explore the top ranked colleges and universities for human services students seeking a a master's degree.
Top Plains States Region Schools for a Master's in Human Services
Any student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in human services needs to take a look at University of South Dakota. Located in the distant town of Vermillion, USD is a public university with a moderately-sized student population.
Master's recipients from the human services major at University of South Dakota get $21,704 above the typical graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
Every student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in human services needs to check out Walden University. Located in the city of Minneapolis, Walden University is a private for-profit university with a very large student population.
Soon after graduation, human services master's recipients generally earn about $41,218 in their early careers.
Concordia University, Saint Paul is a great decision for individuals pursuing a master's degree in human services. Concordia University, Saint Paul is a medium-sized private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Saint Paul.
Human Services master's degree recipients from Concordia University, Saint Paul earn a boost of about $9,366 over the typical earnings of human services graduates.
Any student who is interested in a master's degree in human services needs to check out Capella University. Located in the large city of Minneapolis, Capella University is a private for-profit university with a very large student population.
Soon after graduating, human services master's recipients usually make an average of $39,279 at the beginning of their careers.
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).
college factual
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. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
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