Human Resource Management is of the hottest master's degree programs in the United States, coming in as the #22 most popular major in the country. So, there are lots of possibilities to explore when you're trying to determine where you want to get your degree.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 26 schools in the Southeast Region to determine which ones were the best for human resource management students pursuing a master's degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 1,283 master's degrees in human resource management during the 2022-2023 academic year.
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Choosing a Great Human Resource Management School for Your Master's Degree
The hr master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality hr 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 many resources a school devotes to human resource management students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - How many other human resource management 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 resource management 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 resource management related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for human resource management students working on their master's degree.
Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Human Resource Management Master's Degree Schools in the Southeast Region list, to help you choose the best school for you.
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It is difficult to beat University of South Carolina - Columbia if you wish to pursue a master's degree in human resource management. UofSC is a fairly large public university located in the medium-sized city of Columbia.
Human Resource Management master's degree recipients from University of South Carolina - Columbia receive an earnings boost of around $42,495 above the typical income of human resource management graduates.
It's hard to beat University of Richmond if you want to pursue a master's degree in human resource management. URichmond is a small private not-for-profit university located in the midsize city of University of Richmond.
Those human resource management students who get their master's degree from University of Richmond receive $18,301 more than the standard hr student.
Nova Southeastern University is a good choice for students pursuing a master's degree in human resource management. NUS Florida is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the suburb of Fort Lauderdale.
Master's students who receive their degree from the hr program make about $59,280 in the first couple years of working.
Every student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in human resource management needs to check out Florida International University. FIU is a fairly large public university located in the suburb of Miami.
Master's graduates who receive their degree from the hr program earn an average of $60,869 in their early career salary.
GMU is a very large public university located in the large suburb of Fairfax.
Human Resource Management master's degree recipients from George Mason University earn a boost of approximately $19,053 above the average income of human resource management majors.
Located in the city of Knoxville, UT Knoxville is a public university with a very large student population.
Master's recipients from the human resource management degree program at The University of Tennessee - Knoxville get $2,441 more than the typical college graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
Located in the midsize city of Baton Rouge, Louisiana State University is a public university with a very large student population.
Human Resource Management master's degree recipients from Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College get an earnings boost of approximately $5,204 above the average income of human resource management graduates.
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).
The hr master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality hr program can vary widely even among the top schools. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
