If you pursue a master's degree in human resource management, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #22 most popular program in the country. This means there are lots of options to choose from when you decide to get your degree.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 7 schools in Illinois 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 409 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. 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 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 complete 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.
The hr 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 Resource Management Master's Degree Schools in Illinois.
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Every student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in human resource management has to look into University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Located in the city of Champaign, UIUC is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Master's recipients from the human resource management degree program at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign get $16,389 more than the standard college graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Loyola University Chicago is a wonderful choice for individuals pursuing a master's degree in human resource management. Located in the large city of Chicago, Loyola Chicago is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Master's graduates who receive their degree from the hr program make about $65,656 for their early career.
It is difficult to beat Benedictine University if you want to pursue a master's degree in human resource management. Located in the large suburb of Lisle, Benedictine U is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population.
Master's recipients from the human resource management program at Benedictine University make $2,668 above the typical college graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
Roosevelt University is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a master's degree in human resource management. Located in the city of Chicago, Roosevelt is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population.
Students who graduate with their master's from the hr program state that they receive average early career wages of $64,145.
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. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
