2025 Best Human Development & Family Studies Master's Degree Schools in the Plains States Region

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.

College Factual reviewed 5 schools in the Plains States Region to determine which ones were the best for master's degree seekers in the field of human development & family studies. Combined, these schools handed out 186 master's degrees in human development & family studies to qualified students.

What's on this page: * Our Methodology

• Best Master’s Degree Schools List

Choosing a Great Human Development & Family Studies School for Your Master's Degree

Your choice of human development & family studies for getting your master's degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.

A Great Overall School

The overall quality of a master's degree school is important to ensure a quality education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To account for this we consider a college's overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking which itself looks at a collection of various factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.

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

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 complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges 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 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 Development & Family Studies in the Plains States Region

Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a master's degree in human development & family studies.

Top Plains States Region Schools for a Master's in Human Development

1

Kansas State University
Manhattan, KS

36 Annual Graduates

$51,067 Median Starting Salary

Every student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in human development & family studies needs to take a look at Kansas State University. Located in the small city of Manhattan, K -State is a public university with a large student population.

Human Development & Family Studies master's degree recipients from Kansas State University receive an earnings boost of about $4,551 above the typical earnings of human development & family studies majors.

More information about a master’s in human development & family studies from Kansas State University

2

University of Missouri - Columbia
Columbia, MO

17 Annual Graduates

$47,426 Median Starting Salary

University of Missouri - Columbia is a wonderful decision for individuals interested in a master's degree in human development & family studies. Located in the city of Columbia, Mizzou is a public university with a very large student population.

Master's students who receive their degree from the human development program make about $47,426 for their early career.

More information about a master’s in human development & family studies from University of Missouri - Columbia

3

University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Lincoln, NE

24 Annual Graduates

$49,451 Median Starting Salary

University of Nebraska - Lincoln is a good option for individuals interested in a master's degree in human development & family studies. Located in the city of Lincoln, UNL is a public university with a very large student population.

Master's recipients from the human development & family studies degree program at University of Nebraska - Lincoln make $2,935 above the average college graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.

More information about a master’s in human development & family studies from University of Nebraska - Lincoln

4

Missouri State University - Springfield
Springfield, MO

19 Annual Graduates

Missouri State University - Springfield is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a master's degree in human development & family studies. Missouri State is a fairly large public university located in the medium-sized city of Springfield.More information about a master’s in human development & family studies from Missouri State University - Springfield

5

Concordia University, Saint Paul
Saint Paul, MN

18 Annual Graduates

$45,027 Median Starting Salary

Located in the city of Saint Paul, Concordia University, Saint Paul is a private not-for-profit university with a moderately-sized student population.

Master's students who receive their degree from the human development program make an average of $45,027 in their early career salary.

More information about a master’s in human development & family studies from Concordia University, Saint Paul

Best Human Development & Family Studies Colleges by State

Explore the best human development & family studies schools for a specific state in the Plains States Region .

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Missouri	193	65
Minnesota	174	44
Iowa	154	8
Kansas	149	46
Nebraska	123	55
North Dakota	115	7
South Dakota	89	0

View All Rankings >

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.

Human Development Focus Areas

Major	Annual Graduates
General Human Development & Family Studies	112
Other Human Development, Family Studies, & Related Services	40
Child Development	19
Adult Development & Aging	12
Family & Community Services	3

Most Popular Related Majors

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Food, Nutrition & Related Services	82
General Family & Consumer Sciences	19
Textile & Apparel Studies	10
Family & Consumer Economics	4

Notes and References

• 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).
• Credit for the banner image above goes to Jsonin. More about our data sources and methodologies.