Human Development & Family Studies is of the hottest associate degree programs in the United States, coming in as the #17 most popular major in the country. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 56 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Human Development & Family Studies Associate Degree Schools ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 8,216 associate degrees in human development & family studies to qualified students.
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Choosing a Great Human Development & Family Studies School for Your Associate Degree
Your choice of human development & family studies for getting your associate 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. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
Quality Overall Is Important
A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To account for this we consider a college's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a combination of different factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
Average Earnings
One measure we use to determine the quality of a school is to look at the average salary of associate graduates during the early years of their career. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their associate degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.
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 associate 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 easy is it for human development & family studies to pay back their student loans after receiving their associate degree.
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 schools for human development & family studies students working on their associate degree.
More Ways to Rank Human Development & Family Studies Schools
The human development 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 Development & Family Studies Associate Degree Schools.
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Best Schools for Associate Students to Study Human Development & Family Studies in the United States
Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing an associate degree in human development & family studies. Only those schools that rank in the top 20% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
11 Top Schools for an Associate in Human Development
Every student pursuing a degree in an associate degree in human development & family studies has to look into Modesto Junior College. Located in the city of Modesto, MJC is a public college with a large student population.
Students who graduate with their associate from the human development program state that they receive average early career earnings of $21,794.
Every student pursuing a degree in an associate degree in human development & family studies needs to check out North Shore Community College. Located in the large suburb of Danvers, North Shore Community College is a public college with a small student population.
Associate recipients from the human development & family studies program at North Shore Community College make $8,998 more than the average college grad with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
It is hard to beat American Public University System if you want to pursue an associate degree in human development & family studies. American Military University is a very large private for-profit university located in the fringe town of Charles Town.
Students who graduate with their associate from the human development program report average early career wages of $16,558.
It's hard to beat Fresno City College if you want to pursue an associate degree in human development & family studies. Located in the city of Fresno, Fresno City College is a public college with a fairly large student population.
Human Development & Family Studies associate degree recipients from Fresno City College receive an earnings boost of about $4,539 above the average earnings of human development & family studies graduates.
Located in the large city of Tulsa, Tulsa Community College is a public college with a fairly large student population.
Those human development & family studies students who get their associate degree from Tulsa Community College make $7,123 more than the standard human development grad.
FSCJ is a very large public college located in the city of Jacksonville.
Those human development & family studies students who get their associate degree from Florida State College at Jacksonville receive $5,315 more than the standard human development graduate.
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Honorable Mentions
Here are some additional great schools for Human Development & Family Studies students that almost earned our Best Human Development & Family Studies Associate Degree Schools award.
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).
Your choice of human development & family studies for getting your associate 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. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
