If you pursue a associate degree in human development & family studies, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #17 most popular program 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 7 schools in California to determine which ones were the best for human development & family studies students pursuing a associate degree. Combined, these schools handed out 4,112 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. 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 take this into account we include 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 Early-Career Salaries
To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their associate degree from the school. After all, your associate 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
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
Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Human Development & Family Studies Associate Degree Schools in California list, to help you choose the best school for you.
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Every student pursuing a degree in an associate degree in human development & family studies has to look into Modesto Junior College. Located in the midsize city of Modesto, MJC is a public college with a large student population.
After graduating, human development associate recipients usually earn an average of $21,794 in their early careers.
It is hard to beat Fresno City College if you wish 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 earn a boost of approximately $9,646 above the average earnings of human development & family studies majors.
West Hills College-Lemoore is a small public college located in the rural area of Lemoore.
Those human development & family studies students who get their associate degree from West Hills College-Lemoore receive $2,987 more than the standard human development graduate.
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. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
