Ranked #17 in popularity, human development & family studies is one of the most sought-after associate degree programs in the nation. This means there are lots of options to choose from when you decide to get your degree.
College Factual looked at 4 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Human Development & Family Studies Associate Degree Schools in the New England Region ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 325 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
The human development associate degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality human development 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
The overall quality of a associate degree school is important to ensure a good education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges 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
Average early-career salary of those graduating with their associate degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. That is, everyone wants their associate 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 development & family studies students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - How many other human development & family studies students want to attend this school to pursue a associate 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 development & family studies students go into to obtain their associate 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 associate 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 Development & Family Studies Associate Degree Schools in the New England Region list, to help you choose the best school for you.
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North Shore Community College is a great option for students pursuing an associate degree in human development & family studies. North Shore Community College is a small public college located in the suburb of Danvers.
Associate recipients from the human development & family studies major at North Shore Community College get $4,711 above the average graduate in this field shortly after graduation.
Every student pursuing a degree in an associate degree in human development & family studies has to take a look at Post University. Post University is a fairly large private for-profit university located in the midsize city of Waterbury.
After graduating, human development associate recipients generally make about $28,745 in the first five years of their career.
Mount Wachusett Community College is a great choice for students interested in an associate degree in human development & family studies. Located in the midsize suburb of Gardner, MWCC is a public college with a small student population.
Associate graduates who receive their degree from the human development program earn an average of $27,078 in the first couple years of working.
One of 8 majors within the Family, Consumer & Human Sciences area of study, Human Development & Family Studies has other similar majors worth exploring.
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 human development associate degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality human development program can vary widely even among the top schools. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
