2025 Best Human Development & Family Studies Bachelor's Degree Schools in Pennsylvania

Human Development & Family Studies is above average in terms of popularity with it being the #39 most popular bachelor's degree program in the country. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.

College Factual looked at 3 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Human Development & Family Studies Bachelor's Degree Schools in Pennsylvania ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 330 bachelor's degrees in human development & family studies to qualified students.

What's on this page: * Our Methodology

• Best Bachelor’s Degree Schools List

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

The human development bachelor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. 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

The overall quality of a bachelor'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 school's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a host of various factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.

Average Early-Career Salaries

Average early-career salary of those graduating with their bachelor's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your bachelor's 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 bachelor'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 easy is it for human development & family studies to pay back their student loans after receiving their bachelor's degree.
• Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized human development & family studies related body.

Our full 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 bachelor's 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 Bachelor's Degree Schools in Pennsylvania list, to help you choose the best school for you.

To further help you make the college decision, we've developed a unique tool called College Combat that allows you to compare schools based on the factors that matter the most to you. Go ahead and give it a try, or bookmark the link so you can check it out later.

Best Schools for Bachelor’s Students to Study Human Development & Family Studies in Pennsylvania

The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a bachelor's degree in human development & family studies.

Top Pennsylvania Schools for a Bachelor's in Human Development

1

Messiah University
Mechanicsburg, PA

21 Annual Graduates

$32,943 Median Starting Salary

Any student who is interested in a bachelor's degree in human development & family studies needs to look into Messiah University. Located in the suburb of Mechanicsburg, Messiah is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population.

Students who graduate with their bachelor's from the human development program report average early career income of $32,943.

More information about a bachelor’s in human development & family studies from Messiah University

2

Temple University
Philadelphia, PA

19 Annual Graduates

$31,452 Median Starting Salary

$21,150 Median Student Debt

It is hard to beat Temple University if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in human development & family studies. Temple is a very large public university located in the city of Philadelphia.

Bachelor's students who receive their degree from the human development program earn about $31,452 in their early career salary.

More information about a bachelor’s in human development & family studies from Temple University

3

Indiana University of Pennsylvania - Main Campus
Indiana, PA

16 Annual Graduates

$30,675 Median Starting Salary

$36,336 Median Student Debt

It is difficult to beat Indiana University of Pennsylvania - Main Campus if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in human development & family studies. IUP is a moderately-sized public university located in the distant town of Indiana.

Bachelor's graduates who receive their degree from the human development program earn an average of $30,675 in the first couple years of working.

More information about a bachelor’s in human development & family studies from Indiana University of Pennsylvania - Main Campus

Best Human Development & Family Studies Colleges in the Middle Atlantic Region

Explore all the Best Human Development & Family Studies Colleges in the Middle Atlantic Area or other specific states within that region.

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
New York	275	560
Maryland	207	224
New Jersey	193	285
District of Columbia	126	28

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	237
Early Childhood and Family Studies	39
Family & Community Services	26
Child Development	16
Child Care & Support Services Management	6
Other Human Development, Family Studies, & Related Services	4
Adult Development & Aging	2

Most Popular Majors Related to Human Development

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Food, Nutrition & Related Services	25
General Family & Consumer Sciences	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.