What Human Development, Family Studies, and Related Services Graduates Earn

Median earnings at 1, 4, and 5 years (College Scorecard)

Start with the shape of the table: Human Development, Family Studies, and Related Services pays $38,150 at the first measured horizon and $49,623 at the last, and those two medians rest on 15,580 and 21,595 graduates counted respectively. The headline figures weight each reporting program by its graduates counted, so the 400-graduate program moves the national number more than the 12-graduate one; the unweighted column beside it shows the middle program, plain and simple.

From $38,150 in the first year to $49,623 in the fifth, earnings grow 30% ($11,473). For scale, the median bachelor's field in the Scorecard file grows from $45,010 to $65,763 over the same span, so this field's early-career slope is gentler than typical.

One more cut of the year-one data: Pell recipients in Human Development, Family Studies, and Related Services post a median of $37,574, non-recipients $41,138. That $3,564 gap is the distance between two different student populations studying under one field name, and it narrows or widens by institution, which the program table below hints at.

Inside its own CIP family, Human Development, Family Studies, and Related Services ranks 5 of 5 published bachelor's fields by five-year earnings; the family median at that horizon is $53,457. Its closest sibling is Foods, Nutrition, and Related Services at $50,840, above this field's $49,623. Family comparisons strip out the broad field effect and leave the specific program choice exposed.

Ranked across all 182 published fields, Human Development, Family Studies, and Related Services stands number 164 by five-year earnings and number 150 by first-year earnings, and number 125 from the lowest median debt. Those three ranks together are the field's fingerprint: high earn rank with a low debt rank is the combination students are actually shopping for, and this field's spread between them is 39 places.

The debt side of the same degree

The median graduate in this field leaves school owing $22,000 in federal loans, the graduate-weighted median across the 160 programs reporting debt. That is 58% of the first-year median earnings, or about 6.9 months of gross pay at $38,150 a year. On the standard 10-year plan at the 2026-27 undergraduate rate of 6.52%, the payment is $250 a month and interest adds $8,004 over the life of the loan. Price your own borrowing with the student loan payoff calculator, and test the whole degree in the college ROI calculator or the college major ROI calculator.

Where graduates of this field earn the most

One field, many markets: the five-year median for Human Development, Family Studies, and Related Services is $49,623 nationally, yet the strongest programs below run far ahead of it. The ranking keeps a 30-graduate floor under every entry, and Cornell University heads the list at $80,718.

A program median describes that program's own graduates in that program's own labor market; Cornell University at $80,718 is evidence about a place and a mix of students, not a wage offer. Put the same programs' prices next to these figures with the degree cost calculator and the net price estimator before ranking anything.

Two more facts about the shape of this field: the five highest-paying programs in the table account for only 2.0% of the 21,595 graduates counted at five years, so the top of the table is a thin slice and not the field's center; and the leading program's five-year median of $80,718 sits 63% above the national field median of $49,623. Its median debt, $10,291, runs below the field median of $22,000, which is the trade a student at the top of this table is actually being offered.