If you pursue a associate degree in human services, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #31 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.
College Factual reviewed 4 schools in the New England Region to determine which ones were the best for associate degree seekers in the field of human services. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 359 associate degrees in human services during the 2020-2021 academic year.
Choosing a Great Human Services School for Your Associate Degree
The human services associate degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality human services program can vary widely even among the top schools. 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 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.
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
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How much a school focuses on human services students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - How many other human services 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 easy is it for human services 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 services related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for human services students working on their associate degree.
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Human Services Associate Degree Schools in the New England Region ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
Best Schools for Associate Students to Study Human Services in the New England Region
Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing an associate degree in human services.
Top New England Region Schools for an Associate in Human Services
It's hard to beat Quinsigamond Community College if you wish to pursue an associate degree in human services. Located in the midsize city of Worcester, Quinsigamond Community College is a public college with a medium-sized student population.
Human Services associate degree recipients from Quinsigamond Community College earn a boost of around $2,420 over the typical earnings of human services graduates.
York County Community College is one of the best schools in the country for getting an associate degree in human services. Located in the rural area of Wells, York County Community College is a public college with a small student population.
Those human services students who get their associate degree from York County Community College make $3,527 more than the average human services graduate.
It's hard to beat Mount Wachusett Community College if you wish to pursue an associate degree in human services. MWCC is a small public college located in the rural area of Gardner.
Associate recipients from the human services degree program at Mount Wachusett Community College earn $2,489 more than the standard graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
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).