Human Resources Management and Services at Dickinson State University

A debt-to-earnings ratio of 0.47 for an undergraduate certificate is manageable, but the picture here is murkier than usual. Neither Dickinson State nor the other North Dakota school offering this credential has enough graduates to generate reliable program-specific data, so what we're seeing—$46,304 in first-year earnings and $21,532 in debt—comes from national patterns at similar institutions.

That national debt figure actually runs higher than typical for this credential (the median across programs is about $18,000), which means Dickinson State's certificate could cost more or less depending on how many credits you need and whether you're borrowing. The earnings estimate sits right at the national median, suggesting HR certificates generally produce similar outcomes regardless of where you earn them. That's both reassuring and limiting—there's likely a fairly consistent baseline, but you're not getting location-specific insight into what North Dakota employers pay certificate holders versus what they might offer elsewhere.

For a parent, the question becomes whether a certificate alone positions your student competitively in HR roles, or whether they'll need to continue toward a bachelor's degree. If this is a stepping stone, that changes the debt calculus entirely. Without program-specific outcomes from Dickinson State itself, you're making this decision based on what's typical nationally, not what this school actually delivers.