Human Services at Drury University

Drury's Human Services graduates start at $30,564—roughly $6,000 below the national median and $3,000 below Missouri's typical outcome for this degree. That 5th percentile national ranking signals a serious earnings problem, though within Missouri specifically, the program sits closer to the middle of the pack at the 40th percentile, suggesting this is partly a regional wage issue rather than purely a Drury problem. Graduates carry $33,492 in debt, creating a debt-to-earnings ratio of 1.10 that pushes the practical limits of affordability.

The 22% earnings growth to $37,173 by year four offers some relief, but even these mid-career numbers lag behind what many peers earn immediately after graduation. For context, Human Services graduates from Columbia College in the same state start nearly $7,000 higher. The moderate sample size gives reasonable confidence in these figures, but they don't paint an encouraging picture.

If your child is committed to human services work in Missouri, this degree will likely require careful debt management and realistic expectations about early-career salaries. The combination of below-average starting pay and full-freight debt means graduates will need to budget tightly during those first critical years. You'd want to see this debt load closer to $25,000 given these earnings, or consider whether similar programs at Missouri's public universities might offer better value.