Waldorf University Human Resources (Bachelor's): Tuition, Graduate Salary, and Debt
- Bachelor's in Human Resources Management and Services
- Private nonprofit university
- Forest City, IA
- About 50 graduates a year
College Scorecard June 2026 release · BLS wages May 2025
The short answer
Waldorf University human resources graduates earn more than graduates of most human resources programs nationally, $77,897 in their first year. Debt is high. The typical graduate leaves with $32,111 in federal loans, more than at 77% of human resources programs in the country. It is one of the higher-paying human resources degrees in Iowa.
How it compares
Each figure is the median for graduates of the program. The Iowa and national columns are the medians across all human resources bachelor's programs that report the figure.
Five years out, Waldorf University graduates earn more than the national figure and about $9,300 more than the Iowa median.
Debt and first-year pay at every Iowa human resources program
Programs in the upper left give graduates higher pay for less debt. Dashed lines mark the Iowa medians.
Hover over or tap a dot to see the school. Only programs that report both earnings and debt are shown.
What graduates earn over time
Pay falls about 3% between the first and fifth year.
Year 1 and year 5 figures come from different graduating classes, so the growth rate is an estimate.
Paying back the loans
On a standard 10-year plan, the median debt means a payment of about $340 a month, or 5.2% of a graduate's typical monthly pay in the first year.
The government publishes these as ranges to protect privacy. They were measured in 2018 to 2020, partly during the pandemic pause on federal loan payments, so the forbearance share may be higher than usual.
Where graduates work, and what the pay is worth
Prices in the parts of Iowa outside metro areas are about 16% below the national average, so a $77,897 salary here buys what about $92,650 buys in a typical US city.
Careers this field leads to
These are the jobs that the federal crosswalk from fields of study to occupations links to human resources, largest first. Pay is the median across all experience levels.
Human Resources Specialists
$66,710Median pay in Iowa. 7,930 people work in this job in Iowa. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 6% from 2025 to 2035, with about 73,700 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree.
Training and Development Specialists
$66,110Median pay in Iowa. 4,670 people work in this job in Iowa. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 11% from 2025 to 2035, with about 46,000 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree, plus less than 5 years of related work experience.
Compliance Officers
$75,620Median pay in Iowa. 3,660 people work in this job in Iowa. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 4% from 2025 to 2035, with about 32,700 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree.
Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors
$56,540Median pay in Iowa. 3,690 people work in this job in Iowa. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 3% from 2025 to 2035, with about 27,800 openings a year. Typical education to start: master's degree.
About Waldorf University
Human Resources ranks 2nd of 8 bachelor's programs at Waldorf University by first-year earnings. The top three are Fire Science ($97,731), Human Resources ($77,897), and Homeland Security ($66,446).
Common questions
The median graduate earns $77,897 one year after graduating and $75,847 five years after. The median across human resources bachelor's programs in Iowa is $49,512.
The median federal loan balance is $32,111, which ranks 5th lowest of 6 human resources bachelor's programs in Iowa. That works out to about $340 a month over 10 years.
On the numbers, yes for most students. Debt equals 41% of first-year earnings, against a national median of 53%.
About this data
- Earnings and debt only include students who received federal financial aid (grants or loans).
- Earnings only count graduates who were working and not enrolled in more school. Graduates who went straight to further study are not included.
- Debt only includes federal loans. Private loans and credit cards are not counted.
- Some schools with several campuses report one combined figure for all of them. We count each of those schools once, and leave them out of Iowa comparisons when their main campus is in another state.
- Scorecard figures describe graduating classes from several years ago. BLS wages are from May 2025.
- School-level numbers like tuition, admission rate, and graduation rate are for the whole school, not the human resources program.
Sources
- U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard, field of study and institution files, June 2026 release
- Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025
- Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections 2025 to 2035
- Bureau of Economic Analysis, Regional Price Parities, 2024
- NCES, CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk, and IPEDS institution directory, 2024