Bachelor of Science (BS): Human Services Degree Overview
Majors Overview November 26, 2012People working in public works, social services or human services, normally focus on others who need help. Such others include the homeless, substance abusers, families earning low wages, and mentally challenged people. Students who earn a Bachelor of Science degree in Human Services become adept at interacting with clients and running different kinds of human services programs. In this article, we will look at various aspects of the human services degree program.
Core Coursework
Coursework in human services degree programs aims at teaching students about the real world applications and how to run them. Before they grasp human services programs, students are taught about different people and communities in need of assistance, such as low-income families, seniors, children, and the physically and mentally disabled. Thereafter, students are allowed to attend classes relating to potential human services programs, these relate to community outreach, health services, child development, emergency medical care, and criminal justice.
Once they have learned about various populations and programs, future human services degree holders are taught how to handle individual clients. In order to teach students ways to communicate with clients, human services degree programs have a number of courses in related areas such as counseling, intervention strategies interpersonal relationships and behavioral psychology. There are other classes on core coursework including legal issues relating to human services, program funding, public service management, statistics, research methodologies, and other fundamentals of administering human services programs.
Majors
Human services degree holders accommodate several career options and most colleges that run the programs, allow students to choose majors according to their career path of choice. For instance, a student who is keen on rendering assistance to mentally challenged people may opt for an elective course that focus on mental health institutions, psychological disorders, child psychology or social psychology. As an alternative, students aspiring to involve themselves in social reform programs may opt for courses related to non-profit organizations and social services.
Internship and Externship Programs
Students of human services are required to attend externship and internship programs devised to give them real-world experience. Normally, such programs run for one or two semesters; however, students are given the option to participate in more internship programs, if they desired. Participating in these programs teaches students how human service professionals can enter into partnerships with other industries. They learn the process of evaluating individual cases and ways to work with diverse populations that need assistance.
Human Services Statistics
Top Schools For Human Services Programs
School Name | Tuition | Size | Degrees Granted | Degrees Granted By Type |
University of Phoenix – Online Phoenix, AZ |
$10,025 | 249,490 | 3,031 | Associate (1,871), Bachelor’s (1,160) |
Liberty University Lynchburg, VA |
$19,154 | 46,923 | 664 | Master’s (664) |
Capella University Minneapolis, MN |
$11,700 | 5,298 | 647 | Master’s (575), Doctoral (72) |
Phoenix – Southern California Costa Mesa, CA |
$12,792 | 7,593 | 320 | Bachelor’s (320) |
Kaplan University – Davenport Davenport, IA |
$15,627 | 54,043 | 305 | Associate (187), Bachelor’s (118) |
Cal State Fullerton Fullerton, CA |
$17,280 | 30,737 | 237 | Bachelor’s (237) |
Columbia College – Missouri Columbia, MO |
$7,016 | 14,545 | 175 | Associate (90), Bachelor’s (85) |
Lincoln University of Pennsylvania Lincoln University, PA |
$14,028 | 2,035 | 170 | Bachelor’s (20), Master’s (150) |
Upper Iowa University Fayette, IA |
$23,356 | 6,158 | 157 | Certificate (0), Associate (4), Bachelor’s (153), Master’s (0) |
CUNY New York City Tech Brooklyn, NY |
$11,379 | 15,383 | 137 | Associate (63), Bachelor’s (74) |