Best degree programs for Project Management Specialists, ranked by enrollment
6 college programs and 2,528 schools train Project Management Specialists. Compare graduates per year, cost and pay, $102,320 median wage, 1,066,670 U.S. jobs. Federal data.
6 college programs at 2,528 schools train project management specialists, graduating 420,124 people a year (IPEDS completions). The largest is Business Administration and Management, General. The job pays a median of $102,320 (BLS OEWS May 2025).
About project management specialists
Analyze and coordinate the schedule, timeline, procurement, staffing, and budget of a product or service on a per project basis. Lead and guide the work of technical staff. May serve as a point of contact for the client or customer.
Fields of study that lead to this job
Grouped at the 4-digit CIP level, the tier our program pages are built on. Numbers are graduates per year.
6 degree programs that lead to this job
Ranked by graduates per year (IPEDS completions). Graduate earnings and debt are College Scorecard figures for people who finished the program, reported at the 4-digit CIP level, so specializations within one field share a figure. That is a different measurement from the occupation-wide wages further down this page.
| # | Program | Graduates / yr | Share of pipeline | Schools | Grad earnings (1 yr) | Median debt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CIP 52.0201 | 348,906 | 83.0% | 2,305 | $43,506 | $25,000 |
| 2 | CIP 52.0101 | 60,975 | 14.5% | 806 | $44,700 | $24,000 |
| 3 | CIP 52.0211 | 6,015 | 1.4% | 190 | $43,506 | $25,000 |
| 4 | CIP 11.1005 | 3,763 | 0.9% | 80 | $48,185 | $25,250 |
| 5 | CIP 52.0216 | 399 | 0.1% | 29 | $43,506 | $25,000 |
| 6 | CIP 52.2002 | 66 | 0.0% | 4 | $72,249 | $24,326 |
Top 50 schools by graduates into this job
Counting every feeder program a school offers, not just its largest one.
What project management specialists earn
What people already working in this job earn (BLS OEWS May 2025). Not graduate earnings.
Top-paying states
Top-paying metro areas
Job outlook
Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections, 2024 to 2034.
Where the jobs are, state by state
Pick a state for in-state pay, the schools there, and the programs they run.
| State | Median pay | Jobs | Concentration | Schools | Graduates / yr |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| California | $120,910 | 114,380 | 0.92× | 223 | 59,874 |
| Texas | $98,440 | 138,960 | 1.44× | 144 | 29,593 |
| Arizona | $99,050 | 22,920 | 1.03× | 39 | 25,705 |
| Florida | $98,070 | 76,370 | 1.12× | 98 | 20,910 |
| New York | $121,040 | 68,020 | 1.02× | 140 | 17,167 |
| Indiana | $95,020 | 11,970 | 0.54× | 48 | 17,133 |
| North Carolina | $100,820 | 36,200 | 1.07× | 113 | 13,906 |
| New Hampshire | $90,890 | 3,840 | 0.82× | 19 | 12,824 |
| Virginia | $120,840 | 43,860 | 1.56× | 65 | 12,678 |
| Colorado | $110,050 | 32,390 | 1.64× | 33 | 12,408 |
| Massachusetts | $114,190 | 21,960 | 0.88× | 63 | 12,248 |
| Utah | $96,720 | 16,450 | 1.38× | 13 | 11,131 |
| Pennsylvania | $100,150 | 36,150 | 0.87× | 126 | 10,842 |
| Georgia | $102,140 | 28,900 | 0.86× | 84 | 10,378 |
| Illinois | $103,470 | 27,180 | 0.65× | 89 | 10,307 |
| Ohio | $95,770 | 34,260 | 0.90× | 101 | 8,735 |
| Kentucky | $81,700 | 10,250 | 0.75× | 47 | 8,358 |
| Maryland | $104,040 | 30,530 | 1.61× | 42 | 7,860 |
| Michigan | $100,970 | 25,330 | 0.84× | 72 | 7,723 |
| New Jersey | $122,980 | 28,300 | 0.96× | 50 | 7,705 |
| Alabama | $100,820 | 3,190 | 0.22× | 45 | 7,229 |
| Missouri | $94,660 | 21,460 | 1.07× | 59 | 6,822 |
| Minnesota | $97,860 | 18,850 | 0.93× | 59 | 6,544 |
| Louisiana | $84,850 | 8,050 | 0.61× | 35 | 6,338 |
| Idaho | $95,630 | 5,750 | 0.98× | 11 | 6,122 |
| West Virginia | $91,780 | 2,520 | 0.52× | 32 | 5,914 |
| South Carolina | $95,040 | 17,040 | 1.08× | 51 | 5,502 |
| Tennessee | $85,890 | 20,780 | 0.92× | 52 | 5,435 |
| Washington | $124,160 | 36,240 | 1.49× | 54 | 5,252 |
| Wisconsin | $97,580 | 21,610 | 1.07× | 52 | 4,618 |
| Oklahoma | $86,240 | 11,220 | 0.96× | 39 | 3,990 |
| Connecticut | $105,240 | 8,410 | 0.72× | 20 | 3,949 |
| Nebraska | $80,150 | 3,190 | 0.45× | 25 | 3,638 |
| Mississippi | $78,870 | 4,320 | 0.54× | 28 | 3,344 |
| District of Columbia | $104,900 | 5,170 | 1.07× | 10 | 3,326 |
| Iowa | $96,540 | 6,720 | 0.63× | 43 | 2,902 |
| Arkansas | $77,170 | 5,510 | 0.62× | 44 | 2,846 |
| Oregon | $105,480 | 19,380 | 1.44× | 30 | 2,635 |
| Kansas | $100,010 | 6,030 | 0.61× | 38 | 2,558 |
| New Mexico | $106,970 | 4,330 | 0.72× | 25 | 2,083 |
| Nevada | $99,940 | 8,290 | 0.78× | 9 | 1,637 |
| Maine | $101,830 | 2,620 | 0.60× | 16 | 1,535 |
| Rhode Island | $104,680 | 3,880 | 1.13× | 11 | 1,097 |
| Delaware | $122,190 | 1,770 | 0.53× | 6 | 972 |
| Montana | $87,890 | 2,940 | 0.84× | 18 | 948 |
| South Dakota | $82,250 | 1,310 | 0.42× | 16 | 920 |
| North Dakota | $96,160 | 2,020 | 0.69× | 16 | 804 |
| Hawaii | $78,000 | 1,560 | 0.36× | 8 | 762 |
| Vermont | $80,800 | 1,190 | 0.57× | 7 | 693 |
| Wyoming | $94,080 | 1,180 | 0.61× | 9 | 424 |
| Alaska | $99,580 | 1,950 | 0.87× | 6 | 368 |
Skills and tools
From O*NET, the U.S. Department of Labor's occupational database. Importance is a 1 to 5 scale.
What they do day to day
- Assign duties or responsibilities to project personnel.
- Communicate with key stakeholders to determine project requirements and objectives.
- Confer with project personnel to identify and resolve problems.
- Create project status presentations for delivery to customers or project personnel.
- Develop or update project plans including information such as objectives, technologies, schedules, funding, and staffing.
- Identify project needs such as resources, staff, or finances by reviewing project objectives and schedules.
- Identify, review, or select vendors or consultants to meet project needs.
- Monitor costs incurred by project staff to identify budget issues.
Tools and technology
hotmarks an O*NET hot technologyHow to get in
How to become a Project Management Specialist
Job zone 4 of 5 · SVP 7.0 to < 8.0- Typical entry education
- Bachelor's degree
Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.
A considerable amount of work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is needed for these occupations. For example, an accountant must complete four years of college and work for several years in accounting to be considered qualified.
Employees in these occupations usually need several years of work-related experience, on-the-job training, and/or vocational training.
Every major mapped to this job
The official federal mapping behind the rankings above.
All 6 majors mapped to Project Management Specialists6 of them graduated someone in the latest IPEDS year. NCES CIP 2020 → SOC 2018 crosswalk.+
- 11.1005Information Technology Project Management
- 52.0101Business/Commerce, General
- 52.0201Business Administration and Management, General
- 52.0211Project Management
- 52.0216Science/Technology Management
- 52.2002Construction Project Management
Related careers
Jobs O*NET identifies as close to this one, with their own pay and outlook.
Common questions
What degree do you need to become a Project Management Specialist?+
Bachelor's degree is the typical entry-level education BLS reports for this occupation. The most common program people actually graduate from is Business Administration and Management, General, which awarded 348,906 degrees in 2024-25, 83.0% of everyone graduating from a program that feeds this career.
Which college majors lead to becoming a Project Management Specialist?+
The NCES CIP-to-SOC crosswalk maps 6 programs to this occupation. The largest are Business Administration, Business/Commerce, Computer/Information Technology Administration and Management, Construction Management. Together they graduate about 420,124 people a year.
How much do project management specialists earn?+
The median is $102,320 a year (BLS OEWS May 2025). The middle range runs from $61,580 at the 10th percentile to $167,970 at the 90th. This is pay for people already working in the occupation, not the same thing as graduate earnings one year after finishing a degree.
Is demand for project management specialists growing?+
BLS projects a +5.6% change in employment between 2024 and 2034, faster than average, with roughly 78,200 openings a year nationally once retirements and job changes are counted.
How many schools offer programs for this career?+
2,528 institutions reported graduates from at least one of the 6 programs that feed this occupation in IPEDS 2024-25. Rankings on this page use graduates per year, because the federal data publishes no enrollment count by program.
Do you need training or experience beyond a degree?+
BLS lists 'None' for related work experience and 'None' for on-the-job training typically needed to reach competency.
About the data on this page
Rankings use IPEDS completions 2024-25, degrees awarded per year. That is the closest federal measure of how many people a program puts into a career, because no federal dataset publishes enrollment by program. Wages and employment come from BLS OEWS May 2025, growth and openings from BLS Employment Projections 2024-34, and which majors lead to which jobs from the NCES CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk. Occupation descriptions, tasks, skills and tools are O*NET 30.3 (CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor/ETA).
BLS Occupational Employment & Wage Statistics
May 2025Wages, employment counts, location quotients and metro breakdowns.
BLS Employment Projections
2024–34Projected growth, annual openings and typical entry-level education.
IPEDS Completions
2024-25 (provisional)Graduates per year by program and institution — the ranking metric.
College Scorecard, Field of Study
2020-21 cohortsMedian graduate earnings one year after completion, and median debt.
Census Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes
latest availableGraduate earnings 1/5/10 years out, where the state participates.
NCES CIP 2020 and the CIP-to-SOC 2018 crosswalk
CIP 2020 / SOC 2018Which college programs officially lead to this occupation.
O*NET Database 30.3
30.3Tasks, skills, knowledge, tools, job zone and alternate job titles.
Official source →CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor / ETA
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