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Major · Health Professions & Related Programs

Specialized health programs that don't fit neatly anywhere else

Health Professions and Related Clinical Sciences, Other (CIP 51.9999) is a catchall category for specialized undergraduate health programs that don't match any named clinical sub-discipline. About 5,030 degrees are awarded annually across 170 colleges, split between associate's and bachelor's tracks with meaningfully different earnings outcomes.

Schools offering
170
Annual completions
5,030
Typical degree level
Associate's + Bachelor's
Median earnings (5yr)
$65k

About this major

Health Professions and Related Clinical Sciences, Other sits at an unusual position in federal education data. The CIP code 51.9999 is explicitly defined as a catch-all: "any instructional program in the health professions and related clinical sciences not listed above." That means the programs here are not generalist — they are specialized health programs whose specific focus doesn't fit any of the named sub-disciplines in the 51.xx family. Community health education, integrative health science, health promotion, niche clinical sciences, and similar concentrations can all end up filed under this umbrella.

The variability matters to understand. Two students both holding degrees in "Health Professions and Related Clinical Sciences, Other" may have studied substantially different curricula, trained for different roles, and entered different job markets — depending entirely on which program their institution designed and how the institution reports it to IPEDS. What this means practically is that the institution and program name carry more signal than the CIP label. The 170 colleges offering this credential range from American Public University System (an online institution accounting for 928 completions, the largest single source) to Quinnipiac University, University of Cincinnati, Boise State University, and Tulane — a genuinely heterogeneous set.

About 5,030 degrees are awarded annually across these 170 colleges, split between associate's and bachelor's programs. The degree level distribution matters: only one of the top ten institutions — College of Southern Idaho — awards primarily associate's degrees (102), while the others are predominantly or exclusively bachelor's-granting in this category. Five-year median earnings land at $65,267 overall, with a notable split: associate's completers average $45,642 and bachelor's completers average $69,128. That $23,500 gap is larger than the gap in the broader general health sciences category and suggests the bachelor's track here opens genuinely more differentiated career outcomes.

Section 3 · Careers

Where this major leads

Occupations most often associated with this major, from the federal BLS+O*NET crosswalk. Job-growth projections and median wages are national.

No federal crosswalk data available for this major yet.

Section 4 · Earnings

Earnings at a glance

Median graduate earnings from the federal College Scorecard, 5 and 10 years out.

Median 5-year earnings

$65k

Associate's vs Bachelor's — early-career earnings

Associate's

$46k

Bachelor's

$69k

Who this major is for

You may thrive here if your target is a health concentration that genuinely doesn't have its own named CIP code — if the program you're interested in has a specific focus, a real curriculum, and a defined career destination, but it happens to sit in a niche that federal classification hasn't formalized. You may also fit well here if you're drawn to health education, health promotion, integrative health, or program-level clinical support roles where the bachelor's-level credential ($69,128 five-year median) gives you a meaningful floor. And if you're applying to a specific institution where this program has a strong track record — Quinnipiac, University of Cincinnati, Boise State, or Tulane among the bachelor's-level leaders — the reputation of the institution and its program design matters more than the umbrella CIP label.

Think twice if you're choosing this major based on the category name rather than a specific program at a specific school. Because 51.9999 is a catch-all, the label alone tells you almost nothing about what you'll study or where you'll land. Think twice also if you're considering this at the associate's level without a clear sense of what the program leads to — the $45,642 five-year median for associate's completers is modest for health credentials, and the absence of direct BLS occupational data means you can't easily benchmark it against named alternatives. In either case, asking the institution for graduate employment data and program-specific outcomes is more informative than anything the aggregate statistics can tell you.

Section 6 · Where to study

Top colleges for Health Professions and Related Clinical Sciences, Other

Ranked by annual completions at the associate's or bachelor's level — a proxy for program scale.

College Location Assoc. Bach. Total
American Public University System Charles Town, WV 654 274 928
Quinnipiac University Hamden, CT 0 283 283
University of Cincinnati-Main Campus Cincinnati, OH 0 204 204
Boise State University Boise, ID 0 201 201
Oakland University Rochester Hills, MI 0 179 179
Grand Valley State University Allendale, MI 0 169 169
Tulane University of Louisiana New Orleans, LA 0 150 150
Old Dominion University Norfolk, VA 0 117 117
College of Southern Idaho Twin Falls, ID 102 0 102
Clemson University Clemson, SC 0 98 98
Section 7 · Explore sideways

Related majors to explore

Health Services/Allied Health/Health Sciences, General

27,135 completions/yr

Communication Sciences and Disorders, General

4,781 completions/yr

Audiology/Audiologist and Speech-Language Pathology/Pathologist

4,422 completions/yr

Health and Wellness, General

4,268 completions/yr

Speech-Language Pathology/Pathologist

1,462 completions/yr

Audiology/Audiologist

172 completions/yr

Physiology, Pathology, and Related Sciences, Other

107 completions/yr

Communication Disorders Sciences and Services, Other

95 completions/yr
Section 9 · Frequently asked

Common questions

What exactly does 'Health Professions, Other' mean as a major?
The CIP 51.9999 code is a formal catch-all: it captures any health professions program that doesn't fit one of the named sub-disciplines in the 51.xx family. In practice, that means your specific program is likely a specialized concentration — community health education, integrative health, health promotion, health informatics, or a niche clinical science — whose curriculum is real and purposeful, but whose credential gets filed under this umbrella code in federal data. What you study depends almost entirely on which institution you attend and what they call their program internally.
How does this compare to Health Services/Allied Health, General (51.0000)?
They are opposite ends of the same spectrum. Health Services/Allied Health, General (51.0000) is an intentionally broad introductory program — 27,135 completions annually across 641 colleges — designed as a launchpad into specialization or a flexible entry-level credential. This major (51.9999) contains programs that are already specialized; they just happen to be specialized in ways that don't match any named sub-code. If 51.0000 is 'I'm exploring health,' 51.9999 is 'I'm doing something specific in health that the classification system doesn't have a box for.' The difference shows in earnings: five-year medians here ($65,267) are higher than the general program ($59,402), particularly at the bachelor's level.
Does the degree level matter — associate's or bachelor's?
More than in most health majors. Associate's completers in this category reach a five-year median of about $45,642, while bachelor's completers average approximately $69,128 — a gap of roughly $23,500. That is a much larger premium than you see in the general health sciences major ($7,600 gap), which suggests the programs classified here under the bachelor's track lead to more differentiated roles. If your target institution offers this credential only at the associate's level, it's worth asking directly what jobs that degree opens and what the regional demand looks like.
What kinds of jobs do graduates end up in?
Because this CIP code is a catch-all, no standard BLS occupational data maps cleanly to it. The most honest answer is that it depends on your specific program. Graduates of bachelor's programs here likely land in health education, program coordination, clinical support roles, or specialist technical positions. If the named programs in the 51.xx family give any signal, follow-on options include Communication Sciences and Disorders (4,781 annual completions), Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology (4,422), and Health and Wellness (4,268) — majors that have their own BLS-tracked career pipelines. Ask your specific program what its recent graduates are doing and where they were hired.
Which schools offer this major, and what does the distribution tell me?
American Public University System (Charles Town, WV) leads with 928 completions — mostly associate's (654) and bachelor's (274) — and is primarily an online institution, which accounts for the volume. Quinnipiac University (283 bachelor's completions), University of Cincinnati (204), Boise State (201), and Oakland University (179) round out the top five at the bachelor's level. The fact that a selective regional university like Tulane (150 completions) and Quinnipiac appear here suggests this code captures genuinely varied programs across institution types. The 170-college count means geographic availability is reasonable but not as broad as more established specialties.
Should I pick this major or go for a named health specialty directly?
If a named health major — nursing, dental hygiene, respiratory therapy, speech-language pathology — clearly matches your career goal and that program is available to you, go there directly. This category is most valuable when your target program genuinely sits in a specialized niche that doesn't have a dedicated CIP code, or when a specific institution offers a well-regarded concentration under this umbrella. The earnings data suggests bachelor's programs here can lead to solid outcomes ($69,128 at five years), but you should verify what your specific program leads to rather than relying on the aggregate.