2025 Best Child Development & Psychology Doctor's Degree Schools

If you plan on getting your doctor's degree in child development & psychology, you won't be alone since the degree program is ranked #38 in the country in terms of popularity. This means you won't have too much trouble finding schools that offer the degree.

In 2025, College Factual analyzed 32 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Child Development & Psychology Doctor's Degree Schools ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 937 doctor's degrees in child development & psychology during the <nil> academic year.

What's on this page: * Our Methodology

• Best Doctor’s Degree Schools List

Choosing a Great Child Development & Psychology School for Your Doctor's Degree

The child development doctor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:

Quality Overall Is Important

A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To account for this we include a college's overall Best Colleges for a Doctor's Degree ranking which itself looks at a collection of different factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.

Average Earnings

To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their doctor's degree from the school. After all, your doctor's degree won't mean much if it doesn't help you find a job that will help you earn a living.

Other Factors We Consider

The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.

• Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to child development & psychology students as compared to other majors.
• Major Demand - How many other child development & psychology students want to attend this school to pursue a doctor's degree.
• Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
• Student Debt - How much debt child development & psychology students go into to obtain their doctor's degree and how well they are able to pay back that debt.
• Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized child development & psychology related body.

Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for child development & psychology students working on their doctor's degree.

More Ways to Rank Child Development & Psychology Schools

Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Child Development & Psychology Doctor's Degree Schools ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.

Best Schools for Doctorate Students to Study Child Development & Psychology in the United States

The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a doctor's degree in child development & psychology.

10 Top Schools for a Doctorate in Child Development

1

University of California - Irvine
Irvine, CA

15 Annual Graduates

It is difficult to beat University of California - Irvine if you wish to pursue a doctor's degree in child development & psychology. Located in the large city of Irvine, UC Irvine is a public university with a very large student population.More information about a doctorate in child development & psychology from University of California - Irvine

2

Duke University
Durham, NC

17 Annual Graduates

Duke University is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a doctor's degree in child development & psychology. Duke is a large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Durham.More information about a doctorate in child development & psychology from Duke University

3

University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
Minneapolis, MN

33 Annual Graduates

University of Minnesota - Twin Cities is one of the best schools in the country for getting a doctor's degree in child development & psychology. UMN Twin Cities is a fairly large public university located in the city of Minneapolis.More information about a doctorate in child development & psychology from University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

4

University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, IN

14 Annual Graduates

University of Notre Dame is a great choice for individuals pursuing a doctor's degree in child development & psychology. Notre Dame is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the suburb of Notre Dame.More information about a doctorate in child development & psychology from University of Notre Dame

5

New York University
New York, NY

16 Annual Graduates

NYU is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of New York.More information about a doctorate in child development & psychology from New York University

6

University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA

12 Annual Graduates

Located in the large city of Los Angeles, USC is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.More information about a doctorate in child development & psychology from University of Southern California

7

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor, MI

27 Annual Graduates

$73,130 Median Starting Salary

Located in the city of Ann Arbor, U-M is a public university with a very large student population.

After graduating, child development doctorate recipients typically earn around $73,130 at the beginning of their careers.

More information about a doctorate in child development & psychology from University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

8

Washington University in St Louis
Saint Louis, MO

10 Annual Graduates

WUSTL is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large suburb of Saint Louis.More information about a doctorate in child development & psychology from Washington University in St Louis

9

University of California - Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA

13 Annual Graduates

UCSB is a very large public university located in the medium-sized suburb of Santa Barbara.More information about a doctorate in child development & psychology from University of California - Santa Barbara

10

Ohio State University - Main Campus
Columbus, OH

28 Annual Graduates

$91,275 Median Starting Salary

Located in the large city of Columbus, Ohio State is a public university with a fairly large student population.

Those child development & psychology students who get their doctor's degree from Ohio State University - Main Campus receive $9,073 more than the typical child development grad.

More information about a doctorate in child development & psychology from Ohio State University - Main Campus

Child Development & Psychology by Region

View the Best Child Development & Psychology Doctor's Degree Schools for a specific region near you.

Region
Southeast
New England
Rocky Mountains
Plains States
Middle Atlantic
Far Western US
Southwest
Other U.S. Territories
Great Lakes

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Child Development & Psychology Related Rankings by Major

One of 24 majors within the Psychology area of study, Child Development & Psychology has other similar majors worth exploring.

Child Development Focus Areas

Major	Annual Graduates
Other Research & Experimental Psychology	544
Experimental Psychology	214
Developmental & Child Psychology	84
Social Psychology	28
Cognitive Psychology & Psycholinguistics	24
Behavioral Neuroscience	23
Psychometrics & Quantitative Psychology	13
Personality Psychology	7

Most Popular Majors Related to Child Development

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology	4,502
General Psychology	1,634
Other Psychology	147

Notes and References

• The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
• The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
• Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard). More about our data sources and methodologies.