2025 Best Child Development & Psychology Doctor's Degree Schools in the Far Western US Region

a doctor's degree in child development & psychology is more popular than many other degrees. In fact, it ranks #38 out of 306 on popularity of all such degrees in the nation. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.

College Factual looked at 9 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Child Development & Psychology Doctor's Degree Schools in the Far Western US Region ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 192 doctor's degrees in child development & psychology during the 2022-2023 academic year.

Jump to one of the following sections: * Our Methodology

• Best Doctor’s Degree Schools List

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

Your choice of child development & psychology for getting your doctor's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality child development program can vary widely even among the top schools. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:

Overall Quality Is a Must

The overall quality of a doctor's degree school is important to ensure a good education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges for a Doctor's Degree ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.

Average Early-Career Salaries

Average early-career salary of those graduating with their doctor's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. That is, everyone wants their doctor's degree to be worth something, and salaries are one measure of determining that.

Other Factors We Consider

In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:

• Major Focus - How much a school focuses on child development & psychology students vs. other majors.
• Major Demand - The number of child development & psychology students who choose to seek a doctor's degree at the school.
• Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
• Student Debt - How easy is it for child development & psychology to pay back their student loans after receiving their doctor's degree.
• Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized child development & psychology related body.

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

One Size Does Not Fit All

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 in the Far Western US Region 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 Far Western US Region

Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a doctor's degree in child development & psychology.

Top Far Western US Region Schools for a Doctorate in Child Development

1

University of California - Irvine
Irvine, CA

15 Annual Graduates

Any student who is interested in a doctor's degree in child development & psychology has to take a look at University of California - Irvine. UC Irvine is a fairly large public university located in the city of Irvine.More information about a doctorate in child development & psychology from University of California - Irvine

2

University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA

12 Annual Graduates

University of Southern California is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a doctor's degree in child development & psychology. USC is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Los Angeles.More information about a doctorate in child development & psychology from University of Southern California

3

University of California - Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA

13 Annual Graduates

Any student pursuing a degree in a doctor's degree in child development & psychology needs to take a look at University of California - Santa Barbara. Located in the midsize suburb of Santa Barbara, UCSB is a public university with a very large student population.More information about a doctorate in child development & psychology from University of California - Santa Barbara

4

University of California - San Diego
La Jolla, CA

22 Annual Graduates

Any student pursuing a degree in a doctor's degree in child development & psychology needs to take a look at University of California - San Diego. UCSD is a fairly large public university located in the large city of La Jolla.More information about a doctorate in child development & psychology from University of California - San Diego

5

University of Washington - Seattle Campus
Seattle, WA

10 Annual Graduates

Located in the large city of Seattle, UW Seattle is a public university with a fairly large student population.More information about a doctorate in child development & psychology from University of Washington - Seattle Campus

6

University of California - Berkeley
Berkeley, CA

17 Annual Graduates

UC Berkeley is a very large public university located in the medium-sized city of Berkeley.More information about a doctorate in child development & psychology from University of California - Berkeley

7

University of Nevada - Reno
Reno, NV

23 Annual Graduates

UNR is a fairly large public university located in the city of Reno.More information about a doctorate in child development & psychology from University of Nevada - Reno

8

University of Oregon
Eugene, OR

17 Annual Graduates

UO is a fairly large public university located in the medium-sized city of Eugene.More information about a doctorate in child development & psychology from University of Oregon

9

University of California - Riverside
Riverside, CA

19 Annual Graduates

Located in the city of Riverside, UCR is a public university with a very large student population.More information about a doctorate in child development & psychology from University of California - Riverside

Best Child Development & Psychology Colleges by State

Explore the best child development & psychology colleges for a specific state in the Far Western US Region .

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
California	180	79
Washington	122	5
Oregon	107	3
Nevada	84	26

View All Rankings >

Rankings in Majors Related to Child Development

Child Development & Psychology is one of 24 different types of Psychology programs to choose from.

Child Development Concentrations

Major	Annual Graduates
Other Research & Experimental Psychology	164
Experimental Psychology	21
Social Psychology	6
Cognitive Psychology & Psycholinguistics	1

Most Popular Related Majors

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology	1,058
General Psychology	210
Other Psychology	104

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.