2025 Best Child Development & Psychology Doctor's Degree Schools in California

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.

College Factual looked at 6 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Child Development & Psychology Doctor's Degree Schools in California ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 136 doctor's degrees in child development & psychology to qualified students.

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. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:

Quality Overall Is Important

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 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

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 colleges for child development & psychology students working on their doctor's degree.

One Size Does Not Fit All

Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Child Development & Psychology Doctor's Degree Schools in California list, to help you choose the best school for you.

Best Schools for Doctorate Students to Study Child Development & Psychology in California

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

Top California Schools for a Doctorate in Child Development

1

University of California - Irvine
Irvine, CA

15 Annual Graduates

Every student pursuing a degree in a doctor's degree in child development & psychology needs to look into University of California - Irvine. UC Irvine is a very large public university located in the large 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 best schools in the country 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

Every student pursuing a degree in a doctor's degree in child development & psychology needs to look into University of California - Santa Barbara. Located in the medium-sized suburb of Santa Barbara, UCSB is a public university with a fairly 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

Every student pursuing a degree in a doctor's degree in child development & psychology has to check out University of California - San Diego. UCSD is a very 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 California - Berkeley
Berkeley, CA

17 Annual Graduates

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

6

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 in the Far Western US Region

Explore all the Best Child Development & Psychology Schools in the Far Western US Area or other specific states within that region.

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
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	113
Experimental Psychology	21
Cognitive Psychology & Psycholinguistics	1
Social Psychology	1

Most Popular Majors Related to Child Development

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology	843
General Psychology	174
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.