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

a master's degree in child development & psychology is more popular than many other degrees. In fact, it ranks #80 out of 343 on popularity of all such degrees in the nation. This means you won't have too much trouble finding schools that offer the degree.

For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 4 schools in California to determine which ones were the best for child development & psychology students pursuing a master's degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 205 master's degrees in child development & psychology during the 2022-2023 academic year.

Jump to one of the following sections: * Our Methodology

• Best Master’s Degree Schools List

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

Your choice of child development & psychology for getting your master'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

A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges for a Master'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 master's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their master's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.

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 - How many other child development & psychology students want to attend this school to pursue a master's degree.
• 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 much debt child development & psychology students go into to obtain their master'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 schools for child development & psychology students working on their master'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 Master's Degree Schools in California list, to help you choose the best school for you.

Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Child Development & Psychology in California

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

Top California Schools for a Master's in Child Development

1

University of California - San Diego
La Jolla, CA

14 Annual Graduates

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

2

University of California - Riverside
Riverside, CA

12 Annual Graduates

University of California - Riverside is a good choice for individuals pursuing a master's degree in child development & psychology. Located in the large city of Riverside, UCR is a public university with a fairly large student population.More information about a master’s in child development & psychology from University of California - Riverside

3

The Chicago School of Professional Psychology at Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA

13 Annual Graduates

The Chicago School of Professional Psychology at Los Angeles is a wonderful option for students interested in a master's degree in child development & psychology. Located in the large city of Los Angeles, The Chicago School Los Angeles Campus is a private not-for-profit school with a small student population.More information about a master’s in child development & psychology from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology at Los Angeles

4

Northcentral University
San Diego, CA

59 Annual Graduates

Northcentral University is a great decision for students interested in a master's degree in child development & psychology. Located in the large city of San Diego, Northcentral University is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.More information about a master’s in child development & psychology from Northcentral University

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	183	22
Oregon	158	2
Nevada	105	23

View All Rankings >

Rankings in Majors Related to Child Development

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

Child Development Concentrations

Major	Annual Graduates
Other Research & Experimental Psychology	106
Developmental & Child Psychology	59
Experimental Psychology	20
Psychopharmacology	18
Cognitive Psychology & Psycholinguistics	2

Most Popular Majors Related to Child Development

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology	5,685
General Psychology	1,327
Other Psychology	272

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.