2023 Most Focused Doctor’s Degree Colleges for Early Childhood Education in the Southeast Region

It’s not easy to decide which college to attend when there so many options available for students. One of our goals at College Factual is to give you as much information as we can - such as our “Schools for a Doctorate Highly Focused on Child development Major in the Southeast Region” ranking - to help you make that decision.

In 2021-2022, 31,937 people earned their degree in early childhood education, making the major the 34th most popular in the United States.

Across the Southeast region, there were 7,712 early childhood education graduates with average earnings and debt of $0 and $0 respectively. At the doctor’s degree level specifically, there were 8 early childhood education graduates with average earnings and debt of $74,674 and $121,130 respectively.

This year’s “Schools for a Doctorate Highly Focused on Child development Major in the Southeast Region” ranking analyzed 3 colleges that offered a degree in early childhood education. This a ranking of the schools where the largest percentage of students has enrolled in early childhood education.

See our ranking methodology to learn more.

More Ways to Rank Early Childhood Education Schools

Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we’ve developed a number of rankings, including this “Schools for a Doctorate Highly Focused on Child development Major in the Southeast Region” list, to help you choose the best school for you.

In addition to our rankings, you can take two colleges and compare them based on the criteria that matters most to you in our unique tool, College Combat. Test it out by comparing your favorite schools against others you are considering, or bookmark the tool so you can experiment with it later.

Schools for a Doctorate Highly Focused on Child development Major in the Southeast Region

The colleges and universities below are the best for southeast region doctor’s degree child development students.

Top 3 Most Focused Doctor’s Degree Colleges for Early Childhood Education in the Southeast Region

1

East Tennessee State University
Johnson City, Tennessee

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend East Tennessee State University. The school came in at #1 for the Schools for a Doctorate Highly Focused on Child development Major in the Southeast Region. ETSU is located in Johnson City, Tennessee and, has a fairly large student population. In 2021-2022, this school awarded 2 doctorate’s child development degrees to qualified students.

The undergrad student loan default rate at the school is 2.5%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%.

Read full report on Early Childhood Education at ETSU

2

University of Alabama at Birmingham
Birmingham, Alabama

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend University of Alabama at Birmingham. The school came in at #2 for the Schools for a Doctorate Highly Focused on Child development Major in the Southeast Region. University of Alabama at Birmingham is a large public school situated in Birmingham, Alabama. It awarded 6 doctorate’s child development degrees in 2021-2022.

The low undergrad student loan default rate of 1.2% is a good sign that students have an easier time paying off their loans than they might at other schools. For comparison, the national default rate is 10.1%.

Full University of Alabama at Birmingham Early Childhood Education Report

3

University of South Carolina - Columbia
Columbia, South Carolina

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend University of South Carolina - Columbia. The school came in at #3 for the Schools for a Doctorate Highly Focused on Child development Major in the Southeast Region. University of South Carolina - Columbia is a public institution located in Columbia, South Carolina. The school has a large population, and it awarded 76 doctorate’s degrees in 2021-2022.

Students who start out at the school are likely to stick around. The freshman retention rate is 87%. The undergrad student loan default rate at the school is 1.6%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%.

Read more about Early Childhood Education at UofSC

Notes and References

References

• 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 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).
• Information about the national average student loan default rate is from the U.S. Department of Education and refers to data about the 2016 borrower cohort tracking period for which the cohort default rate (CDR) was 10.1%.

Read more about our data sources and methodologies

Footnotes

• *Avg Salary and Avg 4-Year Grad Rate are for the top schools only.
• Some schools otherwise deserving of recognition may have been removed from this ranking in the event that new data identified post-publication warranted it, or at the request of the school.

Credits

• Credit for the banner image above goes to Vgrigas.