2025 Best Child Development & Psychology Master's Degree Schools

Child Development & Psychology is above average in terms of popularity with it being the #80 most popular master's degree program in the country. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.

College Factual looked at 44 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Child Development & Psychology Master's Degree Schools ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 2,544 master's degrees in child development & psychology during the <nil> 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. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:

Overall Quality Is a Must

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 Early-Career Salaries

Average early-career salary of those graduating with their master's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your master'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 - 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

The child development school you choose to invest your time and money in matters. To help you make the decision that is right for you, we've developed a number of major-specific rankings, including this list of the Best Child Development & Psychology Master's Degree Schools.

Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Child Development & Psychology in the United States

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

10 Top Schools for a Master's in Child Development

1

New York University
New York, NY

565 Annual Graduates

$48,960 Median Starting Salary

Every student who is interested in a master's degree in child development & psychology needs to check out New York University. Located in the large city of New York, NYU is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.

After graduation, child development master's recipients usually make about $48,960 in their early careers.

More information about a master’s in child development & psychology from New York University

2

Boston College
Chestnut Hill, MA

84 Annual Graduates

Boston College is one of the best schools in the country for getting a master's degree in child development & psychology. Boston College is a fairly large private not-for-profit college located in the small city of Chestnut Hill.More information about a master’s in child development & psychology from Boston College

3

University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA

94 Annual Graduates

$46,806 Median Starting Salary

It's difficult to beat University of Pennsylvania if you want to pursue a master's degree in child development & psychology. Located in the large city of Philadelphia, UPenn is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.

After graduation, child development master's recipients typically make about $46,806 at the beginning of their careers.

More information about a master’s in child development & psychology from University of Pennsylvania

4

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor, MI

35 Annual Graduates

Any student who is interested in a master's degree in child development & psychology has to check out University of Michigan - Ann Arbor. U-M is a very large public university located in the city of Ann Arbor.More information about a master’s in child development & psychology from University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

5

University of Chicago
Chicago, IL

73 Annual Graduates

Located in the city of Chicago, UChicago is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population.More information about a master’s in child development & psychology from University of Chicago

6

Fordham University
Bronx, NY

35 Annual Graduates

$57,989 Median Starting Salary

Located in the city of Bronx, Fordham U is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.

After graduation, child development master's recipients typically make about $57,989 in the first five years of their career.

More information about a master’s in child development & psychology from Fordham University

7

Cornell University
Ithaca, NY

12 Annual Graduates

Cornell is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the small city of Ithaca.More information about a master’s in child development & psychology from Cornell University

8

Vanderbilt University
Nashville, TN

71 Annual Graduates

Vanderbilt is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Nashville.More information about a master’s in child development & psychology from Vanderbilt University

9

University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
Minneapolis, MN

47 Annual Graduates

Located in the city of Minneapolis, UMN Twin Cities is a public university with a very large student population.More information about a master’s in child development & psychology from University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

10

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Champaign, IL

27 Annual Graduates

Located in the city of Champaign, UIUC is a public university with a very large student population.More information about a master’s in child development & psychology from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Child Development & Psychology by Region

View the Best Child Development & Psychology Master'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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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
Developmental & Child Psychology	1,169
Other Research & Experimental Psychology	637
Experimental Psychology	457
Social Psychology	63
Psychometrics & Quantitative Psychology	63
Cognitive Psychology & Psycholinguistics	49
Behavioral Neuroscience	49
Psychopharmacology	33
Comparative Psychology	16
Personality Psychology	8

Most Popular Related Majors

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology	26,529
General Psychology	6,995
Other Psychology	1,975

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.