2025 Best Child Development & Psychology Doctor's Degree Schools in the Plains States Region

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.

For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 4 schools in the Plains States Region to determine which ones were the best for child development & psychology students pursuing a doctor's degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 109 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. 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 quality 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 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 doctor'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 Doctor's Degree Schools in the Plains States Region.

Best Schools for Doctorate Students to Study Child Development & Psychology in the Plains States Region

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

Top Plains States Region Schools for a Doctorate in Child Development

1

University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
Minneapolis, MN

33 Annual Graduates

University of Minnesota - Twin Cities is a good decision for students interested in a doctor's degree in child development & psychology. Located in the large city of Minneapolis, UMN Twin Cities is a public university with a fairly large student population.More information about a doctorate in child development & psychology from University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

2

Washington University in St Louis
Saint Louis, MO

10 Annual Graduates

Any student who is interested in a doctor's degree in child development & psychology needs to check out Washington University in St Louis. Located in the large suburb of Saint Louis, WUSTL is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.More information about a doctorate in child development & psychology from Washington University in St Louis

3

University of Kansas
Lawrence, KS

14 Annual Graduates

It is difficult to beat University of Kansas if you want to pursue a doctor's degree in child development & psychology. KU is a fairly large public university located in the small city of Lawrence.More information about a doctorate in child development & psychology from University of Kansas

4

University of Missouri - Columbia
Columbia, MO

14 Annual Graduates

Any student who is interested in a doctor's degree in child development & psychology has to look into University of Missouri - Columbia. Mizzou is a very large public university located in the midsize city of Columbia.More information about a doctorate in child development & psychology from University of Missouri - Columbia

Best Child Development & Psychology Colleges by State

Explore the best child development & psychology schools for a specific state in the Plains States Region .

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Missouri	122	35
Minnesota	120	32
Kansas	97	21
North Dakota	68	0

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	74
Developmental & Child Psychology	30
Experimental Psychology	5

Most Popular Majors Related to Child Development

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology	322
General Psychology	220

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.