I want to major in Child Development, which schools have the best programs?

What do you want to do in child development and who do you want to work with? Then that is how you choose your program. For example if your college you are attending gets funding from a grant to research Autism, chances are most all your classes will have some component about working with autistic children related to it and that will be the interest of staff and their time. So you have to do your homework and not just read reviews from the Princeton Review and what not, but really look at the classes, the faculty, and what they are funded to research. Often times on the College Website you can look at Research and Sponsored Programs for the University and if they have an institute of some sort related to child development, you may see their specialty. For example, CSUSB has funding for these programs.......

https://csbs.csusb.edu/icdfr/funded-projects

A good place to go and see what schools have funding for a specific area of interest you may have is the NSF. For example I typed in childhood obesity and here is what came up, you can then go see what Universities have active awards that are researching this.

https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/simpleSearchResult?queryText=child+obesity&ActiveAwards=true

There is a great site called Coursera, you can also type in any interest you have and see if you can take a real college class on it, this may help you see what you are truely interested in in regards to children and help you explore it a bit more. These classes are all free. Another idea is to go to a college book store and browse the books on child development and social science in general and see what you gravitate towards. Then type those topics into NSF and see what you find.

A great college for decades that is well known for child development is Pacific Oaks in California, you can look them up and see what you think.

Another idea is to look at the website called NAEYC and look at all the topics related to children that they have at their annual conference, it will really help you see how many ideas there are out there for how to work with children. Also look at all their vendors, those are companies who develop products and services for kids..........and also maybe see if you can to NAEYC as a student it is in Long Beach this spring. Also look at speakers coming, see what colleges they are aligned with if they are speaking on an area of interest you have.

https://www.naeyc.org/events/institute

Here is a link to a PowerPoint I made about Jobs with Education.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4NUuStuKzk7TTdvYzJCNTVkSEk

Go through it and see what sparks and interest. Also have you read about all the social science majors? For example, you can take classes about children in almost all the social sciences, so you may want to make sure to read them all at various schools you check out. Some of the majors to read are anthropology, sociology, psychology, human development, social science, social psychology, early education, children youth and family, family studies, etc.

Is teaching why you chose child development? If so then........

If you are thinking about teaching for ages 5 and under, look at what is called the California Permit Matrix, it shows you the retirements. If you want to teach school age but in an after school setting, they have that on the matrix too. A word of advice though, if you want to teach K-8......look at teaching credential programs integrated with a 4 year degree. They have fast track programs if that is your end goal. Often under liberal studies. If you want to work in programs that are more recreational or camp based, check out outdoor education, recreational sports or something like that.

I hope some of this is helpful.......so many schools will offer the perfect program if you know what you want, for example, if you want to major in art and psychology and human development, instead you can find a child art therapy program. If you want to major in equine science and child development, instead you can find a program that is equine therapy. If you want major in dance and child development instead you can major in dance education. If you want to major in app development and child development, instead you can major in technology for early learning. I hope this makes sense. That is what makes a good school. One that has faculty and Research in your area of interest!