Cal State Long Beach Ranks No. 3 in Zippia’s Best Colleges for Human Development Majors in California

November 7, 2017

LONG BEACH, Calif. (Nov. 7, 2017) – A key attraction to choosing human development as a course of college study is the flexible career choices it provides, with futures possible in fields like social work, counseling, criminal justice, nursing, law and medicine.  For California State University Long Beach’s human development majors, these myriad career choices are made possible because of an excellent education.

Career resource website Zippia recently recognized this excellence, ranking Cal State Long Beach at No. 3 among California’s colleges and universities for human development majors.

“Human Development’s success can be attributed to a well-established multidisciplinary program that prepares students for a variety of careers through addressing the dynamic social issues facing family and communities today,” said Dr. Deborah Thien, department of geography professor and human development’s acting chair. “Our students learn skills in cultural competence, research evaluation and critical thinking and hone these skills in HDEV’s labs, through their own or their faculty’s research and in their required senior practicum class. Equipped with these skills, HDEV students step readily into education, social work, physical therapy and other fields. HDEV has experienced tremendous growth with an influx of dedicated students and talented faculty and anticipates further student successes demonstrating the value of a liberal arts education.”

Using research from the U.S. Department of Education’s College Scorecard Data and the National Center for Education Statistics, Zippia looked at admission and graduation rates, percentage of graduating class that are human development majors, and career results like mean earnings after six and 10 years as well as job retention rates.

UC Davis topped Zippia’s list of California’s best colleges for those majoring in human development. UC San Diego was second; Cal State San Marcos and Cal State East Bay rounded out the top five.