Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Psychology – Child Life Specialist
Counsel Children and Families through Crises with a Child Life Specialist Degree
Do you have a heart to help children and families through traumatic life experiences? Our Bachelor of Science in Psychology – Child Life Specialist degree can provide the training you need to pursue this calling on your life. Children, their families, and the healthcare industry are desperate for people like you who are compassionate, well trained, and willing to help. Our child life specialist degree can help you make a difference in the lives of children and their families through whatever crisis they may be facing.
Our faculty of experienced behavioral sciences professionals have experience working in counseling, psychology, and human services as well as related master’s and doctoral level degrees in related fields. Through this program, you will also complete an internship as part of the child life specialist program. By completing an internship, you’ll receive real-life, hands-on experience in your field, making you career-ready upon graduation. With this training and experience, you will be well prepared for a career in the behavioral sciences field.
Pursue Your Degree with Confidence
- Completion of our child life specialist degree provides the knowledge and experience you need to sit for your national certification exam to become a Certified Child Life Specialist (CCLS).
- Christ-centered courses can give you an edge in research and counseling techniques.
- Receive faculty-student mentoring in research projects with the potential to publish your research as an undergraduate student.
- Recently purchased operant boxes allow you to engage in animal research with faculty.
- Multiple psychology events and internship opportunities are available to give you practical, hands-on training experience.
- Academic trips are available to places like Ecuador, New York, and Poland.
- Our psychology club—Club Psych—provides a way for you to interact with professors and peers in the field.
What Will You Learn?
- How the presence of other people affects an individual’s behavior and how those individuals form opinions and attitudes about others
- Study interpersonal attraction, the accuracy of eyewitness testimony, the impact of television on aggression, non-verbal communication, group decision making, and the impact of advertising on beliefs and behavior
- Learn about the major historical and contemporary theories of the origin and development of personality, emphasizing the role of the dynamics of personality
- Study human learning, including examination of conditioning, modeling, cognitive development, and high level thought processes
- Learn about the relationship between Christian theology and the science of psychology
Career Opportunities for Psychology – Child Life Specialist Graduates
- Child development psychologist
- Child life specialist
- Counselor/psychologist with a private practice
- Healthcare counselor
- Residential treatment counselor/psychologist
Resources and Networking Opportunities Available to Child Life Specialist Students
- Participate in faculty-led research projects with the potential for your work to be published as an undergraduate student.
- You’ll receive hands-on training and observe professionals in the field with multiple psychology events each academic year and an optional internship opportunity.
- Academic trips are available to psychology students in places like Ecuador, New York, and Poland.
- Network with professors and peers when you join Club Psych.
Admission Requirements for Our Undergraduate Degree Programs
Every application is reviewed by the admission committee on a case-by-case basis, meaning there are no set minimums for acceptance. However, all applicants must submit the following documents* for admission:
- Admission application
- Official high school transcripts
- Official college transcripts (if applicable)
- Results from the CLT, SAT, or ACT are not required for admission, but may be used in consideration for merit-based aid.
- Admission essay
*Note that additional documentation may be requested by the admission committee after your application has been received.
Credit Hours

Class Type
Residential
Transfer Credits
Transfer in up to 75% of the degree total
Next Start Date
Aug 18, 2025
Accreditation
Liberty University is accredited by SACSCOC
16,000+
Students
20
NCAA DI Sports
450,000+
Community Service Hours
350+
Undergrad & Grad Programs
The Liberty DNA
Liberty’s promise to you is an education that expertly brings knowledge and faith together. You’ll not only be challenged academically but also pushed spiritually through weekly worship gatherings and community engagement, local service projects, and global mission trips. You can become a Champion for Christ that changes the world with the Gospel.

Convocation
The largest weekly gathering of Christian students in North America cannot happen without a key ingredient: you. Experience life-changing messages from more than 80 nationally acclaimed speakers each year.

LU Send Now
You see the news and your heart breaks — you want to help, but how? Be part of LU Send NOW and respond as the hands and feet of Jesus by providing humanitarian, spiritual, and psychological aid amidst disaster and crisis.


Residence Hall Community
Experience quality on-campus living that not only provides safe and inviting housing options but also meets your need for community and personal development. On each hall, your peers live life alongside you to spur your holistic development.
World Class Experience — Affordable Price
At Liberty University, a private Christian education is less expensive than you think. Over the last 7 years, Liberty has only raised its tuition costs by less than 4% – ranking its residential, undergraduate tuition rates in the top 25% in 2025 for affordability among its leading private, residential competitors. A full list of scholarships and eligibility requirements can be found on Liberty University’s Financial Aid website. For resident undergraduate students only. View information on graduate financial aid here.
Middle America Scholarship
Liberty Academic Scholarship
Champion Award
Early Deposit Award



Liberty University is giving away $50,000 in scholarships!
Enter today to win one of five $10,000 scholarships to Liberty University* starting Fall 2025, and start doing the things you always knew you could.
Enter NowVisit Our Central Virginia Campus
Have you visited Liberty yet? We can’t wait to have you. Watch a robot fetch your books at the Jerry Falwell Library, cheer on the winning touchdown at Williams Stadium, break a sweat at the fitness center, and gaze at the stars at the astronomical observatory.
At Liberty, you’ll find an affordable, high-quality education that equips students like you for the real world. Our commitment to excellence helped us rank as Niche.com’s #4 Best College Campus in America. Earning your degree from a nonprofit university with state-of-the-art resources like ours can help set you apart from your peers.
Located directly behind Arthur S. DeMoss Hall, the Montview Student Union is a 4-story, 168,000-square-foot structure that includes a lounge overlooking the Academic Commons, retail dining venues, an art gallery, a ballroom, and a bowling alley. The building also has space for academics, meetings, and offices.
The Liberty Baseball Stadium features the latest turf playing surface, as well as full-length, major league-style dugouts, a fully-equipped media area, two suites, a club room, and a spectator picnic area.
The Center for Medical and Health Sciences (CMHS) is a state-of-the-art modern learning facility for Liberty University's College of Osteopathic Medicine (LUCOM) and School of Health Sciences. Sitting on Liberty Mountain, the 140,000 square-foot, four-story facility offers breathtaking views of the valley and the Blue Ridge Mountains to the north and west.
The Center for Music and the Worship Arts features 124 Steinway pianos and 43 teaching studios complete with piano, songwriting, and music computer labs. Additionally, the center includes a 1,600-seat concert hall.
The Center for Natural Sciences houses classrooms, an auditorium, and more than 30 laboratories designed for hands-on learning, including an advanced anatomy lab and a cell culture lab. The facility has more than $2 million in equipment, including a GC mass spectrometer and a gene sequencer.
As the primary academic building on campus, Arthur S. DeMoss Hall spans 500,000 square feet over four floors and houses computer labs, classrooms and student resource centers, and a rooftop terrace.
Jerry Falwell Library houses an array of study spaces including six learning commons, one technology commons, and 30 group-study rooms. Multiple terraces and balconies provide additional space to relax, and several dining options are available. Taking advantage of the latest technology, the ASRS, a robotic retrieval system, houses the majority of the library’s collections in a state-of-the-art automated on-site retrieval system.
The 275-foot-tall Freedom Tower, home of the John W. Rawlings School of Divinity, the nation’s largest center for religious studies and ministerial training, includes classrooms and offices, a conference room, a homiletics lab, and an interactive classroom, as well as observation spaces to take in the spectacular views of campus.
The LaHaye Ice Center is home to Liberty men's and women's hockey teams, as well as the synchronized skating and figure skating teams. Recently renovated, the ice center seats 4,000 fans and includes 10 box suites.
Whichever way you like to break a sweat, you can do it here! The recreation center has weight rooms, cardio lofts, private classrooms, an indoor track, pools, a rock wall, soccer fields, and basketball courts.
The Reber-Thomas Dining Center (Liberty’s dining hall) is a two-story, 120,000-square-foot all-you-care-to-eat buffet that boasts a seating capacity of more than 2,700. It provides breakfast, lunch, and dinner and offers over 20 unique stations to choose from.
The Residential Commons are comprised of three residence halls. The rooms feature a private bath, and every floor provides laundry facilities and a common lounge. Additional residential facilities are also planned for the site.
The three-story structure serves as a home base for the School of Business, which includes 152 programs from the certificate to the doctoral level, as well as centers of excellence focused on entrepreneurship, financial literacy, cybersecurity, and stock trading. On the first floor, a stock trading simulation room, operating in partnership with Truist, features an LED stock ticker that wraps around the top of the room and streams the latest market activity from Wall Street.
The Liberty Mountain Snowflex Centre offers students the opportunity to ski, snowboard, and tube year-round with its cutting-edge terrain technology.
Tower Theater is home to Liberty’s Department of Theatre Arts as well as the professional theatre company, Alluvion Stage Company. Tower Theater features a Broadway-style fly tower and professional rigging system and has over 12,000 square feet of backstage and support area.
This auditorium’s 10,000 seats are filled by students at Convocation and Campus Community, concert-goers, and athletic event attendees.
The stadium’s 25,000 seats host the fans of our FBS conference football team. Williams Stadium also boasts a 110-foot viewing tower and houses the Football Operations Center, containing locker rooms, coaches’ offices, equipment, and weight rooms, and a training facility.
The Admission Process
Apply Now, Pay Later
Start the enrollment process by applying online now — the application takes about 10 minutes. Your application fee isn’t due until you enroll!
Get Accepted
Once you’ve submitted all your admission documents, you’ll be updated on the status of your application through text and email. You can also keep track on your Student Checklist.
Act Early
After you apply, submit your Enrollment Deposit to earn extra scholarship awards, which decrease over time.
Contact one of our Admissions Counselors for more information by calling (800) 543-5317.
Hear from Liberty Students — Past and Present

Former SGA President Derek R.
“The whole school and the administration have their mindset on heaven — the Holy Spirit is so active on campus.”

Former SGA Vice President Esther L.
“It was knowing that I could be vulnerable about where I was from or what I was coming from or going through with people that were here and cared was encouraging and helped me with the transition.”

David H.
“Spiritually, I have seen the most growth in my life. …The spiritual atmosphere of the campus here at Liberty is unreal.”

Queenstar B.
“They [professors] see each student as an individual who has the potential to truly impact the world for God’s Namesake.”

Sarah B.
“Here there are authentic people that have really embodied how the Lord cares for each of us.”

Joseph H.
“Once I made it on campus — just the overwhelming amount of love that I received from the student body, the people on my hall, and my RAs just blew me away.”