Master of Science in Family and Consumer Sciences - Child Life

The Department of Family and Consumer Sciences offers a Master of Science or Master of Arts degree in Family and Consumer Sciences with a sequence in Child Life. This sequence prepares you to enter the child life profession by providing ample opportunities to increase your capacity for inquiry, logical thinking, critical analysis, and synthesis as you apply theory to practice in the classroom and at your practicum sites. Through required and elective courses, our graduate program provides all courses necessary to meet Association of Child Life Professionals (ACLP) requirements. In this sequence, you’ll apply for competitive child life internships during the last semester of coursework on campus. Following your internship, you are eligible to take the national Child Life Certification Examination. The Certified Child Life Specialist (CCLS) credential is the exclusive child life certification and is issued by the Child Life Certification Commission, a subsidiary of the Association of Child Life Professionals (ACLP). 90% of Child Life graduate students received an internship offer at first application and 97% within the second round of applications. Students in this program work in the Nursing Simulation Lab (NSL) to develop multidisciplinary communication skills and role understanding.

Must have earned a four-year bachelor's degree or its equivalent from a college or university that is accredited by the appropriate regional accrediting association, or do so within one academic yearpresent unofficial transcripts from each college or university other than Illinois State at which graduate, undergraduate, or non-degree credit was earned.have a cumulative GPA of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale for either the last 60 hours of your undergraduate coursework or any previous work in a graduate program