20 Best Bachelor’s in Psychology

Just about any career could benefit from the training offered by the best bachelor’s degrees in psychology. Psychology is a vast field whose reach goes to the fundamentals of who we are and how we make decisions. Students could easily spend just four years just studying one of its variants, like developmental psychology or cognitive psychology. Studying a field so broad may sound challenging—with something so big, where do you start?—but it also affords a lot of opportunities, because psychological training is always an asset. That goes double in the social media age, where misinformation and polarization have made it critical to understand why people behave the way they do. Get started on your journey with one of the 20 best bachelor’s degrees in psychology. What is a bachelor’s in psychology degree? At many universities, the psychology department is part of the arts and sciences college, and they award a bachelor of arts degree that favors broad studies in psychology as part of a liberal arts education. Some universities also offer or only offer a bachelor of science degree, which goes deeper on science and math requirements. They almost all begin with introductory courses in psychology, research methods, and statistics. Core coursework can include topics like abnormal psychology or behavioral neuroscience, and expect to spend some time doing math (primarily statistics). Expect to have lots of company too. In 2016-2017, nearly 117,000 bachelor’s in psychology degrees were awarded, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. That’s led some schools, like UC-Berkeley, to cap the number of students that can major in it. At other schools, declaring it as a major is as simple as filling out some forms, though some require a formal application. Tuition naturally varies, but the average cost per academic year for programs on our list is $21,648, with a median of $22,418. We use the school’s tuition as a base and factor in financial aid opportunities to arrive at a number for each university. Careers for psychology majors As Notre Dame puts it, â€Å"Many who graduate with a psychology major are not necessarily interested in a career as a psychologist.† Nearly every university in our top 20 of the best bachelor’s in psychology has some variation of this phrase on its website: â€Å"Students that graduate with a major in psychology acquire a wide range of knowledge and useful skills that allows them to find employment in many different areas.† (That version comes from the University of Illinois.) A â€Å"judicious selection† of psychology coursework provides an â€Å"excellent background† for careers in business, education, law, medicine, social work, and, well, psychology, according to Stanford, and Yale adds to that list politics and public policy, marketing, finance, and management. UNC-Chapel Hill tops them all with an exhaustive list of career options, complete with salary estimates and a detailed overview of what they do. While so many careers are psychology-adjacent or use elements of psychology in their day-to-day work, the University of Iowa offers a word of caution. Students who don’t plan to pursue an advanced degree in psychology should â€Å"complement their psychology major with substantial preparation in another program more closely tied to the world of work,† such as social work, education, business, journalism, etc. It also notes that most psychology jobs require an advanced degree, which is why many students use their bachelor’s as a first step toward a master’s or doctorate. Psychology degree salary potential Because so many careers are psychology-related, pulling a simple number for a bachelor’s degree in the field is challenging. For instance, the Bureau of Labor Statistics—that neverending fountain of employment data from the U.S. Department of Labor—has several classifications: psychologists; industrial-organizational psychologists; clinical, counseling, and school psychologists; and â€Å"psychologists, all other.† Salaries vary. The BLS shows psychologists having a median annual wage of $79,010, with 181,700 jobs in the U.S. as of 2018. The field is expected to grow by 14% through 2028 (much faster than the national average of 5%), which translates into an additional 26,100 jobs. In the other categories the BLS tracks, clinical, counseling, and school psychologists have the lowest average salary, $85,340. Industrial-organizational psychologists earn the most, $109,030, with the other categories falling in between.   Again, though, that data only applies to jobs that have â€Å"psychologist† in the title, and many people pursue other careers with a bachelor’s in psychology. A human resources manager, for example, earns a median salary of $113,300, according to the BLS. Social workers, $49,470. Training and development managers, $111,340. The short answer: Gauging salary potential for a psychology degree depends on how you intend to use it. What are the best psychology degrees? We know that you have educational goals that you’re itching to pursue, but you may not know where to start. The editors of CollegeRank utilize a unique ranking methodology based on the following three aspects: 40% Potential Salary After Graduation: Average mid-career salary of school alumni 30% Institutional Accreditation: Regional and National Accreditation for the 2019-2020 school year   30% Overall Degree Affordability: Average cost of undergraduate and graduate tuition per school At CollegeRank, we strive to do our best to guide you and your family toward a fruitful academic career. The pursuit of knowledge is a noble one, and we want to help you reach your goals. Please feel free to visit our dedicated methodology page for a step-by-step breakdown. For questions, comments, badge downloads, or data corrections, please feel free to reach out to us at editor@collegerank.net. 1Stanford UniversityLocationStanford, CaliforniaAverage Net Price$16,562More Information Widely recognized as one of the best schools in the country, Stanford University doesn’t have to do a lot of selling to convince people to apply there. It’s well known and respected (U.S. News and World Report ranks it No. 6 for National Universities), it has a beautiful, Silicon Valley-adjacent location in northern California, and boasts a list of notable alumni so long it has a subsection for astronauts. Stanford’s psychology program is unsurprisingly robust, offering four optional concentrations (cognitive sciences; health and development; mind, culture, and society; and neuroscience) as part of its 70-credit curriculum. Coursework begins with two introductory courses (one for psychology and one for statistics), then five core courses. Those are chosen from a field of 10, which the school divides into Area A (perception and cognition) and Area B (focus areas like developmental, social, cultural, and clinical psychology). Students also take one â€Å"Writing in Major† course, then fill out the remaining credits with concentration courses or electives. Stanford also offers undergrads opportunities to conduct independent research or spend their summers working on research projects. The university packs a lot in for a reasonable price: $16,562, well below average and median costs for the programs offering the 20 best bachelor’s degrees in psychology.