2023 Best Psychology Master's Degree Schools
Finding the Best Psychology Master's Degree School for You
Psychology is one of the most popular majors in the nation, ranking 8th of all the majors we analyze. In 2020-2021, 195,678 degrees and certificates were awarded to students with this major.
Today's students have lots of options to pick from when considering higher education opportunities. You're no longer limited to schools in your local area, either, since online programs are becoming more prevalent. Or you may find the programs at a trade school to be a better alternative for you.
Along with in-depth profiles of schools and the programs they offer, Course Advisor has created the Best Psychology Master's Degree Schools to help you in your search for the best school for you. Our analysis looked at 615 schools in the United States to see which master's degree programs offered the best educational experiences for students. To come up with a school's ranking, we analyzed numerous factors related to post-graduation wages, the quality of education offered by the school, average accumulated student debt, and more.
View our full ranking methodology.
2023 Best Psychology Master’s Degree Schools in the United States
The colleges and universities below are the best for psychology majors pursuing a master's degree.
Top 25 Top Schools for a Master's in Psychology
Our 2023 rankings named Stanford University the best school in the United States for psychology students working on their master’s degree. Located in the suburb of Stanford, Stanford is a private not-for-profit college with a fairly large student population.
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The excellent master’s degree programs at Duke University helped the school earn the #2 place on this year’s ranking of the best psychology schools in the United States. Duke is a large private not-for-profit school located in the city of Durham.
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You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend University of Notre Dame. It ranked #3 on our 2023 Best Psychology Master’s Degree Schools list. Notre Dame is a large private not-for-profit school located in the suburb of Notre Dame.
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Out of the 615 schools in the United States that were part of this year’s ranking, Princeton University landed the # 4 spot on the list. Located in the city of Princeton, Princeton is a private not-for-profit college with a medium-sized student population.
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Out of the 615 schools in the United States that were part of this year’s ranking, Yale University landed the # 5 spot on the list. Yale is a fairly large private not-for-profit school located in the midsize city of New Haven.
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Carnegie Mellon University did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for psychology students to get a master’s degree. It came in at #6 on the list. Located in the city of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon is a private not-for-profit school with a large student population.
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Harvard University came in at #7 in this year’s edition of the Best Psychology Master’s Degree Schools ranking. Harvard is a fairly large private not-for-profit school located in the medium-sized city of Cambridge.
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Cornell University did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for psychology students to get a master’s degree. It came in at #8 on the list. Cornell is a fairly large private not-for-profit school located in the city of Ithaca.
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Georgetown University ranked #9 on this year’s Best Psychology Master’s Degree Schools list. Located in the large city of Washington, Georgetown is a private not-for-profit school with a very large student population.
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Brandman University did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for psychology students to get a master’s degree. It came in at #10 on the list. Brandman is a medium-sized private not-for-profit school located in the city of Irvine.
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The Graduate Center, CUNY ranked #11 on this year’s Best Psychology Master’s Degree Schools list. The Graduate Center is a moderately-sized public school located in the city of New York.
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Villanova University came in at #12 in this year’s edition of the Best Psychology Master’s Degree Schools ranking. Villanova is a fairly large private not-for-profit school located in the large suburb of Villanova.
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Washington University in St Louis landed the #13 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best master’s degree psychology programs. Located in the suburb of Saint Louis, WUSTL is a private not-for-profit school with a large student population.
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With a ranking of #14, University of Chicago did quite well on this year’s best schools for psychology students working on their master’s degree. Located in the large city of Chicago, UChicago is a private not-for-profit college with a large student population.
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University of Pennsylvania ranked #15 on this year’s Best Psychology Master’s Degree Schools list. UPenn is a very large private not-for-profit school located in the large city of Philadelphia.
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Pillar College landed the #16 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best master’s degree psychology programs. Located in the large city of Newark, Pillar is a private not-for-profit school with a fairly small student population.
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Southern Methodist University did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for psychology students to get a master’s degree. It came in at #17 on the list. SMU is a large private not-for-profit school located in the suburb of Dallas.
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With a ranking of #18, The Chicago School of Professional Psychology at Chicago did quite well on this year’s best schools for psychology students working on their master’s degree. Located in the large city of Chicago, The Chicago School Chicago Campus is a private not-for-profit school with a small student population.
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University of Georgia did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for psychology students to get a master’s degree. It came in at #19 on the list. Located in the medium-sized city of Athens, UGA is a public school with a fairly large student population.
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Boston College ranked #20 on this year’s Best Psychology Master’s Degree Schools list. Located in the small city of Chestnut Hill, Boston College is a private not-for-profit college with a fairly large student population.
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Palo Alto University came in at #21 in this year’s edition of the Best Psychology Master’s Degree Schools ranking. Pacific Graduate School of Psychology is a small private not-for-profit school located in the rural area of Palo Alto.
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Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University - Worldwide did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for psychology students to get a master’s degree. It came in at #22 on the list. Embry-Riddle Worldwide is a large private not-for-profit school located in the city of Daytona Beach.
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With a ranking of #23, Fielding Graduate University did quite well on this year’s best schools for psychology students working on their master’s degree. Fielding is a small private not-for-profit school located in the city of Santa Barbara.
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Santa Clara University came in at #24 in this year’s edition of the Best Psychology Master’s Degree Schools ranking. Located in the midsize city of Santa Clara, SCU is a private not-for-profit college with a medium-sized student population.
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Rice University ranked #25 on this year’s Best Psychology Master’s Degree Schools list. Rice is a moderately-sized private not-for-profit school located in the city of Houston.
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Additional Award Winners
This list shows the remainder of the schools awarded a Best Psychology Master's Degree Schools badge. Showing in this list means the school was ranked in the top 15% of the 615 different United States psychology schools we analyzed.
Honorable Mentions
These are some additional schools worth mentioning that are also great but just didn't quite make the cut to earn our top Best Psychology Master's Degree Schools award.
Psychology by Region
View the Best Psychology Master's Degree Schools for a specific region near you.
| Region |
|---|
| Southeast |
| New England |
| Rocky Mountains |
| Plains States |
| Middle Atlantic |
| Far Western US |
| Southwest |
| Great Lakes |
More Psychology Rankings
Psychology Related Rankings by Major
Psychology Majors to Study
| Major | Annual Graduates |
|---|---|
| General Psychology | 141,695 |
| Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology | 33,758 |
| Child Development & Psychology | 17,542 |
| Other Psychology | 2,683 |
Most Popular Majors Related to Psychology
| Related Major | Annual Graduates |
|---|---|
| Education | 327,871 |
| Social Sciences | 205,984 |
| Communication & Journalism | 120,571 |
| Family, Consumer & Human Sciences | 55,820 |
| History | 32,731 |
Notes and References
*These averages are for the top 25 schools only.
- Read more about our ranking methodology.
- The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
- Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
- Credit for the banner image above goes to Nevit Dilmen.
More about our data sources and methodologies.
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