Best Colleges for Psychology: Ranked by Graduate Salary, Not Prestige
We rank by what graduates actually earn — not by reputation surveys.
Top Schools for Psychology — Ranked by Graduate Salary
These schools produce the highest-earning Psychology graduates, based on federal earnings data. We rank by salary outcomes, not prestige.
| # | School | Psychology Salary | Acceptance Rate | Degrees/Year | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brown University Providence, RI |
$55,800 | 5.2% | 55 | Reach |
| 2 | Columbia University New York, NY |
$55,800 | 4.2% | 124 | Reach |
| 3 | Cornell University Ithaca, NY |
$55,800 | 8.2% | 57 | Reach |
| 4 | Dartmouth College Hanover, NH |
$55,800 | 6.2% | 40 | Reach |
| 5 | Duke University Durham, NC |
$55,800 | 6.8% | 107 | Reach |
| 6 | Harvard University Cambridge, MA |
$55,800 | 3.5% | 91 | Reach |
| 7 | Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, MD |
$55,800 | 7.6% | 59 | Reach |
| 8 | New York University (NYU) New York, NY |
$55,800 | 9.4% | 438 | Reach |
| 9 | Northwestern University Evanston, IL |
$55,800 | 7.1% | 152 | Reach |
| 10 | Princeton University Princeton, NJ |
$55,800 | 4.5% | 50 | Reach |
| 11 | Stanford University Stanford, CA |
$55,800 | 3.9% | 53 | Reach |
| 12 | UCLA Los Angeles, CA |
$55,800 | 9.0% | 1,063 | Reach |
| 13 | University of Chicago Chicago, IL |
$55,800 | 4.8% | 66 | Reach |
| 14 | University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA |
$55,800 | 5.9% | 77 | Reach |
| 15 | Yale University New Haven, CT |
$55,800 | 4.5% | 63 | Reach |
| 16 | Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA |
$52,200 | 11.4% | 21 | Reach |
| 17 | Georgetown University Washington, DC |
$52,200 | 13.1% | 87 | Reach |
| 18 | Tufts University Medford, MA |
$52,200 | 10.1% | 94 | Reach |
| 19 | UC Berkeley Berkeley, CA |
$52,200 | 11.7% | 322 | Reach |
| 20 | USC Los Angeles, CA |
$52,200 | 10.0% | 173 | Reach |
| 21 | Georgia Tech Atlanta, GA |
$48,600 | 16.5% | 37 | Match |
| 22 | University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI |
$48,600 | 17.9% | 679 | Match |
| 23 | University of Virginia Charlottesville, VA |
$48,600 | 16.9% | 183 | Match |
| 24 | Texas A&M University Austin, TX |
$45,000 | 29.1% | 514 | Match |
| 25 | UC Irvine Irvine, CA |
$45,000 | 25.6% | 1,067 | Match |
| 26 | UC San Diego La Jolla, CA |
$45,000 | 24.5% | 725 | Match |
| 27 | UC Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, CA |
$45,000 | 27.8% | 643 | Match |
| 28 | University of Florida Gainesville, FL |
$45,000 | 24.0% | 611 | Match |
| 29 | UC Davis Davis, CA |
$41,400 | 41.6% | 866 | Safety |
| 30 | University of Illinois Champaign, IL |
$41,400 | 43.7% | 531 | Safety |
Data source: IPEDS, College Scorecard.