2025 Best Mental & Social Health Services Doctor's Degree Schools

If you plan on getting your doctor's degree in mental & social health services, you won't be alone since the degree program is ranked #71 in the country in terms of popularity. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.

For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 3 schools in the United States to determine which ones were the best for mental & social health services students pursuing a doctor's degree. Combined, these schools handed out 271 doctor's degrees in mental & social health services to qualified students.

What's on this page: * Our Methodology

• Best Doctor’s Degree Schools List

Choosing a Great Mental & Social Health Services School for Your Doctor's Degree

Your choice of mental & social health services for getting your doctor's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality mental health services program can vary widely even among the top schools. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:

Overall Quality Is a Must

A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To take this into account we include a school's overall Best Colleges for a Doctor's Degree ranking which itself looks at a host of various factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.

Average Early-Career Salaries

Average early-career salary of those graduating with their doctor's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. That is, everyone wants their doctor's degree to be worth something, and salaries are one measure of determining that.

Other Factors We Consider

The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.

• Major Focus - How much a school focuses on mental & social health services students vs. other majors.
• Major Demand - The number of mental & social health services students who choose to seek a doctor's degree at the school.
• Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
• Student Debt - How easy is it for mental & social health services to pay back their student loans after receiving their doctor's degree.
• Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized mental & social health services related body.

Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for mental & social health services students working on their doctor's degree.

One Size Does Not Fit All

Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Mental & Social Health Services Doctor's Degree Schools list, to help you choose the best school for you.

Best Schools for Doctorate Students to Study Mental & Social Health Services in the United States

The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a doctor's degree in mental & social health services.

Top Schools for a Doctorate in Mental Health Services

1

Loma Linda University
Loma Linda, CA

10 Annual Graduates

It is difficult to beat Loma Linda University if you wish to pursue a doctor's degree in mental & social health services. Loma Linda University is a small private not-for-profit university located in the large suburb of Loma Linda.More information about a doctorate in mental & social health services from Loma Linda University

2

Nova Southeastern University
Fort Lauderdale, FL

16 Annual Graduates

$64,191 Median Starting Salary

It is difficult to beat Nova Southeastern University if you wish to pursue a doctor's degree in mental & social health services. Located in the suburb of Fort Lauderdale, NUS Florida is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.

Doctorate graduates who receive their degree from the mental health services program make around $64,191 in the first couple years of their career.

More information about a doctorate in mental & social health services from Nova Southeastern University

3

Texas Woman's University
Denton, TX

10 Annual Graduates

$77,507 Median Starting Salary

Texas Woman's University is a great decision for individuals pursuing a doctor's degree in mental & social health services. TWU is a fairly large public university located in the midsize city of Denton.

Mental & Social Health Services doctor's degree recipients from Texas Woman's University earn a boost of around $9,486 over the average income of mental & social health services graduates.

More information about a doctorate in mental & social health services from Texas Woman’s University

Mental & Social Health Services by Region

View the Best Mental & Social Health Services Doctor's Degree Schools for a specific region near you.

Region
Southeast
New England
Rocky Mountains
Plains States
Middle Atlantic
Far Western US
Southwest
Other U.S. Territories
Great Lakes

View All Rankings >

Mental & Social Health Services Related Rankings by Major

Mental & Social Health Services is one of 34 different types of Health Professions programs to choose from.

Mental Health Services Focus Areas

Major	Annual Graduates
Marriage and Family Therapy/Counseling	152
Other Mental and Social Health Services and Allied Professions	45
Mental Health Counseling/Counselor	25
Clinical/Medical Social Work	13
Community Health Services/Liaison/Counseling	9
Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy	9
Psychiatric/Mental Health Services Technician	8
Substance Abuse/Addiction Counseling	7
Medical Family Therapy/Therapist	2
Clinical Pastoral Counseling/Patient Counseling	1

Majors Similar to Mental Health Services

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Medicine	29,168
Rehabilitation & Therapeutic Professions	16,935
Pharmacy/Pharmaceutical Sciences	13,508
Nursing	13,058
Dentistry	6,928
Chiropractic	2,698
Optometry	1,780
Communication Sciences	1,034
Public Health	1,011
Alternative Medicine & Systems	978

Notes and References

• The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
• 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). More about our data sources and methodologies.