If you pursue a doctor's degree in clinical, counseling & applied psychology, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #8 most popular program in the country. This means there are lots of options to choose from when you decide to get your degree.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 96 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology Doctor's Degree Schools ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 4,502 doctor's degrees in clinical, counseling & applied psychology to qualified students.
Choosing a Great Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology School for Your Doctor's Degree
The clinical psychology doctor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality clinical psychology program can vary widely even among the top schools. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
A Great Overall School
The overall quality of a doctor's degree school is important to ensure a quality education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges for a Doctor's Degree ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
Early-Career Earnings
One measure we use to determine the quality of a school is to look at the average salary of doctorate graduates during the early years of their career. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their doctor's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.
Other Factors We Consider
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How much a school focuses on clinical, counseling & applied psychology students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - The number of clinical, counseling & applied psychology students who choose to seek a doctor's degree at the school.
Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
Student Debt - How easy is it for clinical, counseling & applied psychology 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 clinical, counseling & applied psychology related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for clinical, counseling & applied psychology students working on their doctor's degree.
More Ways to Rank Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology Schools
Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology Doctor's Degree Schools list, to help you choose the best school for you.
Best Schools for Doctorate Students to Study Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology in the United States
The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a doctor's degree in clinical, counseling & applied psychology. Only those schools that rank in the top 20% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
19 Top Schools for a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology
It's hard to beat University of Denver if you wish to pursue a doctor's degree in clinical, counseling & applied psychology. Located in the large city of Denver, DU is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Doctorate recipients from the clinical, counseling & applied psychology program at University of Denver get $2,237 more than the average college grad in this field when they enter the workforce.
It is hard to beat Palo Alto University if you wish to pursue a doctor's degree in clinical, counseling & applied psychology. Pacific Graduate School of Psychology is a small private not-for-profit university located in the rural area of Palo Alto.
Doctorate students who receive their degree from the clinical psychology program make an average of $71,023 in the first couple years of working.
Texas A&M University - College Station is one of the best schools in the country for getting a doctor's degree in clinical, counseling & applied psychology. Located in the medium-sized city of College Station, Texas A&M College Station is a public university with a very large student population.
Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology doctor's degree recipients from Texas A&M University - College Station earn a boost of approximately $2,067 above the typical income of clinical, counseling & applied psychology majors.
Located in the large suburb of Hempstead, Hofstra is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Those clinical, counseling & applied psychology students who get their doctor's degree from Hofstra University make $21,688 more than the typical clinical psychology grad.
GWU is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Washington.
Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology doctor's degree recipients from George Washington University get an earnings boost of about $12,147 above the typical earnings of clinical, counseling & applied psychology graduates.
Located in the large suburb of Malibu, Pepperdine is a private not-for-profit university with a medium-sized student population.
Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology doctor's degree recipients from Pepperdine University earn a boost of approximately $12,081 over the average income of clinical, counseling & applied psychology majors.
Located in the large city of Los Angeles, The Chicago School Los Angeles Campus is a private not-for-profit school with a small student population.
Doctorate recipients from the clinical, counseling & applied psychology degree program at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology at Los Angeles make $6,061 more than the standard graduate in this field shortly after graduation.
Florida Tech is a medium-sized private not-for-profit school located in the city of Melbourne.
Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology doctor's degree recipients from Florida Institute of Technology get an earnings boost of about $15,860 over the average income of clinical, counseling & applied psychology majors.
Located in the large suburb of Forest Grove, Pacific is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population.
Doctorate recipients from the clinical, counseling & applied psychology major at Pacific University make $8,701 above the typical graduate in this field shortly after graduation.
Located in the small city of Kalamazoo, WMU is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Doctorate recipients from the clinical, counseling & applied psychology program at Western Michigan University earn $9,379 more than the typical college grad with the same degree shortly after graduation.
Rest of the Top Best Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology Doctor's Degree Schools
Additional Noteworthy Schools
These are some additional schools worth mentioning that are also great but just didn't quite make the cut to earn our top Best Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology Doctor's Degree Schools award.
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.