Ranked #8 in popularity, clinical, counseling & applied psychology is one of the most sought-after doctor's degree programs in the nation. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.
College Factual looked at 4 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology Doctor's Degree Schools in Kentucky ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 110 doctor's degrees in clinical, counseling & applied psychology during the 2022-2023 academic year.
Choosing a Great Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology School for Your Doctor's Degree
Your choice of clinical, counseling & applied psychology for getting your doctor's degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
Quality Overall Is Important
A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To account for this we consider a college's overall Best Colleges for a Doctor's Degree ranking which itself looks at a collection of different factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
Average Earnings
To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their doctor's degree from the school. After all, your doctor's degree won't mean much if it doesn't help you find a job that will help you earn a living.
Other Factors We Consider
The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.
Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to clinical, counseling & applied psychology students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - How many other clinical, counseling & applied psychology students want to attend this school to pursue a doctor's degree.
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 much debt clinical, counseling & applied psychology students go into to obtain their doctor's degree and how well they are able to pay back that debt.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized clinical, counseling & applied psychology related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for clinical, counseling & applied psychology students working on their doctor's degree.
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 in Kentucky list, to help you choose the best school for you.
Best Schools for Doctorate Students to Study Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology in Kentucky
Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a doctor's degree in clinical, counseling & applied psychology.
Top Kentucky Schools for a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology
University of Kentucky is a wonderful decision for individuals pursuing a doctor's degree in clinical, counseling & applied psychology. Located in the large city of Lexington, UK is a public university with a very large student population.
Those clinical, counseling & applied psychology students who get their doctor's degree from University of Kentucky earn $11,962 more than the typical clinical psychology grad.
Spalding University is a great option for individuals interested in a doctor's degree in clinical, counseling & applied psychology. Located in the city of Louisville, Spalding is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population.
Soon after graduation, clinical psychology doctorate recipients typically earn an average of $70,760 at the beginning of their careers.
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.
Your choice of clinical, counseling & applied psychology for getting your doctor's degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
