2025 Best Psychology Doctor's Degree Schools in Tennessee

If you plan on getting your doctor's degree in psychology, you won't be alone since the degree program is ranked #6 in the country in terms of popularity. This means you won't have too much trouble finding schools that offer the degree.

For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 3 schools in Tennessee to determine which ones were the best for psychology students pursuing a doctor's degree. Combined, these schools handed out 109 doctor's degrees in psychology to qualified students.

What's on this page: * Our Methodology

• Best Doctor’s Degree Schools List

Choosing a Great Psychology School for Your Doctor's Degree

Your choice of psychology for getting your doctor's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality psychology program can vary widely even among the top schools. 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 school's overall Best Colleges for a Doctor's Degree ranking which itself looks at a combination 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 psychology students as compared to other majors.
• Major Demand - The number of psychology 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 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 psychology related body.

Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for psychology students working on their doctor's degree.

One Size Does Not Fit All

The psychology school you choose to invest your time and money in matters. To help you make the decision that is right for you, we've developed a number of major-specific rankings, including this list of the Best Psychology Doctor's Degree Schools in Tennessee.

Best Schools for Doctorate Students to Study Psychology in Tennessee

The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a doctor's degree in psychology.

Top Tennessee Schools for a Doctorate in Psychology

1

Vanderbilt University
Nashville, TN

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

23 Annual Graduates

Vanderbilt University is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a doctor's degree in psychology. Located in the city of Nashville, Vanderbilt is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.More information about a doctorate in psychology from Vanderbilt University

2

University of Memphis
Memphis, TN

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

24 Annual Graduates

It is difficult to beat University of Memphis if you wish to pursue a doctor's degree in psychology. Located in the city of Memphis, UofM is a public university with a very large student population.More information about a doctorate in psychology from University of Memphis

3

Tennessee State University
Nashville, TN

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

14 Annual Graduates

It's hard to beat Tennessee State University if you wish to pursue a doctor's degree in psychology. Located in the city of Nashville, Tennessee State University is a public university with a moderately-sized student population.More information about a doctorate in psychology from Tennessee State University

Best Psychology Colleges in the Southeast Region

Explore all the Best Psychology Colleges in the Southeast Area or other specific states within that region.

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Florida	29	336
Virginia	29	198
Georgia	28	98
Mississippi	28	77
South Carolina	28	18
North Carolina	26	73
Kentucky	26	79
Alabama	25	59
Louisiana	25	50
Arkansas	23	13
West Virginia	20	27

View All Rankings >

Psychology Majors to Study

Major	Annual Graduates
General Psychology	45
Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology	43
Child Development & Psychology	21

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).
• Credit for the banner image above goes to Nevit Dilmen. More about our data sources and methodologies.