2025 Best Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology Doctor's Degree Schools in Illinois

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 reviewed 4 schools in Illinois to determine which ones were the best for doctor's degree seekers in the field of clinical, counseling & applied psychology. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 348 doctor's degrees in clinical, counseling & applied psychology during the 2022-2023 academic year.

What's on this page: * Our Methodology

• Best Doctor’s Degree Schools List

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 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 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.

One Size Does Not Fit All

Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology Doctor's Degree Schools in Illinois ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.

Best Schools for Doctorate Students to Study Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology in Illinois

Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a doctor's degree in clinical, counseling & applied psychology.

Top Illinois Schools for a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology

1

Loyola University Chicago
Chicago, IL

31 Annual Graduates

$71,820 Median Starting Salary

Any student pursuing a degree in a doctor's degree in clinical, counseling & applied psychology needs to look into Loyola University Chicago. Loyola Chicago is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Chicago.

Students who graduate with their doctorate from the clinical psychology program report average early career income of $71,820.

More information about a doctorate in clinical, counseling & applied psychology from Loyola University Chicago

2

National Louis University
Chicago, IL

48 Annual Graduates

$66,830 Median Starting Salary

Every student who is interested in a doctor's degree in clinical, counseling & applied psychology has to take a look at National Louis University. NLU is a moderately-sized private not-for-profit university located in the city of Chicago.

After graduation, clinical psychology doctorate recipients usually earn an average of $66,830 at the beginning of their careers.

More information about a doctorate in clinical, counseling & applied psychology from National Louis University

3

DePaul University
Chicago, IL

15 Annual Graduates

It is hard to beat DePaul University if you want to pursue a doctor's degree in clinical, counseling & applied psychology. DePaul is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Chicago.More information about a doctorate in clinical, counseling & applied psychology from DePaul University

4

Roosevelt University
Chicago, IL

20 Annual Graduates

$70,211 Median Starting Salary

It is hard to beat Roosevelt University if you wish to pursue a doctor's degree in clinical, counseling & applied psychology. Roosevelt is a small private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Chicago.

After graduating, clinical psychology doctorate recipients generally earn an average of $70,211 in their early careers.

More information about a doctorate in clinical, counseling & applied psychology from Roosevelt University

Best Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology Colleges in the Great Lakes Region

Explore all the Best Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology Schools in the Great Lakes Area or other specific states within that region.

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Michigan	149	65
Ohio	144	79
Indiana	132	68
Wisconsin	108	53

View All Rankings >

Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology Related Rankings by Major

Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology is one of 24 different types of Psychology programs to choose from.

Clinical Psychology Concentrations

Major	Annual Graduates
Clinical Psychology	224
School Psychology	39
Industrial & Organizational Psychology	27
Community Psychology	25
Educational Psychology	14
Counseling Psychology	10
Other Psychology & Counseling	6
Applied Behavior Analysis	3

Majors Similar to Clinical Psychology

Related Major	Annual Graduates
General Psychology	57
Child Development & Psychology	35

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.