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.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 2 schools in Tennessee to determine which ones were the best for clinical, counseling & applied psychology students pursuing a doctor's degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 43 doctor's degrees in clinical, counseling & applied psychology during the 2022-2023 academic year.
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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
The clinical 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 Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology Doctor's Degree Schools in Tennessee.
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University of Memphis is a wonderful decision for students pursuing a doctor's degree in clinical, counseling & applied psychology. UofM is a fairly large public university located in the large city of Memphis.
Doctorate students who receive their degree from the clinical psychology program make an average of $85,214 for their early career.
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.