2025 Best General Psychology Doctor's Degree Schools in Illinois

If you pursue a doctor's degree in general psychology, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #20 most popular program in the country. So, there are lots of possibilities to explore when you're trying to determine where you want to get your degree.

College Factual reviewed 3 schools in Illinois to determine which ones were the best for doctor's degree seekers in the field of general psychology. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 57 doctor's degrees in general psychology during the 2022-2023 academic year.

What's on this page: * Our Methodology

• Best Doctor’s Degree Schools List

Choosing a Great General Psychology School for Your Doctor's Degree

The psychology doctor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality psychology program can vary widely even among the top schools. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:

Overall Quality Is a Must

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 Early-Career Salaries

Average early-career salary of those graduating with their doctor's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. That is, everyone wants their doctor's degree to be worth something, and salaries are one measure of determining that.

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 general psychology students as compared to other majors.
• Major Demand - How many other general 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 general 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 general psychology related body.

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

One Size Does Not Fit All

Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best General Psychology Doctor's Degree Schools in Illinois list, to help you choose the best school for you.

Best Schools for Doctorate Students to Study General Psychology in Illinois

Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a doctor's degree in general psychology.

Top Illinois Schools for a Doctorate in Psychology

1

Northwestern University
Evanston, IL

12 Annual Graduates

It is hard to beat Northwestern University if you want to pursue a doctor's degree in general psychology. Located in the small city of Evanston, Northwestern is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.More information about a doctorate in general psychology from Northwestern University

2

University of Illinois at Chicago
Chicago, IL

13 Annual Graduates

Any student pursuing a degree in a doctor's degree in general psychology has to check out University of Illinois at Chicago. Located in the city of Chicago, UIC is a public university with a very large student population.More information about a doctorate in general psychology from University of Illinois at Chicago

3

Northern Illinois University
Dekalb, IL

12 Annual Graduates

$86,837 Median Starting Salary

Any student pursuing a degree in a doctor's degree in general psychology has to check out Northern Illinois University. Located in the suburb of Dekalb, NIU is a public university with a large student population.

General Psychology doctor's degree recipients from Northern Illinois University receive an earnings boost of approximately $6,406 over the average income of general psychology majors.

More information about a doctorate in general psychology from Northern Illinois University

Best General Psychology Colleges in the Great Lakes Region

Explore all the Best General Psychology Schools in the Great Lakes Area or other specific states within that region.

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Michigan	149	21
Ohio	144	40
Indiana	132	0
Wisconsin	108	28

View All Rankings >

General Psychology Related Rankings by Major

General Psychology is one of 24 different types of Psychology programs to choose from.

Psychology Focus Areas

Major	Annual Graduates
General Psychology	57

Majors Similar to Psychology

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology	348
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).
• Credit for the banner image above goes to BruceBlaus. More about our data sources and methodologies.