Ranked #8 in popularity, general psychology is one of the most sought-after associate degree programs in the nation. So, there are lots of possibilities to explore when you're trying to determine where you want to get your degree.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 18 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best General Psychology Associate Degree Schools in California ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 11,995 associate degrees in general psychology during the 2022-2023 academic year.
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Choosing a Great General Psychology School for Your Associate Degree
Your choice of general psychology for getting your associate degree school matters. 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 take this into account we consider a school's overall Best Colleges 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 Early-Career Salaries
To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their associate degree from the school. After all, your associate 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 general psychology students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - How many other general psychology students want to attend this school to pursue a associate 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 associate 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 colleges for general psychology students working on their associate degree.
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best General Psychology Associate Degree Schools in California ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
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Merced College is a great option for students interested in an associate degree in general psychology. Merced Community College District is a fairly large public college located in the small city of Merced.
Those general psychology students who get their associate degree from Merced College receive $9,904 more than the standard psychology grad.
Modesto Junior College is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting an associate degree in general psychology. Located in the medium-sized city of Modesto, MJC is a public college with a large student population.
Students who graduate with their associate from the psychology program state that they receive average early career wages of $25,832.
Every student pursuing a degree in an associate degree in general psychology needs to take a look at Pasadena City College. Located in the city of Pasadena, Pasadena City College is a public college with a fairly large student population.
Associate students who receive their degree from the psychology program earn about $24,894 in the first couple years of working.
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).
Your choice of general psychology for getting your associate degree school matters. 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:
