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.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 6 schools in Pennsylvania to determine which ones were the best for general psychology students pursuing a associate degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 539 associate degrees in general psychology during the 2022-2023 academic year.
DEBUG: Checking offer "General Psychology (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" with relevance 1
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "General Psychology (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" ACCEPTED (relevance 1)
DEBUG: Checking offer "General Psychology (I Have a Bachelors)" with relevance 1
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "General Psychology (I Have a Bachelors)" ACCEPTED (relevance 1)
DEBUG: Checking offer "General Psychology (I Have a Masters)" with relevance 1
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "General Psychology (I Have a Masters)" ACCEPTED (relevance 1)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Psychology Bachelors Programs (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" with relevance 1
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "Psychology Bachelors Programs (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" ACCEPTED (relevance 1)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Psychology EdS Programs (I Have a Masters)" with relevance 1
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "Psychology EdS Programs (I Have a Masters)" ACCEPTED (relevance 1)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Psychology Graduate Certificate Programs (I Have a Bachelors)" with relevance 1
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "Psychology Graduate Certificate Programs (I Have a Bachelors)" ACCEPTED (relevance 1)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Psychology PhD Programs (I Have a Masters)" with relevance 1
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "Psychology PhD Programs (I Have a Masters)" ACCEPTED (relevance 1)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Psychology PsyD Programs (I Have a Masters)" with relevance 1
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "Psychology PsyD Programs (I Have a Masters)" ACCEPTED (relevance 1)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Science & Engineering Masters Programs (I Have a Bachelors)" with relevance 1
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "Science & Engineering Masters Programs (I Have a Bachelors)" ACCEPTED (relevance 1)
DEBUG: Checking offer "BA in Psychology" with relevance 1
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "BA in Psychology" ACCEPTED (relevance 1)
DEBUG: Checking offer "MS in Psychology" with relevance 1
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "MS in Psychology" ACCEPTED (relevance 1)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Clinical Psychology (I Have a Bachelors)" with relevance 0.8
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "Clinical Psychology (I Have a Bachelors)" ACCEPTED (relevance 0.8)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Developmental Psychology (I Have a Bachelors)" with relevance 0.8
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "Developmental Psychology (I Have a Bachelors)" ACCEPTED (relevance 0.8)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Developmental Psychology (I Have a Masters)" with relevance 0.8
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "Developmental Psychology (I Have a Masters)" ACCEPTED (relevance 0.8)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Applied Psychology (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" with relevance 0.7
DEBUG: ✗ Offer "Applied Psychology (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" REJECTED (relevance 0.7)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Health Psychology (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" with relevance 0.7
DEBUG: ✗ Offer "Health Psychology (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" REJECTED (relevance 0.7)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Health Psychology (I Have a Bachelors)" with relevance 0.7
DEBUG: ✗ Offer "Health Psychology (I Have a Bachelors)" REJECTED (relevance 0.7)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Social Psychology (I Have a Bachelors)" with relevance 0.7
DEBUG: ✗ Offer "Social Psychology (I Have a Bachelors)" REJECTED (relevance 0.7)
DEBUG: relevant_offers count = 14
DEBUG: relevant_offers > 0, checking for ESYOH offers
DEBUG: ESYOH filtering - found 12 ESYOH offers with relevance >= 0.8
DEBUG: esyoh_offers count = 12
DEBUG: ESYOH offers found, rendering ESYOH widget
DEBUG: most_relevant_only = true, filtering for most relevant
DEBUG: Found 9 offers with relevance >= 1.0
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 host of various 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 the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best General Psychology Associate Degree Schools in Pennsylvania list, to help you choose the best school for you.
DEBUG: Raw major_slug = "psychology//general-psychology"
Community College of Philadelphia is one of the best schools in the country for getting an associate degree in general psychology. Located in the city of Philadelphia, Community College of Philadelphia is a public college with a fairly large student population.
Associate recipients from the general psychology program at Community College of Philadelphia get $2,298 above the typical college grad in this field shortly after graduation.
Delaware County Community College is a great decision for individuals pursuing an associate degree in general psychology. Delaware County Community College is a moderately-sized public college located in the large suburb of Media.
Students who graduate with their associate from the psychology program state that they receive average early career wages of $17,269.
Any student pursuing a degree in an associate degree in general psychology needs to take a look at Bucks County Community College. Located in the rural area of Newtown, Bucks County Community College is a public college with a medium-sized student population.
Associate recipients from the general psychology degree program at Bucks County Community College get $6,169 above the average college graduate in this field shortly after graduation.
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).