General Psychology is of the hottest associate degree programs in the United States, coming in as the #8 most popular major in the country. This means there are lots of options to choose from when you decide to get your degree.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 9 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best General Psychology Associate Degree Schools in the Southwest Region ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 1,680 associate degrees in general psychology to qualified students.
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. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
A Great Overall School
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 ranking which itself looks at a combination of various factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
Early-Career Earnings
Average early-career salary of those graduating with their associate degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. That is, everyone wants their associate 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 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 full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for general psychology students working on their associate degree.
When choosing the right school for you, it's important to arm yourself with all the facts you can. To that end, we've created a number of major-specific rankings, including this Best General Psychology Associate Degree Schools in the Southwest Region list to help you make the college decision.
DEBUG: Raw major_slug = "psychology//general-psychology"
Every student pursuing a degree in an associate degree in general psychology needs to take a look at South Texas College. Located in the midsize city of McAllen, South Texas College is a public college with a fairly large student population.
After graduation, psychology associate recipients generally earn an average of $19,552 in the first five years of their career.
Austin Community College District is a great decision for students pursuing an associate degree in general psychology. Located in the city of Austin, Austin Community College District is a public college with a very large student population.
Those general psychology students who get their associate degree from Austin Community College District receive $4,583 more than the typical psychology graduate.
Oklahoma City Community College is a good decision for students interested in an associate degree in general psychology. OCCC is a fairly large public college located in the large city of Oklahoma City.
Associate recipients from the general psychology major at Oklahoma City Community College earn $3,332 above the standard graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
Amarillo College is one of the best schools in the United States for getting an associate degree in general psychology. Located in the city of Amarillo, Amarillo College is a public college with a moderately-sized student population.
Soon after graduation, psychology associate recipients typically make around $25,076 in their early careers.
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. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
