General Psychology is of the hottest bachelor's degree programs in the United States, coming in as the #3 most popular major 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 38 schools in Illinois to determine which ones were the best for general psychology students pursuing a bachelor's degree. Combined, these schools handed out 3,337 bachelor's degrees in general psychology to qualified students.
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Choosing a Great General Psychology School for Your Bachelor's Degree
The psychology bachelor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. 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 make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
Early-Career Earnings
One measure we use to determine the quality of a school is to look at the average salary of bachelor's graduates during the early years of their career. That is, everyone wants their bachelor's degree to be worth something, and salaries are one measure of determining that.
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 general psychology students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - How many other general psychology students want to attend this school to pursue a bachelor's degree.
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 general psychology to pay back their student loans after receiving their bachelor's degree.
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 bachelor's degree.
The 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 General Psychology Bachelor's Degree Schools in Illinois.
In addition to our rankings, you can take two colleges and compare them based on the criteria that matters most to you in our unique tool, College Combat.
Test it out when you get a chance! You may also want to bookmark the link and share it with others who are trying to make the college decision.
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Northwestern University is a good choice for individuals interested in a bachelor's degree in general psychology. Northwestern is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the small city of Evanston.
Those general psychology students who get their bachelor's degree from Northwestern University receive $11,183 more than the standard psychology student.
Loyola University Chicago is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a bachelor's degree in general psychology. Located in the city of Chicago, Loyola Chicago is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
After graduating, psychology bachelor's recipients usually make around $32,463 in the first five years of their career.
It's difficult to beat University of Illinois at Chicago if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in general psychology. UIC is a very large public university located in the large city of Chicago.
After graduation, psychology bachelor's recipients usually make an average of $30,565 in their early careers.
Every student who is interested in a bachelor's degree in general psychology needs to check out Illinois State University. Located in the medium-sized suburb of Normal, Illinois State is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Bachelor's graduates who receive their degree from the psychology program make an average of $32,104 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.
Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
The psychology bachelor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
