Ranked #3 in popularity, general psychology is one of the most sought-after bachelor's 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 22 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best General Psychology Bachelor's Degree Schools in Tennessee ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 1,815 bachelor's 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 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. 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 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.
Average Early-Career Salaries
Average early-career salary of those graduating with their bachelor's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your bachelor's 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
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 schools for general psychology students working on their bachelor's degree.
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best General Psychology Bachelor's Degree Schools in Tennessee ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
To further help you make the college decision, we've developed a unique tool called College Combat that allows you to compare schools based on the factors that matter the most to you.
Go ahead and give it a try, or bookmark the link so you can check it out later.
DEBUG: Raw major_slug = "psychology//general-psychology"
Every student pursuing a degree in a bachelor's degree in general psychology needs to check out Vanderbilt University. Vanderbilt is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Nashville.
General Psychology bachelor's degree recipients from Vanderbilt University get an earnings boost of approximately $6,264 over the average income of general psychology graduates.
It's hard to beat University of Memphis if you want to pursue a bachelor's degree in general psychology. UofM is a very large public university located in the city of Memphis.
Students who graduate with their bachelor's from the psychology program report average early career earnings of $31,582.
East Tennessee State University is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a bachelor's degree in general psychology. Located in the city of Johnson City, ETSU is a public university with a large student population.
Students who graduate with their bachelor's from the psychology program state that they receive average early career income of $26,403.
It's hard to beat The University of Tennessee - Chattanooga if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in general psychology. Located in the city of Chattanooga, UT Chattanooga is a public university with a large student population.
Students who graduate with their bachelor's from the psychology program report average early career earnings of $30,984.
Sewanee is a small private not-for-profit university located in the rural area of Sewanee.
Those general psychology students who get their bachelor's degree from Sewanee - The University of the South earn $4,927 more than the typical psychology grad.
Rhodes College is a small private not-for-profit college located in the city of Memphis.
General Psychology bachelor's degree recipients from Rhodes College earn a boost of approximately $7,111 over the average income of general psychology majors.
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. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
