2025 Best Psychology Doctor's Degree Schools in California

a doctor's degree in psychology is more popular than many other degrees. In fact, it ranks #6 out of 36 on popularity of all such degrees in the nation. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.

For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 17 schools in California to determine which ones were the best for psychology students pursuing a doctor's degree. Combined, these schools handed out 1,257 doctor's degrees in psychology to qualified students.

Jump to one of the following sections: * Our Methodology

• Best Doctor’s Degree Schools List

Choosing a Great Psychology School for Your Doctor's Degree

The psychology doctor'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

The overall quality of a doctor's degree school is important to ensure a good education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges for a Doctor's Degree 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 doctor's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. That is, everyone wants their doctor'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 psychology students vs. other majors.
• Major Demand - How many other psychology students want to attend this school to pursue a doctor'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 much debt psychology students go into to obtain their doctor's 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 psychology related body.

Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for psychology students working on their doctor's degree.

More Ways to Rank Psychology Schools

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 Psychology Doctor's Degree Schools in California list to help you make the college decision.

Best Schools for Doctorate Students to Study Psychology in California

Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a doctor's degree in psychology.

10 Top California Schools for a Doctorate in Psychology

1

University of California - Irvine
Irvine, CA

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

15 Annual Graduates

It is difficult to beat University of California - Irvine if you want to pursue a doctor's degree in psychology. UC Irvine is a very large public university located in the large city of Irvine.More information about a doctorate in psychology from University of California - Irvine

2

University of California - Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

28 Annual Graduates

Every student who is interested in a doctor's degree in psychology has to take a look at University of California - Los Angeles. Located in the city of Los Angeles, UCLA is a public university with a very large student population.More information about a doctorate in psychology from University of California - Los Angeles

3

Palo Alto University
Palo Alto, CA

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

91 Annual Graduates

It is hard to beat Palo Alto University if you want to pursue a doctor's degree in psychology. Pacific Graduate School of Psychology is a small private not-for-profit university located in the rural area of Palo Alto.More information about a doctorate in psychology from Palo Alto University

4

University of California - Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

22 Annual Graduates

Every student pursuing a degree in a doctor's degree in psychology needs to look into University of California - Santa Barbara. Located in the medium-sized suburb of Santa Barbara, UCSB is a public university with a very large student population.More information about a doctorate in psychology from University of California - Santa Barbara

5

University of California - San Diego
La Jolla, CA

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

27 Annual Graduates

UCSD is a very large public university located in the city of La Jolla.More information about a doctorate in psychology from University of California - San Diego

6

University of California - Davis
Davis, CA

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

19 Annual Graduates

Located in the suburb of Davis, UC Davis is a public university with a fairly large student population.More information about a doctorate in psychology from University of California - Davis

7

University of California - Berkeley
Berkeley, CA

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

17 Annual Graduates

UC Berkeley is a fairly large public university located in the city of Berkeley.More information about a doctorate in psychology from University of California - Berkeley

8

Azusa Pacific University
Azusa, CA

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

33 Annual Graduates

Azusa Pacific is a moderately-sized private not-for-profit university located in the large suburb of Azusa.More information about a doctorate in psychology from Azusa Pacific University

9

Pepperdine University
Malibu, CA

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

28 Annual Graduates

Located in the suburb of Malibu, Pepperdine is a private not-for-profit university with a moderately-sized student population.More information about a doctorate in psychology from Pepperdine University

10

The Chicago School of Professional Psychology at Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

131 Annual Graduates

Located in the large city of Los Angeles, The Chicago School Los Angeles Campus is a private not-for-profit school with a small student population.More information about a doctorate in psychology from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology at Los Angeles

Best Psychology Colleges in the Far Western US Region

Explore all the Best Psychology Schools in the Far Western US Area or other specific states within that region.

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Washington	27	73
Oregon	27	112
Nevada	25	41
Hawaii	23	26
Alaska	10	11

View All Rankings >

Psychology Majors to Study

Major	Annual Graduates
Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology	843
General Psychology	174
Child Development & Psychology	136
Other Psychology	104

Notes and References

• 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).
• Credit for the banner image above goes to Nevit Dilmen. More about our data sources and methodologies.