2025 Best Psychology Doctor's Degree Schools in the Plains States Region

If you plan on getting your doctor's degree in psychology, you won't be alone since the degree program is ranked #6 in the country in terms of popularity. This means you won't have too much trouble finding schools that offer the degree.

College Factual looked at 9 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Psychology Doctor's Degree Schools in the Plains States Region ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 651 doctor's degrees in psychology during the 2022-2023 academic year.

What's on this page: * Our Methodology

• Best Doctor’s Degree Schools List

Choosing a Great Psychology School for Your Doctor's Degree

Your choice of psychology for getting your doctor's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality psychology program can vary widely even among the top schools. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:

Quality Overall Is Important

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 include a school's overall Best Colleges for a Doctor's Degree ranking which itself looks at a host of different factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.

Average Earnings

To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their doctor's degree from the school. After all, your doctor'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

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 psychology students as compared to other majors.
• Major Demand - The number of psychology students who choose to seek a doctor's degree at the school.
• 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 easy is it for psychology to pay back their student loans after receiving their doctor's degree.
• 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 colleges for psychology students working on their doctor's degree.

One Size Does Not Fit All

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 the Plains States Region list to help you make the college decision.

Best Schools for Doctorate Students to Study Psychology in the Plains States Region

The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a doctor's degree in psychology.

Top Plains States Region Schools for a Doctorate in Psychology

1

University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
Minneapolis, MN

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

49 Annual Graduates

University of Minnesota - Twin Cities is one of the best schools in the country for getting a doctor's degree in psychology. UMN Twin Cities is a very large public university located in the city of Minneapolis.More information about a doctorate in psychology from University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

2

Washington University in St Louis
Saint Louis, MO

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

10 Annual Graduates

Washington University in St Louis is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a doctor's degree in psychology. WUSTL is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large suburb of Saint Louis.More information about a doctorate in psychology from Washington University in St Louis

3

University of South Dakota
Vermillion, SD

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

16 Annual Graduates

University of South Dakota is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a doctor's degree in psychology. USD is a medium-sized public university located in the distant town of Vermillion.More information about a doctorate in psychology from University of South Dakota

4

University of Missouri - Columbia
Columbia, MO

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

14 Annual Graduates

University of Missouri - Columbia is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a doctor's degree in psychology. Located in the city of Columbia, Mizzou is a public university with a fairly large student population.More information about a doctorate in psychology from University of Missouri - Columbia

5

University of Kansas
Lawrence, KS

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

33 Annual Graduates

Located in the city of Lawrence, KU is a public university with a very large student population.More information about a doctorate in psychology from University of Kansas

6

University of North Dakota
Grand Forks, ND

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

16 Annual Graduates

UND is a fairly large public university located in the city of Grand Forks.More information about a doctorate in psychology from University of North Dakota

7

University of St Thomas Minnesota
Saint Paul, MN

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

15 Annual Graduates

UST MN is a moderately-sized private not-for-profit university located in the city of Saint Paul.More information about a doctorate in psychology from University of St Thomas Minnesota

8

University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Lincoln, NE

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

24 Annual Graduates

Located in the large city of Lincoln, UNL is a public university with a fairly large student population.More information about a doctorate in psychology from University of Nebraska - Lincoln

9

Saint Louis University
Saint Louis, MO

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

20 Annual Graduates

Located in the city of Saint Louis, SLU is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.More information about a doctorate in psychology from Saint Louis University

Best Psychology Colleges by State

Explore the best psychology colleges for a specific state in the Plains States Region .

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Minnesota	27	451
Missouri	27	65
Kansas	26	46
Iowa	26	29
Nebraska	24	21
North Dakota	21	24
South Dakota	15	9

View All Rankings >

Psychology Majors to Study

Major	Annual Graduates
Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology	322
General Psychology	220
Child Development & Psychology	109

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.