2025 Best Psychology Master's Degree Schools in Illinois

Psychology is above average in terms of popularity with it being the #7 most popular master's degree program in the country. As a result, there are many college that offer the degree, making your choice of school a hard one.

For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 19 schools in Illinois to determine which ones were the best for psychology students pursuing a master's degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 1,817 master's degrees in psychology during the 2022-2023 academic year.

What's on this page: * Our Methodology

• Best Master’s Degree Schools List

Choosing a Great Psychology School for Your Master's Degree

The psychology master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. 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

The overall quality of a master's degree school is important to ensure a quality education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To account for this we include a college's overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking which itself looks at a collection of various factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.

Early-Career Earnings

One measure we use to determine the quality of a school is to look at the average salary of master's graduates during the early years of their career. That is, everyone wants their master's 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 psychology students as compared to other majors.
• Major Demand - How many other psychology students want to attend this school to pursue a master's 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 easy is it for psychology to pay back their student loans after receiving their master'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 master's degree.

One Size Does Not Fit All

Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Psychology Master's Degree Schools in Illinois ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.

Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Psychology in Illinois

Learn about the top ranked colleges and universities for psychology students seeking a a master's degree.

10 Top Illinois Schools for a Master's in Psychology

1

Northwestern University
Evanston, IL

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

378 Annual Graduates

Northwestern University is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a master's degree in psychology. Located in the city of Evanston, Northwestern is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.More information about a master’s in psychology from Northwestern University

2

University of Chicago
Chicago, IL

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

77 Annual Graduates

University of Chicago is one of the best schools in the country for getting a master's degree in psychology. UChicago is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Chicago.More information about a master’s in psychology from University of Chicago

3

Loyola University Chicago
Chicago, IL

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

67 Annual Graduates

Loyola University Chicago is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a master's degree in psychology. Loyola Chicago is a large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Chicago.More information about a master’s in psychology from Loyola University Chicago

4

University of Illinois at Chicago
Chicago, IL

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

13 Annual Graduates

It's hard to beat University of Illinois at Chicago if you wish to pursue a master's degree in psychology. Located in the city of Chicago, UIC is a public university with a fairly large student population.More information about a master’s in psychology from University of Illinois at Chicago

5

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Champaign, IL

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

27 Annual Graduates

UIUC is a fairly large public university located in the small city of Champaign.More information about a master’s in psychology from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

6

National Louis University
Chicago, IL

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

155 Annual Graduates

NLU is a moderately-sized private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Chicago.More information about a master’s in psychology from National Louis University

7

DePaul University
Chicago, IL

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

68 Annual Graduates

DePaul is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Chicago.More information about a master’s in psychology from DePaul University

8

Wheaton College Illinois
Wheaton, IL

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

32 Annual Graduates

Located in the large suburb of Wheaton, Wheaton College Illinois is a private not-for-profit college with a small student population.More information about a master’s in psychology from Wheaton College Illinois

9

Roosevelt University
Chicago, IL

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

97 Annual Graduates

Roosevelt is a small private not-for-profit university located in the city of Chicago.More information about a master’s in psychology from Roosevelt University

10

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
Edwardsville, IL

Master's Degree Highest Degree Type

25 Annual Graduates

SIUE is a large public university located in the suburb of Edwardsville.More information about a master’s in psychology from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville

Best Psychology Colleges in the Great Lakes Region

Explore all the Best Psychology Schools in the Great Lakes Area or other specific states within that region.

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Indiana	33	507
Ohio	32	759
Michigan	31	546
Wisconsin	31	440

View All Rankings >

Psychology Majors to Study

Major	Annual Graduates
Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology	1,563
General Psychology	132
Child Development & Psychology	122

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.