You may be surprised at how affordable psychology programs can be. We’ll show you where to find the cheapest online options for this degree. Below, we also cover the career paths available after graduation and explain exactly why you should consider earning your degree online.
What You Can Do with a Psychology Degree
There are several different disciplines within the psychology profession, including:
- Clinical psychologist: These psychologists are focused on diagnosing and treating mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders. They often work in healthcare facilities, and in some states, they are allowed to prescribe medication.
- Counseling psychologist: This type of psychology involves meeting with clients to help them understand themselves, deal with issues, and improve their well-being.
- Developmental psychologist: In this research-oriented role, psychologists study how people change over time. Many developmental psychologists focus on a specific age group, such as adolescents or older adults.
- Industrial-organizational psychologist: This discipline involves using psychological principles to help address workplace issues.
As with most occupations, your career options as a psychologist will depend on your level of education.
To hold the title of “psychologist,” you’ll likely need a doctoral degree. If you’re considering a doctorate, you have two options to choose from. A Ph.D. in Psychology program will focus on teaching you how to conduct original research. A Doctor of Psychology (Psy.D.) program will prepare you for more practical, hands-on roles. In addition to earning a doctorate, most states require you to complete an internship and one to two years of supervised professional experience in order to become licensed as a psychologist.
In some schools and industrial-organizational settings, you may be able to find entry-level work as a psychologist with a master’s degree.
While it takes a lot of education to become a psychologist, the monetary rewards are certainly worth it. The average salary for this occupation is $81,040 per year (nearly double that of all professions), and the top 10% make more than $133,890.
It’s worth noting that psychology jobs aren’t the only option for those who have earned a psychology degree. In fact, this is one of the most versatile degrees available. Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows that workers with a psychology degree are employed in many different industries, such as:
Social worker
Psychologists who work in the field rather than research settings often have similar job responsibilities as social workers. Both of these occupations require strong communication and interpersonal skills and involve helping people address challenges in their lives. While social workers tend to make less money (they have an average salary of $50,390), one advantage to this career path is that you can find entry-level work with just a bachelor’s degree.
Human resources specialist
Human resources specialists help organizations with tasks such as recruitment, training, benefits administration, and conflict resolution. You’ll be especially well-qualified for a human resources role if you are able to earn your degree with a concentration in industrial-organizational psychology. This occupation offers above-average pay (average salary of $62,290) as well as a strong growth rate (8% over the next decade, which is faster than average), and it only requires a bachelor’s for entry-level jobs.
Postsecondary teacher
This is another option for those who have earned a graduate degree in psychology. Teaching at a traditional four-year university typically requires a Ph.D., though you may be able to get a teaching job at a community college with a master’s degree. The average salary for postsecondary teachers is $79,640, and this occupation is growing at an exceptionally high rate of 12% over the next decade.
Lawyer
Of course, you can’t become a lawyer with just a psychology degree. This occupation requires a Juris Doctor — but to get into law school and reach this level of education, you’ll first need to earn an undergraduate degree. A Bachelor’s in Psychology is one of the most popular “pre-law” options, as it covers many subjects relevant to the legal profession (perception, motivation, statistics, etc.).
Why You Should Consider Earning Your Psychology Degree Online
Earning a college degree can be quite time-consuming. To successfully keep up with their classes and maintain good grades, most students need to study for about two to three hours per week for every credit hour of courses that they’re taking. A full-time semester is generally considered 12 credit hours, so you can see how all this coursework can really add up.
With an in-person program, you must also consider the commute. Unless you already happen to live near campus or are willing to pay the exorbitant rates for college dorms, you would need to spend additional hours every week driving back and forth from campus to attend in-person lectures and exams. Choosing an online program instead would eliminate this need, providing you with more availability for all the time it already takes to complete your studies.
Online classes can also be more convenient. They’re often offered in an asynchronous format, which means you can go through lessons and even take many of the required tests at your own pace. This is especially useful for parents, full-time workers, or anyone else trying to fit their psychology degree program into a busy schedule.
Our Research
This list features some of the country’s cheapest online psychology degree programs. Each school featured is a nonprofit, accredited institution, either public or private, with a high standard of academic quality for postsecondary institutions.
We evaluated each school’s program on tuition costs, admission, retention and graduation rates, faculty, and reputation. Then, we calculated the Intelligent Score on a scale of 0 to 100. Read more about our ranking methodology.
Next, we compared this comprehensive list of the cheapest online psychology degree programs to a list of aggregated college rankings from reputable publications, such as U.S. News & World Report, to simplify a student’s college search. We pored through these rankings so students don’t have to.
The 50 Cheapest Online Psychology Degree Programs
