In the realm of social sciences, psychology is one of the most popular undergraduate majors: a 2022 data set from the National Center for Education Statistics reports that in 2020-21, bachelor’s degrees awarded by US institutions in psychology (126,944) tripled those awarded in the category of all “liberal arts and sciences, general studies, and humanities” combined (41,909). According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the job outlook for psychologists is expected to grow by 6% through 2032, faster than the average for all occupations. Listed in alphabetical order, below, is a sample of top undergraduate psychology programs that prepare students to make significant contributions to society—from reducing unconscious racial biases, to understanding long-term brain impacts of COVID-19, to developing AI systems for improving mental health, to name a few.
STRONG UNDERGRADUATE PSYCHOLOGY PROGRAMS
Carnegie Mellon University
Technological innovations such as infamous Jeopardy victor Watson and some of the world’s first cognitive tutors put CMU on the map as a leader in the brain and behavior, a reputation recently bolstered by a $10M donation to the university for CMU’s new Neuroscience Institute. Best known for its contributions to cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience thanks to the seminal work of John Anderson, Herbert Simon and Allen Newell, the CMU undergraduate psychology department offers two additional sub-domains in developmental and social/personality/health psychology. The heavy science orientation of the CMU psychology department serves as strong preparation for clinical psychology, and the department participates in a nationally funded undergraduate research program that supports students working for a year in a faculty lab as preparation for mental-health related research careers.
Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins has been on the cutting edge of psychological and brain science research since the first psychological laboratory in America was founded at JHU in 1883. Students will find a number of undergraduate initiatives at JHU to support their study of psychology, including the Psi Chi Honor Society, which aims to advance the science of psychology; the Colloquium Series featuring leaders in the field; the Undergraduate Steering Committee, a group of students who meet regularly to discuss the psychology departmental experience and curriculum; and the Psychology Mentor Program, where juniors and advise first-years and sophomores on course selection and research/internship opportunities. With an undergraduate population of just over 6,000, JHU has an intimate psychology department with the resources of a major research university as well as association with one of the world’s leading medical institutions.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MIT’s Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences (BCS) started as a Psychology Department founded by Hans-Lukas Teuber, who had the revolutionary vision in 1960 that “to understand questions of the mind, we must study the brain.” Today, the department holds true to Dr. Teuber’s idea, pursuing a mission “to reverse engineer the brain in order to understand the mind” by building links from molecules to human behavior and every mechanism in between. The BCS department is headquartered at Building 46, the largest neuroscience facility in the world and the only building on MIT’s campus to hold all academic activity and research of a single department under one roof.
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Pomona College
In the category of liberal arts colleges, the psychology department at Pomona is one of the strongest. A pioneer in academia, Pomona’s was the first psychology department in the nation with a cultural/ethnic course requirement, which students can fulfill through classes such as Psychology of the Chicanx Latinx Experience, Psychology of the Black Experience, or Asian American Psychology; and they are the only school that requires an empirical thesis of all graduates. Psych students at Pomona have the advantage of an expansive course catalog thanks to the seamless integration of departments across all five of the Claremont Colleges situated within the same square mile.
Stanford University
Though you’d be hard pressed to find a “top program” list that didn’t include Stanford, it’s impossible to overlook a school recognized in 2003 by the Smithsonian Institution for three decades—thirty years!—at the #1 spot of U.S. News & World Report’s psychology department list. Stanford is home to some of the most pre-eminent psychology scholars in the world, including Carol Dweck, Claude Steele, Jennifer Eberhardt, Albert Bandura, and Philip Zimbardo. Consistent with the mission of the university at large, the Stanford psychology department “has a long-standing tradition of ground-breaking theoretical research that also has powerful impact in the real world.”
University of Colorado–Boulder
Students interested in positive psychology should make their way to Boulder, ranked for the second year in a row as the best place to live in America by U.S. News & World Report and the Happiest City in America by National Geographic. Stunning views of the Rocky Mountains from the CU Boulder dining hall make it easy to see why. The university is home to 12 research institutes making significant contributions to the school and local economy. Psych students might pursue projects through the Institute of Behavioral Science, Institute of Cognitive Science, or the Renee Crown Wellness Institute. While earning a BA in psychology, students can also pursue certificates in Cognitive Science or Care, Health, and Resilience. Highly motivated undergraduate psychology students at CU Boulder can earn a combined bachelor’s/master’s degree on an accelerated track in five years.
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University of Michigan–Ann Arbor
UMichigan’s robust department includes nine different program areas, including Biopsychology, Personality and Social Contexts, and Gender and Feminist Psychology, which uses the lens of social justice to examine the psychology of gender and sexuality. Through the Exploring the Mind series, the psychology department hosts community talks at the Ann Arbor District Library to offer the public insight into emerging research in the field. Another distinctive feature of the UMich psychology department is STAR—Students Tackling Advanced Research—a program for underrepresented and first-generation students to gain skills and opportunities for research in the field.
University of Minnesota–Twin Cities
Home to Center for Community-Engaged Learning (CCEL), the University of Minnesota psychology department encourages real-world experience through internships and community engagement: students not only earn credit for an internship experience, but they may receive an award of $500 per semester for unpaid community-based research. UofM psychology students are also encouraged to go abroad to study, conduct field research, and learn diverse theoretical approaches through opportunities like the Intergroup Prejudice and Conflict Theory program at the University of Cape Town, Cross Cultural Psychology in Buenos Aires, or the Psychology of Wellbeing in Tokyo. Students can join affinity groups for psych majors, including the Association of Black Psychology Students, the Chinese Psychology Student Association, and the Psychology International Student Association.
University of Pennsylvania
All of the Ivy League schools could justifiably make the cut for any “top program” list, but UPenn is notable for boasting the oldest continuously functioning psychology department in North America and hosting the first annual meeting of the American Psychological Association (APA) in 1892. Director of UPenn’s renowned Positive Psychology Center, Professor Martin Seligman, was recently recognized as the most influential psychologist of the last decade by Academic Influence and received the APA Award for Lifetime Contributions to Psychology. UPenn psych students also have the distinct privilege of participating in Angela Duckworth’s Grit Lab where they learn the science of passion and perseverance and how to apply these insights to their own lives.
University of Texas–Austin
One of the top public research universities in the United States, UT-Austin abounds with undergraduate research opportunities in psychology. Eureka, an academic take on dating apps, is an online platform matching students and faculty with compatible research interests at the university. Students may also pursue an independent thesis under the guidance of a faculty mentor in the Psychology Departmental Honors Program or do a research internship through the Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURE). The psychology department at UT-Austin also houses the Center for Perceptual Systems, an interdisciplinary study of perception in collaboration with the departments of Neuroscience, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Computer Science, and Speech and Communication, as well as the Institute for Mental Health Research, which develops innovative treatments for mental health disorders.
EXPERT GUIDANCE: FIND YOUR “RIGHT-FIT” COLLEGE
As you can see from this small sample of schools with strong undergraduate psychology programs, each school brings their own flavor; pre-eminent psychology scholars, research opportunities, internships, accelerated tracks, etc. It can feel daunting to match academic opportunities with your personal preferences, goals, wants, and must-haves as you narrow down a strategic college list.
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Anita holds a BA in Philosophy from Princeton, where she is an alumni class officer and former interviewer, and an MA in English from Middlebury. At Princeton she also contributed her drive and competitiveness to the women’s lacrosse team, winning an NCAA Division I National Championship and three Ivy League Championships while earning national scholar-athlete academic distinction and the Connie McAllister athletic department award for “effort, selfless dedication, enthusiasm and heart.” She brings these qualities to her relationships with students as she helps to bring out the best in them.
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