Key takeaway: 1,489 of the institutions in our directory that offer fully online programs report psychology completions to the U.S. Department of Education (IPEDS CIP 42). Psychology is one of the most widely offered online majors in the country, which makes the choice between schools harder, not easier. Say plainly what a psychology degree does: a bachelor's in psychology does not license anyone to practice as a psychologist, a counselor, or a therapist. Licensure requires a graduate degree, supervised clinical hours, and a state board exam. The schools below are ordered by BOC Score.
Because so many accredited schools teach psychology online, the useful comparison is not whether a school offers the major but what the major is built to lead to: graduate study, applied work in human services and organizations, or a research track. This page explains the difference and lists schools you can compare on federal outcome data.
Schools to Compare
These accredited institutions report psychology completions and at least one program completable entirely online. Ranked by BOC Score within that group.
How We Rank Schools
Every school list on this site is ordered by the BOC Score, computed from the most
recent school-level data published by the U.S. Department of Education (College Scorecard and IPEDS).
To qualify, a school must be currently operating and accredited by an agency recognized by the
U.S. Department of Education. Each eligible school is then scored on five measures, percentile-ranked
against schools at the same credential level:
BOCSCORE
- Graduation rate 30%
- Median earnings, 10 years after entry 25%
- Average net price (lower is better) 20%
- Retention rate 15%
- Fully online availability 10%
Schools without enough outcome data appear after ranked schools, without a score.
Advertising never affects these rankings. Read the full methodology.
Graduation rate
93%
Median earnings, 10 yrs after entry
$102,772
Avg net price
$12,116/yr
TuitionContact school for pricing
Key stats
- Retention rate: 98%
- Programs offered: 64
Source:IPEDS · College Scorecard
Graduation rate
97%
Median earnings, 10 yrs after entry
$124,080
Avg net price
$13,807/yr
TuitionContact school for pricing
Key stats
- Retention rate: 98%
- Programs offered: 100
Source:IPEDS · College Scorecard
Acceptance rate
11%
Graduation rate
93%
Median earnings, 10 yrs after entry
$92,446
Avg net price
$13,481/yr
TuitionIn‑state$16,347
Out‑of‑state$50,547
Key stats
- Retention rate: 97%
- Programs offered: 127
Source:Accreditor: Western Association of Schools and Colleges Senior Colleges and University Commission · IPEDS · College Scorecard
Graduation rate
89%
Median earnings, 10 yrs after entry
$71,588
Avg net price
$6,541/yr
TuitionContact school for pricing
Key stats
- Retention rate: 97%
- Programs offered: 172
Source:IPEDS · College Scorecard
Acceptance rate
8%
Graduation rate
95%
Median earnings, 10 yrs after entry
$89,718
Avg net price
$13,370/yr
TuitionIn‑state$64,144
Out‑of‑state$64,144
Key stats
- Retention rate: 98%
- Programs offered: 78
Source:Accreditor: Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges · IPEDS · College Scorecard
Acceptance rate
9%
Graduation rate
93%
Median earnings, 10 yrs after entry
$82,511
Avg net price
$12,548/yr
TuitionIn‑state$15,203
Out‑of‑state$49,403
Key stats
- Retention rate: 97%
- Programs offered: 161
Source:Accreditor: Western Association of Schools and Colleges Senior Colleges and University Commission · IPEDS · College Scorecard
Graduation rate
94%
Median earnings, 10 yrs after entry
$83,648
Avg net price
$13,138/yr
TuitionContact school for pricing
Key stats
- Retention rate: 98%
- Programs offered: 206
Source:IPEDS · College Scorecard
Graduation rate
96%
Median earnings, 10 yrs after entry
$91,885
Avg net price
$14,860/yr
TuitionContact school for pricing
Key stats
- Retention rate: 99%
- Programs offered: 105
Source:IPEDS · College Scorecard
Acceptance rate
27%
Graduation rate
87%
Median earnings, 10 yrs after entry
$84,943
Avg net price
$12,470/yr
TuitionIn‑state$16,758
Out‑of‑state$50,958
Key stats
- Retention rate: 94%
- Programs offered: 133
Source:Accreditor: Western Association of Schools and Colleges Senior Colleges and University Commission · IPEDS · College Scorecard
Graduation rate
91%
Median earnings, 10 yrs after entry
$72,200
Avg net price
$11,655/yr
TuitionContact school for pricing
Key stats
- Retention rate: 97%
- Programs offered: 117
Source:IPEDS · College Scorecard
Graduation rate
93%
Median earnings, 10 yrs after entry
$91,565
Avg net price
$15,846/yr
TuitionContact school for pricing
Key stats
- Retention rate: 96%
- Programs offered: 157
Source:IPEDS · College Scorecard
TuitionContact school for pricing
Key stats
- Retention rate: 88%
- Programs offered: 49
Source:IPEDS · College Scorecard
This list comes from two IPEDS fields and nothing else: completions reported under the psychology CIP family (CIP 42) and the distance education program flag from the Institutional Characteristics survey (IC 2024). Those fields tell you that a school awards psychology degrees and that it runs fully online programs. They do not tell you that the psychology major itself is available fully online at every school on the list, which concentrations exist, whether faculty are active researchers, or whether the program includes a supervised field placement. Confirm the delivery format and the concentration on each school’s own program page before you apply.
What a psychology degree does and does not qualify you for
A bachelor’s degree in psychology is a liberal arts degree in the science of behavior. It does not license anyone. You cannot practice as a psychologist, a licensed counselor, a therapist, or a school psychologist with a bachelor’s degree, and no online program changes that. What the bachelor’s does is qualify you for graduate study and for a wide set of jobs where research literacy, statistics, and an understanding of human behavior matter.
Where licensure comes from:
- Psychologist. A doctoral degree in most states, plus a supervised internship, postdoctoral supervised hours, and the national examination. State boards set the specifics.
- Licensed counselor or therapist. A master’s degree in counseling or a related field, a defined number of supervised clinical hours after the degree, and a board exam. Our counseling program guide covers the sequence.
- School psychologist. A specialist-level or doctoral credential plus state department of education certification.
- Applied roles that do not require a license. Case management, human services, research assistance, human resources, market and user research, and program coordination hire psychology bachelor’s graduates directly.
If your goal is clinical practice, treat the bachelor’s as step one and choose the school partly on how well it prepares students for graduate admission: research methods, statistics, a capstone or thesis, and faculty who write letters that graduate committees take seriously.
Choosing an online psychology program
- Check accreditation at the institution level. Every school in our directory holds accreditation from an agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. There is no programmatic accreditation for undergraduate psychology, so institutional accreditation is what matters at the bachelor’s level, and it is what graduate programs check.
- Look at the research sequence. Two courses in research methods and statistics, ideally with a hands-on project, separate programs that prepare you for graduate study from programs that do not.
- Ask about field experience. Some online psychology programs arrange a practicum or internship in your own community. Ask who finds the site and who supervises it.
- Match the concentration to the goal. Clinical and counseling tracks point toward graduate study. Industrial-organizational, forensic, and developmental tracks connect to applied work sooner.
- Read the outcome data on the cards. Graduation rate, retention, and earnings come from federal sources and describe the school, not the major, but they are the most honest comparison available across schools.
Specializations worth knowing
- Clinical and counseling psychology. The most common undergraduate track and the standard route into a master’s in counseling or a doctorate in clinical psychology.
- Forensic psychology. Psychology applied to the legal system, corrections, and investigations. See the forensic psychology guide for how the coursework differs and where it leads.
- Industrial-organizational psychology. Behavior at work: selection, assessment, training, and organizational change. Often the fastest route from a psychology background into a corporate role.
- Developmental and child psychology. Growth across the lifespan, common among students headed for education, early intervention, or social services.
- Cognitive and behavioral neuroscience. The experimental side of the field, and the usual preparation for research-focused doctoral programs.
Our psychology silo covers each of these in depth, and the online bachelor’s in psychology guide walks through the four-year sequence course by course.
Quick Answers
Can I become a therapist with an online psychology degree?
Not with a bachelor’s degree. Licensure as a counselor or therapist requires a master’s degree in counseling or a related field, supervised post-degree clinical hours, and a state board exam. An accredited online bachelor’s in psychology is a normal way to prepare for that graduate degree, but it is not a license and does not authorize practice.
Is an online psychology degree respected by graduate programs?
Graduate admissions committees look at institutional accreditation, your coursework in research methods and statistics, your grades, research or field experience, and letters from faculty who know your work. A degree from an accredited institution is evaluated on those terms whether it was earned online or on campus.
How many online colleges offer psychology?
In our directory, 1,489 institutions with fully online programs report psychology completions (IPEDS CIP 42). That is one of the largest pools of any major, so use accreditation, the research sequence, and the outcome data on each card to narrow it rather than availability alone.
What can I do with a bachelor’s in psychology?
Common destinations are human services and case management, human resources, market and user research, research assistance in a lab or a health system, and program coordination. It is also the standard preparation for graduate study in counseling, clinical psychology, social work, and industrial-organizational psychology.
Next steps
Source: U.S. Department of Education, IPEDS Completions survey, psychology family (CIP 42) and Institutional Characteristics survey (IC 2024) distance education program flags (DISTPGS); directory counts as of the September 2026 data refresh.
