Datapoint: How many psychology majors go on to graduate school?
News on psychologists' education and employment from APA's Center for Workforce Studies
Vol. 50, No. 8
Print version: page 19
In 2017, about 3.5 million people in the United States held a bachelor’s degree in psychology.1 Of those:
- About 499,000 (14%) also held graduate degrees in psychology, with 13% earning a psychology master’s degree and 4% earning a psychology doctorate or professional degree. The overlapping 3% earned both master’s and doctoral or professional degrees.2
- About 30% held graduate degrees in fields other than psychology, such as education, health and social services.3
- The remaining 2 million (56%) did not earn graduate degrees.
- The proportion of psychology bachelor’s degree holders who held a graduate degree was progressively higher from the "ages 24 or younger" group through the "ages 30–34" group, then stabilized, suggesting that the majority of people complete their graduate education by age 30.
For an interactive version of this Datapoint, visit CWS Data Tool: Degree Pathways in Psychology. For more information, contact cws@apa.orgopens in new window.
1National Science Foundation, National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics. (2017). National Survey of College Graduates Public Use Microdata File and Codebook. Retrieved from https://sestat.nsf.gov/datadownload/opens in new window.
2Graduate degrees include those earned immediately after undergraduate education and those earned after a gap. Professional degrees include JD, LLB, DDS, MD, etc.
3Education, health and social services are the three most frequent degree fields after psychology in which psychology bachelor’s degree holders earn graduate degrees.