Psychology Department

Ranked among the Best Global Universities for Psychology

Ohio University is ranked among the Best Global Universities by U.S. News & World Report , with its psychology program among the best in the world. 

U.S. News also ranks the online psychology program as best in Ohio and tied for 34th in the nation.

Learn Why Our Psychology Program Ranks!

The Psychology Department offers a B.S. in psychology, a B.S. in psychology—pre-physical therapy, an online bachelor's degree, and two doctoral psychology graduate degrees.

OHIO's  Psychology and Social Work Clinic offers a range of telehealth psychological services to the community at competitive prices.

Why OHIO's Psychology Program is among the Best in the World 

Ohio University is ranked among the Best Global Universities by U.S. News & World Report , with its psychology program among the best in the world.

Celebrating 100th anniversary: OHIO has been offering psychology degrees for 100 years, and the psychology program is still growing— in both student numbers and research quality.

Growing enrollment: In the last five years, the department has seen a 68% growth in undergraduate psychology majors as it added an online psychology program to its already-popular in-person undergraduate degree . For maximum flexibility, Athens-based students can take courses in person or online, mixing as they see fit. Soon psychology will be an official major on OHIO’s regional campuses as well.

What’s different about OHIO’s undergraduate psychology degree?OHIO offers a B.S. in Psychology, whereas many colleges offer B.A. degrees. The department’s B.S. reflects its scientific pursuit and commitment to research through an innovative scholarly environment that fosters the cross-disciplinary exchange of expertise, theories, and methods and encourages the development of collaborative research partnerships involving faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate students.

Undergraduate student research: Many undergraduate psychology students are research assistants in faculty labs. Undergraduates earn a total of about 350 credit hours per year working on psychology research projects . Some have published with faculty. Many have presented at professional conferences, thanks to department funding for undergraduate students to travel to these conferences with faculty mentors.

Internationally renowned researchers: Psychology faculty have published more than 420 articles and presented over 1,000 papers at conferences over the past seven years. Collectively, the psychology faculty have been cited over 30,000 times. The Psychology Department maintains an international reputation in many research areas, including health psychology, social judgment and behavioral decision-making, and intervention design and outcome evaluation. Faculty have received between $2.5 and $1.5 million in external research funding per year over the last seven years.

Beloved teachers and mentors: The average student evaluation ratings for psychology courses is 4.46 out of a 5-point scale.

Career advising and placement: Between 81% to 90% of the psychology undergraduates who go into the workforce are employed within three months of graduation (between 2016-2020). The Psychology Advising and Resource Center provides undergraduate psychology majors and minors with the resources and guidance they need to explore the field of psychology and to prepare them for psychology-related careers in health and human services, business, sales, human resources, and more. The center also prepares students for graduate programs in psychology and for professional programs such as law school, medical school, and health programs such as physical therapy, counseling, occupational therapy and other psychology fields that require a master’s degree or more. Visitors to the center rate it 4.46 out of a 5-point schedule in terms of helpfulness and 4.72 in terms of satisfaction.

Accelerated Graduate Pathways: The department offers a path directly from the undergraduate program to a Master's in Psychological Sciences via the Accelerated Graduate Pathways program. Psychology was the first department at OHIO to offer such a program.

Two Ph.D. programs in psychology: OHIO offers doctoral degrees in both experimental psychology and clinical psychology . The Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology is accredited by the American Psychological Association. (The APA does not accredit experimental programs.) The psychology graduate programs each have about 26 to 32 students. The ratio of students to faculty is 3 to 1 in the Experimental Psychology Ph.D. program and 3.5 to 1 in the Clinical Psychology Ph.D. program .

Financial support for graduate students: All Ph.D. students are supported on stipends and/or tuition waivers up through their fifth year. Approximately 25% serve as research assistants (RAs), 35% as teaching assistants (TAs), and 40% as instructors of record (no sooner than year three and after trained to teach).

Clinical student outcomes: The clinical program is proud that 100% of those seeking accredited internships , which is the last step in the program, have obtained them for the last 10 years. Also, 83% who enter the clinical program graduate (2012-2016).

Student researchers, authors and presenters: In the last seven years, graduate students have been authors on 518 papers, with students as first authors on 159 of those. Undergraduate students have been on 30 papers, with seven as first authors over that period (2015-2021). Graduate students have been on 606 posters and presentations, 265 as first authors, with 99 undergraduates including 32 as first authors. The college and the department provide funds for travel to conferences where graduate students are presenting.

Successful graduates: Upon graduation, doctoral students have garnered salaries averaging around $50,000 to $60,000, but up to $110,000.