Psychology

⚠⚠⚠ The largest undergraduate output of any programme on this site: Florida's public universities awarded 6,228 psychology BACHELOR'S degrees in a single year, and 27 state colleges teach the prefix as well. ⚠⚠ It is an excellent degree and it is not a clinical qualification — every licensed route out of it (counselling, social work, psychology itself) requires a graduate degree the state has far fewer seats for.

The degrees this program covers

⚠⚠⚠ THE RATIO IS THE THING NOBODY PUTS IN FRONT OF A FRESHMAN. Florida's public universities award 6,228 psychology bachelor's a year. The graduate routes that lead to a licence award roughly 372 master's between them — 285 counselor education, 57 mental health counseling, 30 marriage and family therapy — plus 1,164 MSW in social work, which is a different licence with its own accredited bachelor's. ⚠ That is about SEVENTEEN psychology graduates for every counselling master's seat. Private institutions add seats and not every psychology graduate wants clinical work, so do not read it as a queue — but read it as the reason to plan the graduate step from your first year rather than your last. ⚠⚠ WHAT THE BACHELOR'S IS ACTUALLY GOOD FOR: it is a strong, widely respected general degree, and this site's own Lawyer and Health Care Administrator pages show psychology graduates reaching both in numbers — 3,850 law applicants and 47,154 medical and health services managers. ⚠⚠⚠ WHAT IT IS NOT: a route to practice. Florida licenses mental health counselors (60-hour CACREP master's plus two supervised years), clinical social workers (CSWE master's plus two years) and psychologists (doctorate, with 48% of the occupation reporting post-doctoral training on top). A psychology bachelor's begins all three and completes none. ⚠ Florida also awards only 232 psychology master's and 82 research doctorates a year across the whole system, so the academic route is narrower still. ⚠⚠ Check the DEPARTMENT before applying to graduate school: most Florida counselling master's degrees sit in colleges of EDUCATION under the counselor education code, not in psychology departments.

Careers this program leads to

Each one sets out the courses along the way, the licence or certification at the end, and the sources behind it.

Early Childhood Educator

⚠⚠⚠ $24,540 separates a preschool teacher from a kindergarten teacher, and the children are one year apart. Preschool $38,140, kindergarten $62,680 — the difference is not the work, it is which system employs you and which credential you hold. ⚠⚠ Florida sets the minimum for a VPK lead instructor at a Child Development Associate credential, which is not a degree, and its public institutions award 1,017 child care credentials a year of which ZERO are degrees.

Mental Health Counselor and Therapist

⚠⚠ 18 percent growth from 2025 to 2035 and about 50,500 openings a year — against 6 percent for social workers and 6 percent for health education specialists. ⚠⚠⚠ And the numbers behind it are brutal: Florida awards 6,228 psychology bachelor's a year against roughly 372 counselling master's seats, the licensure master's is 60 semester hours rather than the usual 30 to 36, two more supervised years follow it, and the median is $59,350.

School Counselor

⚠⚠⚠ A Florida school counsellor carries 432 students. ASCA recommends 250 and the national average is 376 — so Florida runs 56 above the country and 182 above the standard. ⚠⚠ The credential is a Department of EDUCATION certification, not a Department of Health licence, which is the distinction that separates this from mental health counselling even though both mostly come out of the same master's code. ⚠ $64,330 median, 31,000 openings a year.

Careers that name this program, but not as a route

Instructional Designer

⚠ The discipline the field grew out of — applied learning psychology — and the part that distinguishes a designer from a content producer. ⚠⚠ Named also on availability: psychology is taught at 33 Florida public institutions against this field's 10, and the survey evidence says a graduate degree outside the field is the majority case.

Programs similar to this one

Neighbouring fields that share much of the same coursework, and often the same employers. ⚠ Read these before you commit to a major — which doors a neighbouring degree keeps open is the part no catalog tells you, and it is far cheaper to change now than later.

Counseling 8 Florida schools

⚠⚠⚠ The commonest licensed destination, and the ratio is stark: 6,228 psychology bachelor's a year against roughly 372 counselling master's seats at 8 institutions. ⚠ Look in the college of EDUCATION — 285 of those seats are coded counselor education, not psychology or health.

Social Work 9 Florida schools

⚠⚠ The other licensed route out, and in several respects the better-resourced one: 1,164 MSW seats a year against counselling's 372. ⚠ But note the trap — a psychology bachelor's is NOT a BSW, earns no advanced standing, and leaves you doing the full 61-hour MSW rather than the 39-hour advanced standing version.

Health Care Administration 24 Florida schools

⚠⚠ An underrated destination and a measured one: Census microdata puts PSYCHOLOGY third among the undergraduate fields held by medical and health services managers, at 47,154 people, behind health and business. ⚠ Median $123,860, and no licence required outside nursing homes.

Law (Juris Doctor) 4 Florida schools

⚠ Named on the evidence rather than by association: LSAC recorded 3,850 psychology applicants to law school, 5.2% of the field. ⚠⚠ And this site's Lawyer page carries the finding that matters — the most law-sounding majors post the lowest mean LSAT, while psychology sits mid-table.

Public Health 14 Florida schools

⚠ Behavioural science is one of public health's core disciplines and health behaviour theory comes straight out of psychology. ⚠⚠ The CHES credential is coursework-based rather than major-based, so a psychology graduate who planned the 25 credits deliberately can reach it without a further degree.

Child Care and Early Learning 39 Florida schools

⚠ Named because child development is the academic discipline underneath this work, and DEP2004 Human Growth and Development is carried at 29 Florida institutions. ⚠⚠ A psychology bachelor's plus the 45 semester hours of specialisation content is one route to the Department of Education certification.

Instructional Design and Educational Technology 10 Florida schools

⚠ The discipline the field came out of: instructional design has its roots in applied learning psychology, and learning theory is the part that distinguishes a designer from a content producer. ⚠⚠ Psychology is taught at 33 Florida public institutions against this field's 10, so it is a far more available undergraduate starting point.

Florida public institutions offering this program

10 institutions awarded a credential in this field in 2023, at these levels: Bachelor's, Doctorate (research/scholarship), Master's, Postbaccalaureate certificate. A school appears here if it awards anything in the field, however limited its offering — a technical college teaching only practical nursing has a nursing program. Listed alphabetically, not ranked.

Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University

Bachelor's

Florida Atlantic University

Bachelor's · Master's

Florida Gulf Coast University

Bachelor's

Florida International University

Bachelor's · Doctorate (research/scholarship) · Master's · Postbaccalaureate certificate

Florida State University

Bachelor's · Doctorate (research/scholarship) · Master's

University of Central Florida

Bachelor's · Doctorate (research/scholarship) · Master's · Postbaccalaureate certificate

University of Florida

Bachelor's · Doctorate (research/scholarship) · Master's · Postbaccalaureate certificate

University of Florida-Online

Bachelor's

University of South Florida

Bachelor's · Doctorate (research/scholarship) · Master's

University of West Florida

Bachelor's · Master's

Source: federal IPEDS completions data for 2023, first majors only — the most recent year published. ⚠ It records what was awarded, which is strong evidence of what is offered, but a program launched since 2023 will not appear here. Check the institution’s own catalog before applying.

Updated 22 September 2026. ⚠ Program pages describe a field of study, not one school’s degree — always read the catalog of the institution you are applying to.