Psychology Master’s Degree Programs in New York
As the science of human mind and behavior, psychology has a lot of raw material to work with in New York. The 4th most populous state in the nation contains the most populous city in the nation, and although it only comes in at number ten world-wide, New York City is the undisputed cultural, financial, and media capital of the world. That’s a lot of humanity walking around for you to work with.
In fact, there are so many schools in the New York Metro area alone offering psychology degree programs that only a New Yorker could avoid getting lost while trying to find the best fit for themselves.
The state offers fertile ground for every type of psychological service. It’s not only enormously ethnically diverse—more than 800 languages are spoken in Queens alone—but geographically diverse, from the Adirondacks north of Albany to the busy Saint Lawrence Seaway near Watertown, to the inner city neighborhoods ranging from Buffalo to the Bronx.
That’s plenty of room to practice whatever type of psychology you want, and plenty of schools to choose from for the master’s degree you need to get started.
A Lot of Choices for a Psychology Master’s Degree From Some of the Best Schools in the World
If you’re looking for Ivy League, you have options from Cornell up in Ithaca to downtown Manhattan where Columbia makes its home. If you need an affordable public school option, the excellent CUNY (City University of New York) and State University of New York systems offer a lot of value and choices for psychology master’s programs.
Any psychological specialty you can imagine, and world-class faculty to teach it, are all on tap throughout the New York educational community.
A Master’s Is A Must For New York Professional Licenses
Fully licensed psychologists in New York, like psychologists anywhere, need a PhD or PsyD degree to qualify. New York is slightly more stringent than many other states in that the program has to be registered as “licensure qualifying” as well… an important characteristic to check if you are earning your master’s on the way to a doctoral degree.
An exception is made for school psychologists, who only have to earn a master’s to meet the educational requirements for their license.
It’s also possible to get a license as a marriage and family therapist in New York with only a master’s degree, provided your psychology program is registered in the state.
Clinical Psychology is Right at Home in New York
If there’s an image that non-New Yorkers consistently hold about life in the big city, it is that everyone there seems to spend half their day on a therapist’s couch. If it’s a little cliché, it’s not entirely unearned—the city is a hotbed of clinical therapy and the highest-paid clinical and counseling psychologists in the state make upwards of $220,000. The average salary is almost $130,000, and that’s state-wide… in the city, the numbers skyrocket.
So it’s a good deal that most of the psychology master’s programs in the state have strong components in clinical psychology education. A good general MA, like you’ll find (very affordably) at Long Island University, will help set you up for a lucrative and long career helping individuals anywhere in the state.
Psychological Researchers Have a Hot Ticket in New York
With a lot of people in clinical psychology programs, there is a lot of opportunity for psychological research. Professional psychologists at New York universities haven’t been slow to take advantage of the opportunities, making the state a center for psychological research.
This is so much the case that at least one university, Fordham, has actually devoted a dedicated psychology master’s degree to clinical research methods. Whether you take advantage of that option or not, you’ll find plenty of research opportunities as both a student and professional throughout the state.
Study the Psychology of Investing in the Investment Capital of the World
Economics is a sort of behavioral science itself, but only in recent years have the psychological underpinnings of investing become a hot area of research. Why people buy, why they sell, and what motivations them– these are all questions that psychologists can help answer. Economists long modeled markets as a place where rational investors make decisions based on their own self-interest.
But research has revealed that these assumptions are too simplistic and that more in-depth investigation is necessary. Enter the professional psychologist.
There’s no better place, of course, to study the psychology of investing than the center of global trade. Wall Street traders place great emphasis on finding an edge, both to implement cutting-edge algorithmic trading to take advantage of market tendencies and to understand the variables behind general stock trading and investment banking.
The MA in General Psychology at Buffalo State serves as good preparation for further study or work in law, business, or economics as well as more traditional psychological specialties.
You won’t have a shortage of options for either education or career paths if you decide to pursue a psychology master’s degree in New York state.
2022 US Bureau of Labor Statistics job market trends and salary figures for clinical and counseling psychologists are based on national data, not school-specific information. Conditions in your area may vary. Data accessed August 2023.