Psychology Programs in Maryland
In 2020, the Baltimore County school superintendent requested $114 million to hire more psychologists, counselors, and social workers. Although that’s just one county, it reflects the state’s recognition of the need for the work performed by licensed mental health professionals.
Maryland is home to a sprawling public university system and world-renowned private institutions such as Johns Hopkins, Loyola, and St. John’s. Many of them are affiliated with world-class hospitals and research facilities that offer some of the most coveted psychology internships in America.
How to Become a Psychologist in Maryland
To work as a psychologist in Maryland, you’ll need to fulfill all the educational and licensure requirements.
Educational Requirements for Licensure in Maryland
There are many fields related to psychology that you can enter with a master’s, bachelor’s, or even an associate degree, but to earn the title of “psychologist” you’ll have to earn a doctorate. Although a bachelor’s degree is required for acceptance into all master’s programs, you don’t usually need a master’s to earn a doctorate, although some programs require it. In rarer cases, some specialty doctoral programs award students both a master’s and a doctoral degree in the same program. Even if it’s not required, a master’s can help you choose a specialization and prepare you for the hefty research, academic, and practicum work associated with doctoral programs.
Although many undergraduate programs culminate in generic psychology degrees, graduate programs—and many bachelor’s programs, as well—come with unique concentrations specific to your interests and career goals. Common specialties include clinical, school, cognitive, behavioral, and industrial-organizational psychology. The American Psychological Association (APA) lists roughly 20 recognized specialty concentrations with thorough descriptions of each, when they were first recognized, and what they entail.
Maryland Psychology Licensing and Exams
Once you complete your doctorate, you’re still not eligible to practice psychology. For that, you’ll need a license, which is administered by the Maryland Board of Examiners of Psychologists. You can also apply for a license as a psychology associate, which qualifies you to provide psychological services under the supervision of a licensed psychologist. That classification is reserved for people who have a master’s degree and have already been admitted into a doctoral program.
To earn a full license, you’ll have to submit all required documentation and submit to a criminal background check. Aside from earning a doctorate, you must complete at least 3,250 hours of professional, board-approved supervised experience. A minimum of 1,750 hours must be accrued through an internship during a two-year period. The other 1,500 hours can be spread across pre-internship, pre-doctoral, and postdoctoral experiences. At least 25% of those hours must involve face-to-face contact with clients.
You must also take and pass two exams: the Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology (EPPP) and the state jurisprudence examination.
The EPPP consists of 225 questions that cover eight critical content areas. It is administered in two parts: knowledge and skills. The state exam focuses on laws, regulations, and ethics specific to the state of Maryland.
There are several associated fees that can get quite expensive and you should plan to budget for, including:
Psychology Specializations in Maryland That Do Not Require a Doctorate
Maryland, like every state, requires a doctoral degree to work as a licensed psychologist. However, A bachelor’s degree, in some cases, can lead to a career in a variety of fields related to psychology. A master’s degree opens the door to even more career options. No matter your education level, you’ll need a state license before you can work in the field.
Each non-doctoral specialty comes with its own specific requirements, which are set by the licensing boards that govern them. In Maryland, there are two bodies. The Board of Professional Counselors and Therapists (BPCT) licenses professional counselors, alcohol and drug counselors, art therapists, behavioral analysts, and marriage and family therapists. The Board of Social Work Examiners (BSWE) licenses social workers.
You’ll need a master’s degree to work as a professional counselor, behavioral analyst, marriage and family therapist, or an art therapist. A bachelor’s degree satisfies the requirements for alcohol and drug counselors, but only at the certified associate level. You can work in the field with an associate degree, but only at the certified supervised level.
Social workers can be licensed at the bachelor’s, master’s, or certificate level, and no matter your education, you can apply for a license either through examination or endorsement.
Job Growth and Salaries for Psychology-Related Jobs in Maryland
The following table will give you an idea of what you can expect to earn in some of the most popular career fields, as well as projected job growth for each specialty.
| Career | Maryland Median Annual Salary (2018) | Median Salary Per Hour | % Expected Job Growth (2016-2026) |
| Psychologist Careers | |||
| Clinical, Counseling, and School Psychologists | $78,980 | $37.97 | +15% |
| Psychologists—All Other | $106,670 | $51.28 | +6% |
| Other Specialties in Psychology | |||
| Educational, Guidance, School, and Vocational Counselors | $62,230 | $29.92 | +9% |
| Licensed Clinical Social Worker | $69,980 | $33.64 | +4% |
| Marriage and Family Therapist | $49,020 | $23.57 | +12% |
| Substance Abuse and Behavioral Disorders Counselor | $43,150 | $20.75 | no available data |
All data from CareerOneStop
Maryland Psychology Spotlight Programs
The following are some of Maryland’s most popular and unique programs for psychology students at all levels of higher education.
Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore)
Each faculty member in the Johns Hopkins Department of Psychological and Brain Services has a state-of-the-art research laboratory—the department maintains 17 labs in total dedicated to different areas of interest, including cognitive development, computational cognitive neuroscience, and evolution of vocal and social complexity. You can earn a bachelor’s or Ph.D. in psychology. Undergraduates have both job and research opportunities, and graduate students can pursue several different training programs and grants.
Tuition is $55,350 per academic year for all levels of study.
University of Maryland – Baltimore County (Baltimore)
The University of Maryland Psychology department offers undergrads research opportunities through five department labs as well as through partnerships with faculty research. There are also undergraduate internships and a peer mentorship program designed to help students thrive at this level of training. Graduate research opportunities are even more comprehensive and vary depending on which of the 17 faculty members you’re paired with. Graduate students also benefit from the UMBC Psychology Training Clinic, which is an on-campus mental health facility that opened in 2014.
Undergraduates can earn a B.A., B.S., or a dual major in psychology—several different specialties are available. Graduate options include two Ph.D. tracks: applied developmental psychology and human services psychology, the latter of which is also available as an M.A. Master’s students can also pursue an M.P.S. in industrial psychology or an M.A. in instructional system development.
Undergraduate tuition is $10,954 per academic year for in-state students and $37,588 for out-of-state students. For graduate students it’s $14,382 per year for in-state students and $22,896 per year for out-of-state students.
University of Maryland – College Park (College Park)
Undergraduate students can earn either a B.A. or a B.S. in psychology at the University of Maryland. Both paths include independent research opportunities and research assistantships, and both degrees are modeled on the APA’s guidelines for undergraduate training. Graduate students pursuing a Ph.D. will be accepted into one of five specialty tracks: clinical; cognitive and neural systems; counseling; developmental; or social, decision, and organizational psychology. Finally, there are two M.P.S. programs for master’s students: clinical psychological science and industrial-organizational science.
There are more than half a dozen fellowships and awards available to graduate students as well as two travel grants, three postdoctoral research positions, and external assistantship positions.
Undergraduate tuition is $10,954 per academic year for in-state students and $37,588 for out-of-state students. For graduate students it’s $11,340 and $24,106 per academic year for in-state and out-of-state students, respectively.
Loyola University Maryland (Baltimore)
The undergraduate bachelor’s program at Loyola is administered by 26 professors and 30 affiliates. Those pursuing a psychology major have access to a biofeedback lab, computer facilities, and research opportunities in conjunction with faculty. At the master’s level, Loyola offers a 60-credit M.S. in clinical professional counseling, which prepares students to become LCPCs or professional counselors. There’s also a master’s plus program designed for students who already have a psychology master’s but need to complete further coursework to earn an LCPC. Doctoral students can pursue a Psy.D. in clinical psychology, which is an APA-accredited, full-time, five-year program.
Tuition is $49,700 per year for undergraduate degree programs, $24,000 for the master’s program, and ranging from $31,060 to $32,130—depending on which year of the program you are in—for the doctoral program.
Towson University (Towson)
The Towson undergraduate psychology major is available with a clinical psychology option as well as an honors psychology program that includes advanced coursework. Undergraduate students can also apply to complete an honors thesis under faculty supervision. Graduate students have the option of a psychology M.A., a school psychology C.A.S., and an M.S. in human resource development.
All students have access to testing rooms and small-group rooms in the campus’ psychology clinic space. There’s also a cognitive psychology lab and a social psychology lab. The psychology test library provides test protocols, reference literature, and psychological assessments, and students can earn credits through colloquium reports and research reports.
Undergraduate tuition is $10,198 per academic year in-state and $24,334 out-of-state. Graduate costs per unit are $585 for Maryland residents and $1,054 for out-of-state students.
University of Baltimore (Baltimore)
The University of Baltimore offers M.S. programs in applied psychology, with concentrations available in counseling psychology and industrial-organizational psychology. For undergraduates, there’s a B.A. in psychology that comes with an accelerated option to shorten the journey to the M.S. in applied psychology—but not all students will qualify for the accelerated track. The graduate program comes with faculty research opportunities, practica, and thesis options, and it stands out by offering international coursework. The undergraduate program, too, comes with research and internship options and culminates in a senior project.
Undergraduate tuition is $3,507 per semester for full-time in-state students and $9,687 per semester for non-residents. Graduate tuition is $2,274 to $6,822 per semester for in-state students, depending on credit load, and $3,333 to $9,999 per semester for non-residents. There are several ways that non-residents can qualify for in-state tuition.
St. Mary’s College of Maryland (St. Mary’s City)
The offerings at St. Mary’s are limited to undergraduate study with a major in psychology. The college has a unique program, however, that allows students to design their own major. Some past student creations include psychology, media, and marketing, and social justice and social change. The standard psychology major culminates in a B.S. degree and comes with the option of six concentrations: biological, clinical, social, developmental, counseling, and cognitive psychology. Students will conduct independent research known as the St. Mary’s Project, and the program comes with the potential for studying abroad.
Tuition is $12,116 per academic year for in-state students and $28,192 for non-residents.
Maryland Psychology Scholarships
The educational path to becoming a psychologist, or even that needed to work in a related, non-doctoral field, can be cost-prohibitive. The good news is that you can offset those costs by pursuing a scholarship. Here are just a few available to students in Maryland, but also visit our general scholarship page, which profiles similar awards from a variety of states and for many types of learners.
Many individual schools have their own scholarship programs, including:
Organizations aside from schools offer scholarships in Maryland, including:
Maryland Internships and Fellowships
Internships and fellowships are awards or paid positions related to your course of study. They’re often open—required, sometimes, in the case of internships—only to graduate or other advanced students.
Many individual schools have their own internship and/or fellowship resources, including:
Here, too, many non-school organizations offer internships and fellowships in the state, including:
This is not an exhaustive list by any means. You should use resources such as Chegg Internships, the APA’s internship resource, and more familiar sites such as LinkedIn and Indeed to find much broader lists of opportunities.
Maryland Psychology Resources