undergradly.
Major · Psychology

A psychology catchall — where program content varies, and graduate school usually finishes the credential

Psychology, Other (CIP 42.9999) is the catchall for psychology bachelor's and associate programs that don't fit a named subspecialty — common examples include forensic, health, sports, cross-cultural, animal behavior, and quantitative psychology, plus some self-designed undergraduate concentrations. Across the country, 386 degrees were awarded at 50 colleges, with bachelor's earners reporting median five-year earnings near $50,875.

Schools offering
50
Annual completions
386
Typical degree level
Associate's + Bachelor's
Median earnings (5yr)
$49k

About this major

Psychology, Other is a CIP catchall — federal code 42.9999 collects undergraduate and associate programs in psychology that don't fit any named subspecialty. The CIP definition is exactly what it sounds like: "any instructional program in psychology not listed above." In practice, programs filed under this code most often cover forensic psychology, health psychology, sports psychology, cross-cultural psychology, comparative or animal behavior, quantitative psychology, psycholinguistics, or — at some institutions — undergraduate programs that let students design their own emphasis across multiple psychology areas.

Because the catchall is genuinely broad, content varies considerably by school. Some 42.9999 programs are research-heavy and look like a slightly more specialized version of an Experimental Psychology bachelor's. Others are applied — a forensic-psychology track, for instance, may emphasize legal and criminal-justice coursework alongside clinical foundations. The actionable rule is simple: read the catalog, not the CIP. Two schools sharing this code can graduate students with substantially different skill sets.

The career picture requires honest framing. The three occupations BLS most directly associates with this major — psychologists (median $117,580, master's typical), psychology professors ($80,330, doctoral typical), and general managers ($136,550, bachelor's typical but rarely entered straight from a psychology B.A.) — do not describe the actual jobs most bachelor's graduates take. Five-year median earnings for bachelor's completers in this catchall sit near $50,875 across 50 reporting colleges, which is consistent with case manager, behavior technician (RBT), HR coordinator, market research analyst trainee, and social services case worker roles. The gap between the BLS career list and the actual five-year earnings is not noise — it's the reality that the licensed-psychologist credential most students have in mind requires graduate school. The bachelor's is a launching pad, and that framing is the right one to plan around from day one.

Section 3 · Careers

Where this major leads

Occupations most often associated with this major, from the federal BLS+O*NET crosswalk. Job-growth projections and median wages are national.

Occupation Median wage Job growth Typical education
Managers, all other $137k +4.5% Bachelor's degree
Psychologists, all other $118k +4.3% Master's degree
Psychology teachers, postsecondary $80k +3.6% Doctoral or professional degree
Section 4 · Earnings

Earnings at a glance

Median graduate earnings from the federal College Scorecard, 5 and 10 years out.

Median 5-year earnings

$49k

Associate's vs Bachelor's — early-career earnings

Associate's

$35k

Bachelor's

$51k

Who this major is for

You may thrive here if you're drawn to a specific niche of psychology — forensic, health, sports, cross-cultural, comparative — and your school offers a focused track under this CIP code that you wouldn't get in a general psychology program. The specialization can be a small but genuine advantage if you're targeting a corresponding niche graduate program or a domain employer that recognizes the focus. You may also fit well here if you intend to go to graduate school and you want undergraduate training that already starts orienting you toward a sub-discipline — research opportunities, faculty mentors, and applied coursework in your area of interest can compound across a four-year program.

Think twice if your career picture is "I want to be a therapist" or "I want to be a psychologist" without a graduate-school plan. The licensed clinical careers all require master's or doctoral credentials — Clinical Mental Health Counseling, MFT, MSW/LCSW, EdS in School Psychology, or PhD/PsyD in Clinical Psychology. The bachelor's alone, in any psychology CIP, lands at human-services entry pay ($40K–$55K) and plateaus there without further credentialing. Think twice also if you haven't directly compared this CIP option to Psychology, General (133,179 completions per year) at the same institution. The career destinations overlap heavily, and the General degree is more flexible, more recognizable to non-academic employers, and equally workable for graduate school applications.

Finally, think twice about the institution profile. UC San Diego's 42.9999 program is dramatically different from a small private bachelor's at a religious institution or an associate program at a community college — the academic rigor, research access, and graduate-school pipeline differ enormously. If your plan is graduate school, where you do this degree matters more than which CIP code it carries.

Section 6 · Where to study

Top colleges for Psychology, Other

Ranked by annual completions at the associate's or bachelor's level — a proxy for program scale.

College Location Assoc. Bach. Total
University of California-San Diego La Jolla, CA 0 147 147
University of Puerto Rico at Cayey Cayey, PR 0 42 42
Marist University Poughkeepsie, NY 0 34 34
Tiffin University Tiffin, OH 0 32 32
Los Angeles Harbor College Wilmington, CA 25 0 25
Seminole State College Seminole, OK 15 0 15
Concordia University Texas Austin, TX 0 14 14
Montreat College Montreat, NC 0 11 11
Central Baptist College Conway, AR 0 11 11
National University San Diego, CA 0 11 11
Section 7 · Explore sideways

Related majors to explore

Psychology, General

133,179 completions/yr

Research and Experimental Psychology, Other

11,877 completions/yr

Criminology

8,556 completions/yr

Experimental Psychology

3,493 completions/yr

Behavioral Sciences

2,603 completions/yr

Applied Psychology

1,583 completions/yr

Behavioral Neuroscience

1,302 completions/yr

Forensic Psychology

877 completions/yr
Section 9 · Frequently asked

Common questions

What does "Psychology, Other" actually mean as a major?
CIP code 42.9999 is the federal catchall for psychology programs that don't fit one of the named subspecialty codes — Clinical (42.2801), Counseling (42.2803), Industrial-Organizational (42.2804), Developmental (42.2703), Cognitive (42.2701), Social (42.2707), and so on. Programs reported under 42.9999 are typically forensic psychology, health psychology, sports psychology, cross-cultural psychology, comparative or animal behavior, quantitative psychology, or psycholinguistics — plus some undergraduate programs that allow students to design their own concentration. Because the CIP definition is just "any instructional program in psychology not listed above," content varies considerably from school to school. Read the actual course catalog at the program you're considering — the CIP code alone tells you almost nothing about what you'll study.
What jobs can I realistically get with this bachelor's alone?
Honestly, the same set of entry roles that any psychology bachelor's opens — not the licensed-clinician roles students often imagine. Realistic first jobs include case manager at a community mental-health agency ($38K–$48K), Registered Behavior Technician (RBT) working with autism clients ($35K–$45K, ~40 hours of training to certify), human resources coordinator or recruiter ($45K–$55K), market research analyst trainee ($50K–$60K), social services case worker ($38K–$48K), and entry-level roles at AI mental-health platforms or behavioral data teams. The five-year median for bachelor's completers in this catchall sits at about $50,875, which lines up with this profile. The three careers BLS associates with the major — psychologists ($117,580), psychology professors ($80,330), and general managers ($136,550) — all require master's or doctoral degrees as their typical entry credential.
Do I need a master's or doctorate to make this degree pay off?
For most of the careers people associate with psychology, yes. Becoming a licensed therapist requires a master's at minimum — Clinical Mental Health Counseling (CACREP-accredited, leads to LMHC/LPC and the NCMHCE exam), Marriage and Family Therapy (MFT licensure), or a Master of Social Work with the LCSW credential are the most common pivots. School Psychology requires an EdS or PhD. Industrial-Organizational psychology master's programs (the named CIP cousin, 42.2804) lead to consulting and HR-analytics roles in the $90K–$130K range. Becoming a clinical psychologist requires either a PhD (5–7 years, generally fully funded but with admit rates around 10–20%) or a PsyD (4–5 years, often unfunded with $150K–$250K of debt). If your goal is a clinical career, plan from day one of undergrad — research experience, GPA, and a coherent application narrative matter far more than which CIP code your program reports under.
How does Psychology, Other compare to Psychology, General and the named subspecialties?
Psychology, General (CIP 42.0101) is the dominant choice, with about 133,179 completions per year — the most flexible and most widely recognized psychology bachelor's. The named subspecialty CIPs that most often get confused with this catchall include Clinical Psychology (42.2801), Counseling Psychology (42.2803), Developmental and Child Psychology (42.2703), Cognitive Psychology (42.2701), Social Psychology (42.2707), Industrial-Organizational (42.2804), Behavior Analysis (42.2805), and Applied Behavior Analysis (42.2814). Schools file under 42.9999 when their program is genuinely specialized — forensic, health, sports, comparative — or when the program crosses subspecialties in a way that doesn't match a single named code. For graduate school admissions, the CIP code on your transcript matters less than your coursework, research experience, and letters. For entry-level employment, Psychology General is more recognizable to non-academic recruiters; a specialized 42.9999 program (like "Forensic Psychology") can be a small advantage in that specific niche.
What's the realistic earnings picture five and ten years out?
Bachelor's completers in this catchall report median five-year earnings near $50,875, with associate-degree completers around $35,481. That's consistent with case-manager, RBT, HR-coordinator, and social-services-case-worker roles. Ten-year data isn't reported for this CIP, but the trajectory generally splits two ways. If you stop at the bachelor's, expect a $50K–$75K plateau in the broader human-services sector — meaningful work, but capped without additional credentials or a pivot into HR, market research, or tech-adjacent roles. If you complete a master's pivot (LMHC, LCSW, MFT) you typically reach $60K–$85K mid-career as a licensed clinician, with private-practice ceilings considerably higher. Doctoral psychologists can reach $100K+ but spend 5–7 additional years in training first. Don't extrapolate the $117,580 BLS figure for psychologists to your own bachelor's earnings — that figure reflects a credential the bachelor's doesn't include.
Which schools award the most Psychology, Other degrees?
UC San Diego leads by a wide margin with 147 bachelor's completers in the latest year, followed by University of Puerto Rico at Cayey (42), Marist University in New York (34), and Tiffin University in Ohio (32). At the associate level, Los Angeles Harbor College (25 completers) and Seminole State College in Oklahoma (15) are the largest. The list reflects how different the catchall is from a uniform program — UC San Diego's program structure has little in common with a community-college associate or with a small private bachelor's in Texas or North Carolina. If you're choosing among these, look at three things specifically: how the program defines itself in its catalog (forensic? health? cross-cultural?), what research or applied opportunities exist for undergraduates, and what the typical post-graduation outcome is for that specific cohort — graduate school, clinical assistant work, or something else.
What about AI tools and the future of psychology careers?
AI is reshaping the lower end of the mental-health-services market more visibly than most fields. Platforms like Woebot, Wysa, Lyra, Spring Health, and Headspace Health are scaling AI-supported triage, content, and coaching, and they hire psychology graduates for content design, behavioral data analysis, and clinical-content review roles. Realistically, this is a small but growing entry-level lane for psychology bachelor's holders with some technical adjacency — basic data literacy, comfort with structured tools, and willingness to work in tech-paced environments. The work that AI is not displacing is licensed in-person clinical care, which remains heavily regulated and durable. The bachelor's by itself doesn't qualify you for that work; the master's or doctorate does. So the strategic read is: AI may slightly expand entry options, but it does not change the credential math for the licensed clinical careers most students associate with this major.