Clinical, Counseling and Applied Psychology at MCPHS University

Similar psychology bachelor's programs in Massachusetts typically produce first-year earnings around $40,000—slightly above the national median for this field but well below what you'd hope for given MCPHS's $27,000 debt load. That 0.68 debt-to-earnings ratio isn't catastrophic, but it means your child would be carrying debt equal to about eight months of their first year's salary. For context, nearby Boston College's psychology graduates earn $42,384, while Lesley's earn $38,404, suggesting MCPHS would land somewhere in that competitive middle tier if actual data were available.

The real challenge here is that bachelor's-level psychology rarely leads directly to clinical work—most graduates need additional credentials to practice, which means more debt ahead. This creates a stacking problem: $27,000 now, then likely another $40,000-60,000 for a master's, all while earning entry-level wages in social services or related fields. MCPHS's health sciences focus might provide some networking advantages for healthcare-adjacent psychology roles, but that's speculative without program-specific outcomes to verify.

Given the estimation uncertainty and the field's credential requirements, treat this as a foundation degree that will require graduate school. If your child is committed to clinical psychology as a career, the debt is manageable for a first step—but only if you're both clear-eyed that this $27,000 is just the down payment on their training, not the full cost.