What is an Online Forensic Psychology Master’s Program?
Forensic psychology exists at the intersection of psychology and the law. As such, online forensic psychology master’s programs focus student learning on topics related to these two specific areas.
Like on-campus programs in this field, online studies include coursework in psychological research, criminology, clinical psychology, legal principles, and other related topics.
Naturally, online studies differ from on-campus studies in that they are far more independent. Rather than attending class in a normal classroom setting, students often work at their own pace.
Typically, online master’s programs include features like group chat rooms or video conferencing that help students feel more connected and to provide a forum in which students can discuss their learning together.
NO GRE Online Forensic Psychology Master’s Programs
Though many online graduate programs in forensic psychology include satisfactory GRE scores as part of their admissions requirements, not all programs do so. The purpose of the GRE is to offer an indication to program officials of how a student might perform in graduate school.
Among the online master’s degree programs in forensic psychology that do not require students to take the GRE are:
Nova Southeastern University
Nova Southeastern University is located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It is a four-year institution that offers online study.
Nova Southeastern University’s online Master of Science in Forensic Psychology is intended to help students prepare for careers in legal, judicial, or criminal justice settings. The university states that this online program is built especially for working adults, offering a flexible online format with a nonclinical curriculum.
The program is fully online, and students do not need to complete any in-person clinical components. This can be especially useful for students who live in remote areas. The university also reports relatively high graduation rates for both low-income and middle-income students. In addition, the average salary six years after graduation is reported to be higher at NSU than at other schools.
Students can choose between multiple concentration options. These include a forensic psychology concentration in the legal system or a concentration in mental health work, first response, and disaster teams. Students may begin the online program in August, January, or May.
The school reports 56% online enrollment. The average graduate tuition for in-state students is $22,890. The retention rate is 76%. The average graduate tuition for out-of-state students is also $22,890.
Arizona State University
Arizona State University’s Master of Science in Forensic Psychology is designed for students who want a fast-paced program with strong research training. The curriculum includes eleven accelerated courses, each lasting 7.5 weeks. These courses cover criminal behavior, psychopathology, and legal psychology. With several start dates offered each year and no breaks between terms, students can complete all 33 credits in 18 months.
The program gives strong attention to research methods, which makes it a respected starting point for students who plan to continue into doctoral study.
One important admission detail is that applicants must have already completed a research methods course. Students who do not have this course on their undergraduate record must complete it before entering the program.
- Program Length and Credits: The program takes 18 months to complete and requires 33 credits.
- Program Format: The program is offered 100% online. Students can choose from multiple start dates during the year, and courses are delivered in accelerated 7.5-week terms.
- Tuition and Total Cost: The tuition rate is $703 per credit, and the total program cost is $23,199.
Applicants must hold a bachelor’s degree in a related field. A minimum 3.0 GPA is required in the last 60 credits of undergraduate study. Students must also submit transcripts, a personal statement, and letters of recommendation. In addition, completion of a research methods course is required as a prerequisite.
University of North Dakota
University of North Dakota is located in Grand Forks, North Dakota. It is a four-year institution that offers both campus and online study.
At the University of North Dakota, online students can complete a Master of Arts in Forensic Psychology either as full-time students or while managing a work schedule. The program uses an asynchronous format, which allows students to complete coursework on their own time without needing to sign in at set class hours.
The university has a strong retention rate, with more than four out of five graduate students continuing in the program from one year to the next. UND also gives online students networking opportunities so they can connect with other students taking online classes. In addition, out-of-state tuition is more affordable than at many public universities, because the added cost for nonresident students is not much higher than the in-state rate.
This master’s program has a lower course load than many others, requiring students to complete only 30 credit hours. This may help students finish the degree sooner. Many of the same professors who teach on-campus students also teach the online courses, and the classes are the same. Online students also receive unlimited academic coaching and free online tutoring.
The school reports 69% online enrollment. The average graduate tuition for in-state students is $11,963. The retention rate is 83%. The average graduate tuition for out-of-state students is $17,944.
Grand Canyon University
The Master of Science in Forensic Psychology from Grand Canyon University is a 36-credit program that you can complete in about two years of full-time study. You’ll explore a variety of topics in psychology and criminal justice, including criminal behavior, victimology, and the social influences on criminal behavior.
To gain expertise in this field, you will follow a curriculum that includes courses like:
- Contemporary and Ethical Issues in Psychology
- Offender Rehabilitation and Reintegration
- Psychology and the Legal System
- Social and Cultural Psychology
- Psychopathology of Crime
Most of these courses are four credits, though some of your courses are just two semester credits each.
In addition to taking the courses listed above, you must also participate in a senior capstone project that helps you bring together your classroom learning and apply it to a real-world forensic psychology scenario.
One of the benefits of this program is that it’s offered in two forms: evening courses and online. If you’re a working professional in the Phoenix area and do best learning in a traditional classroom environment, evening classes might be the best option. However, if you need the flexibility of online learning and being able to study anytime, anyplace, the online program is likely best for you.
Grand Canyon University has a simplified admissions process. To apply to this program, complete the online application for admission and submit transcripts from each college or university you have attended. From there, a university counselor will help guide you through the rest of the process.
The Chicago School
The Chicago School offers an in-person and online 60-credit M.A. in Forensic Psychology with a Professional Counselor Licensure track. This counselor preparation program equips you with essential skills in diagnosis, therapy, and consultation so you can serve many groups of people within the legal system.
The licensure track includes the eight content areas identified by the National Board of Certified Counselors to prepare students who seek professional counselor licensure and want to start professional work at the master’s level. Graduates are prepared for roles supporting people of all ages who may experience many emotional, intellectual, and psychological symptoms and conditions.
Program length depends on your schedule. If you enroll full-time, completion usually takes about two years. If you enroll part-time, completion usually takes three to four years. The programs is offered at The Chicago School’s Chicago, Anaheim, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Online campuses.
Students in the in-person and online program study in a setting designed to help future clinicians build self-awareness and multicultural competence. The program involves faculty in preparing clinicians who can respond to the needs of diverse communities. This licensure program is available at campus locations and online.
The program is dedicated to developing clinicians who are skilled and ethical and who will contribute to the mental health field. To complete the master’s degree successfully, you must finish required coursework along with clinical training. Full-time students commonly complete practicum and internship work during the second year of the academic program. Part-time students work closely with their academic advisor to choose the most suitable year for meeting training requirements.
The curriculum introduces students to key theory, scientific research, and applied skills in clinical psychology. This preparation enables students to use psychological science and practice when addressing matters tied to law and the legal system and to carry out professional duties in many forensic settings. The program emphasizes critical thinking, attention to ethical principles, the role of personal values, and cultural diversity, and it remains flexible so course content can be updated to reflect changes in the field.
Forensic practicum and internship placements are closely supervised training experiences where the knowledge, skills, and professional attitudes learned in the classroom are applied directly with forensic and or clinical groups. All sites are approved by the Office of Placement and Training (OPT) and give students the chance to work with high-risk groups across many settings, including prisons, jails, detention centers, police departments, special treatment units, state psychiatric hospitals, substance abuse facilities, and community-based programs serving victims and offenders.
After you complete the program successfully, you will be able to:
- Develop and maintain effective professional relationships with clients, peers, supervisors, faculty, and other professionals.
- Show basic knowledge of psychometric theory, assessment methods, and forensic literature to evaluate different parts of human experience, results of interventions, and psycholegal issues.
- Show understanding of research methods in the social and behavioral sciences, including the strengths and limits of research, and the scientific and professional literature relevant to forensic psychology.
- Identify and respect differences among individuals and groups and provide services with cultural competence.
- Plan and conduct professional work in line with ethical and professional codes, standards, and guidelines; statutes, rules, and regulations; and relevant case law.
- Use basic knowledge of theory, research, and professional literature to guide interventions and support strong mental health and well-being.
Admission requirements include:
- Completed application
- GPA of 3.0 or higher required
- Resume or curriculum vitae
- Essay
- Official college or university transcripts
- Three letters of recommendation
- Bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution
Purdue University Global
Purdue University Global is located in West Lafayette, Indiana. It is a public institution and is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission (HLC).
The master’s program in forensic psychology at Purdue University Global prepares students to work within both criminal and civil legal systems. The program focuses on theory, practice, and ethical issues. Coursework covers theories of criminal behavior, legal topics, and applied forensic psychology concepts for varied populations and work settings. Students may choose either a thesis option or a capstone option.
The Purdue Global Master of Science in Psychology program offers flexible concentration choices, including addictions, forensic, industrial/organizational, and general psychology. This allows students to shape their studies toward focused career paths.
The program also includes a Master’s Capstone course. In this course, students create and carry out a full research proposal, showing strong skill development and improving their applied research ability for career growth.
Students also receive wide career support services, including interview preparation, help with job searching, virtual career fairs, and 24/7 access to job listings. These services can help improve job opportunities after graduation.
Southern New Hampshire University
Southern New Hampshire University is located in Manchester, New Hampshire. It is a private institution and is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE).
Southern New Hampshire University’s online Master of Science in Forensic Psychology prepares students to use psychological principles within the criminal justice system. The curriculum covers criminal behavior, legal settings, assessment methods, and ethics. The program can be completed in as little as 15 months. It does not lead directly to licensure. The program is suitable for students both with and without prior psychology coursework.
Southern New Hampshire University provides transfer credit support and foundational courses to help students make use of prior learning and to support those who do not have a psychology background.
The program uses a flexible, fully online format with multiple start dates. This structure is designed to fit the needs of working professionals and students with varied schedules.
Students also complete an applied capstone project that gives attention to ethical decision-making and practical skills that connect directly to forensic psychology careers.
Do All Forensic Psychology Master’s Programs Require GRE?
As noted above, not all forensic psychology master’s programs require a GRE. Typically, universities that don’t have the GRE requirement rely on other requirements instead, like a student essay or student interviews with psychology faculty.
Either way, the ability of the program to assess one’s fitness as a student rests on one’s ability to communicate effectively in either written or verbal form, or both.
Like programs that do require a GRE, programs without this requirement will also often look at a student’s undergraduate performance, specifically the undergraduate GPA.
Typically, master’s programs have the added admissions requirement that students must have multiple letters of recommendation from undergraduate professors.
Can I Keep Working While Enrolled?
Most students do. The programs listed above are all asynchronous, meaning there are no set login times and no live sessions you must attend at a fixed hour. You complete the course materials and submit assignments by weekly deadlines on your own schedule.
It is common to take one or two courses per term instead of a full course load, and many students find this manageable while working full time. ASU’s accelerated format uses back-to-back 7.5-week terms, and if you move through it at full speed, the weekly time demand is higher than in the other two programs.
What Do You Learn in an Online Forensic Psychology Master’s Program?
Since forensic psychologists often work alongside the criminal justice and legal systems, many of the master’s-level courses that are required also revolve around these two areas.
Though this is not a complete list, a forensic psychology student will take the following courses in their master’s studies:
- Law and psychology – These courses help further develop a student’s understanding of and connection between psychology and law. For example, students explore the role of forensic psychologists in the legal system, such as learning about providing expert testimony or helping attorneys prepare witnesses for trial.
- Criminal behavior – Since forensic psychologists often testify as expert witnesses during trials, having a background in criminal behavior is a must. These courses explore the general question of why people commit crimes.
- Forensic mental health – Coursework in forensic mental health runs the gamut from learning how to work with specific populations (i.e., juvenile offenders or domestic violence offenders) to understanding the legal system to learning how to effectively provide testimony during a trial.
- Psychological assessment – A critical component of a forensic psychologist’s toolkit is understanding the psychological assessment tools at their disposal and how to use them to gain knowledge and understanding of why people behave the way they do.
- Research methods – Building off of psychological research skills that were gained during their undergraduate studies, master’s degree students explore research topics and tools in more detail, such as how to conduct interviews, how to interpret statistics, and proper reporting procedures.
- Ethics – Ethics courses give students an opportunity to explore ethical practice that retains the integrity of the field of psychology while providing the best possible services to clients.
- Clinical practice – Some forensic psychology master’s programs offer courses that prepare students for working in a clinical setting. For example, students might learn how to evaluate and treat individuals that have exhibited violent behavior towards others.
- Victimology – Coursework in victimology focuses student attention on developing the skills needed to evaluate victims of crimes and treat the psychological traumas that have resulted from those crimes.
- Practicum experience – To bring all the classroom learning together that students have gleaned throughout their studies, many master’s programs require students to participate in a practicum and/or internship experience in which they get to work with real-world clients under strict supervision from an expert psychologist.
How Long Does It Take to Get an Online Forensic Psychology Master’s Degree?
In most cases, a master’s degree in forensic psychology will take full-time students two years to complete. Most programs require about 33-36 credit hours to graduate, which means nine credit hours of coursework each semester for that time period.
However, some master’s programs in psychology require far more credits – some more than 60 credit hours in total. These programs typically take students three to four years to complete.
Still other programs allow students to pursue a doctorate after graduating with a bachelor’s degree. In those instances, a master’s degree might be obtained after two to four years, but with the added studies of the doctorate factored in, another three to five years could be added to the timeframe.
What are the Disadvantages of an Online Degree?
Though there are plenty of advantages to studying forensic psychology online, there are a few disadvantages of which to be aware:
- Reduced face-to-face interaction – Strides have been made to make online learning more interactive, but online studies still don’t have the same level of student-teacher and student-student interactions as on-campus studies provide.
- Lack of campus experience – Without campus experiences like the student union, sporting events, homecoming, and so forth readily available, some students report feeling disconnected from their school and peers when studying online.
- Heavy self-discipline requirements – Online learning requires students to be highly disciplined, deadline-oriented, and a self-starter. Without these qualities, online learning can be extremely difficult.
- Questions about accreditation – Many online forensic psychology master’s programs are fully accredited, just like many on-campus programs. However, many others are not accredited, thus requiring students to be hyper-vigilant when choosing a program to undertake.
What Skills You Need to Get a Master’s Degree in Forensic Psychology?
Students in forensic psychology master’s programs must possess a wide range of hard skills and soft skills to be successful. These include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Time management skills – Time management skills are a must for any student, but particularly for those studying online at the master’s level who often work independently without much interaction with their professors.
- Psychology research skills – Students at the master’s degree level must have a full understanding of the process of conducting scientific research, including forming and testing hypotheses, collecting and analyzing data, and reporting their findings.
- Critical thinking and problem-solving skills – A large part of a forensic psychologist’s job is being able to analyze information from victims or offenders to develop an understanding of their experience, mindset, motivation, and so forth. Doing so requires developing these skills during a master’s program.
- Listening skills – Forensic psychology students should develop strong verbal and written communication skills, but perhaps more importantly is learning how to listen effectively and utilize active listening techniques in order to learn about and support the clients with whom they work.
- Empathy – Like any psychologist, a forensic psychologist should be able to put themselves in another person’s shoes in order to see the world as they see it. This is a skill that students should excel in before their master’s program and should develop further during their graduate studies.
- Qualitative analysis – Forensic psychology students should be able to analyze and interpret behavioral data in order to draw evidence-based conclusions about a person’s thoughts, motivations, and behaviors.
How Much Can You Earn With a Master’s Degree in Forensic Psychology?
As of March 2026, the average annual salary for a licensed forensic psychologist is around $115,000. However, the salary one can make is highly dependent on two primary factors: educational level and experience.
Of course, salary is also dependent upon the place of employment, with workers in this field that are in private practice typically making more money than those that work for public agencies, like the court system or in law enforcement.
Having an advanced degree, like a Ph.D. or additional skills training can also positively impact one’s salary.
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