If you pursue a master's degree in health & physical education, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #23 most popular program in the country. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.
College Factual looked at 14 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Health & Physical Education Master's Degree Schools in California ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 864 master's degrees in health & physical education during the 2022-2023 academic year.
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Choosing a Great Health & Physical Education School for Your Master's Degree
Your choice of health & physical education for getting your master's degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
Quality Overall Is Important
The overall quality of a master's degree school is important to ensure a quality education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To take this into account we consider a college's overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking which itself looks at a combination of different factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
Average Earnings
To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their master's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their master's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.
Other Factors We Consider
The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.
Major Focus - How much a school focuses on health & physical education students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - The number of health & physical education students who choose to seek a master's degree at the school.
Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
Student Debt - How easy is it for health & physical education to pay back their student loans after receiving their master's degree.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized health & physical education related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for health & physical education students working on their master's degree.
Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Health & Physical Education Master's Degree Schools in California list, to help you choose the best school for you.
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Pursue opportunities in collegiate and professional sport management organizations with the support of this well-established online master's degree from Southern New Hampshire University.
Any student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in health & physical education needs to check out Concordia University, Irvine. Concordia University, Irvine is a small private not-for-profit university located in the city of Irvine.
Health & Physical Education master's degree recipients from Concordia University, Irvine get an earnings boost of about $12,155 above the typical income of health & physical education majors.
It is hard to beat Saint Mary's College of California if you want to pursue a master's degree in health & physical education. Located in the large suburb of Moraga, SMC is a private not-for-profit college with a small student population.
Those health & physical education students who get their master's degree from Saint Mary's College of California make $14,823 more than the standard phys ed student.
University of San Francisco is a good decision for individuals interested in a master's degree in health & physical education. Located in the large city of San Francisco, USFCA is a private not-for-profit university with a medium-sized student population.
Master's graduates who receive their degree from the phys ed program make about $46,187 in the first couple years of their career.
California State University - Long Beach is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a master's degree in health & physical education. Located in the city of Long Beach, CSULB is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Soon after graduating, phys ed master's recipients generally earn an average of $49,357 in their early careers.
The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
Your choice of health & physical education for getting your master's degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
