Health & Physical Education is of the hottest master's degree programs in the United States, coming in as the #23 most popular major in the country. This means there are lots of options to choose from when you decide to get your degree.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 10 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Health & Physical Education Master's Degree Schools in North Carolina ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 250 master's degrees in health & physical education to qualified students.
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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. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
A Great Overall School
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 account for this we consider a college's overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking which itself looks at a combination of various factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
Early-Career Earnings
One measure we use to determine the quality of a school is to look at the average salary of master's graduates during the early years of their career. That is, everyone wants their master's degree to be worth something, and salaries are one measure of determining that.
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 complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for health & physical education students working on their master's degree.
The phys ed school you choose to invest your time and money in matters. To help you make the decision that is right for you, we've developed a number of major-specific rankings, including this list of the Best Health & Physical Education Master's Degree Schools in North Carolina.
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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.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is one of the best schools in the country for getting a master's degree in health & physical education. Located in the city of Chapel Hill, UNC Chapel Hill is a public university with a very large student population.
Master's recipients from the health & physical education major at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill make $3,503 more than the standard graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
East Carolina University is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a master's degree in health & physical education. Located in the city of Greenville, ECU is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Those health & physical education students who get their master's degree from East Carolina University make $3,044 more than the standard phys ed student.
Any student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in health & physical education has to look into Appalachian State University. Appalachian State is a very large public university located in the town of Boone.
Soon after graduating, phys ed master's recipients generally make around $38,305 in the first five years of their career.
Located in the town of Cullowhee, WCU is a public university with a large student population.
Health & Physical Education master's degree recipients from Western Carolina University receive an earnings boost of approximately $5,789 above the typical earnings of health & physical education graduates.
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. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
