Ranked #23 in popularity, health & physical education is one of the most sought-after master's degree programs in the nation. So, there are lots of possibilities to explore when you're trying to determine where you want 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 Tennessee ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 254 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
The phys ed master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality phys ed program can vary widely even among the top schools. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
Overall Quality Is a Must
A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
Average Early-Career Salaries
Average early-career salary of those graduating with their master's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your master's degree won't mean much if it doesn't help you find a job that will help you earn a living.
Other Factors We Consider
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to health & physical education students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - How many other health & physical education students want to attend this school to pursue a master's degree.
Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
Student Debt - How much debt health & physical education students go into to obtain their master's degree and how well they are able to pay back that debt.
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.
More Ways to Rank Health & Physical Education Schools
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Health & Physical Education Master's Degree Schools in Tennessee ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
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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.
The University of Tennessee - Knoxville is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a master's degree in health & physical education. Located in the medium-sized city of Knoxville, UT Knoxville is a public university with a very large student population.
Students who graduate with their master's from the phys ed program report average early career wages of $42,975.
It is hard to beat East Tennessee State University if you wish to pursue a master's degree in health & physical education. Located in the city of Johnson City, ETSU is a public university with a fairly large student population.
After graduation, phys ed master's recipients usually make an average of $42,318 at the beginning of their careers.
University of Memphis is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a master's degree in health & physical education. UofM is a fairly large public university located in the city of Memphis.
Master's students who receive their degree from the phys ed program make around $38,915 for their early career.
Located in the remote town of Cookeville, Tennessee Tech University is a public university with a large student population.
Master's recipients from the health & physical education degree program at Tennessee Technological University make $4,623 more than the typical college grad with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Tennessee State University is a moderately-sized public university located in the large city of Nashville.
Health & Physical Education master's degree recipients from Tennessee State University get an earnings boost of around $2,272 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.