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.
College Factual looked at 6 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Health & Physical Education Master's Degree Schools in Virginia ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 391 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. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
Overall Quality Is a Must
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 include a college's overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking which itself looks at a collection of different factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
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
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 schools for health & physical education students working on their master's degree.
When choosing the right school for you, it's important to arm yourself with all the facts you can. To that end, we've created a number of major-specific rankings, including this Best Health & Physical Education Master's Degree Schools in Virginia list to help you make the college 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.
Liberty University is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a master's degree in health & physical education. Liberty University is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Lynchburg.
Students who graduate with their master's from the phys ed program state that they receive average early career earnings of $44,437.
It is difficult to beat James Madison University if you wish to pursue a master's degree in health & physical education. Located in the city of Harrisonburg, JMU 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 income of $45,101.
University of Virginia - Main Campus is one of the best schools in the country for getting a master's degree in health & physical education. University of Virginia is a very large public university located in the midsize suburb of Charlottesville.
Master's recipients from the health & physical education major at University of Virginia - Main Campus get $10,261 more than the standard college grad with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
George Mason University is a great choice for students interested in a master's degree in health & physical education. Located in the suburb of Fairfax, GMU is a public university with a very large student population.
Master's students who receive their degree from the phys ed program earn an average of $38,077 in their early career salary.
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. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
