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.
College Factual looked at 18 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Health & Physical Education Master's Degree Schools in the Plains States Region ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 614 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 host of different 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 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.
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 the Plains States Region 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.
University of Iowa is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a master's degree in health & physical education. Located in the small city of Iowa City, Iowa 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 $42,017.
It is difficult to beat Minnesota State University - Mankato if you want to pursue a master's degree in health & physical education. Minnesota State Mankato is a fairly large public university located in the small city of Mankato.
Master's recipients from the health & physical education major at Minnesota State University - Mankato get $7,533 above the standard graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Grand View University is a great decision for individuals interested in a master's degree in health & physical education. Located in the midsize city of Des Moines, Grand View University is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population.
Master's recipients from the health & physical education major at Grand View University get $5,345 more than the typical college graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
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.
