Ranked #9 in popularity, health & physical education is one of the most sought-after bachelor's degree programs in the nation. This means there are lots of options to choose from when you decide to get your degree.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 36 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Health & Physical Education Bachelor's Degree Schools in California ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 5,204 bachelor's degrees in health & physical education to qualified students.
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Choosing a Great Health & Physical Education School for Your Bachelor's Degree
The phys ed bachelor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. 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 bachelor's degree school is important to ensure a good education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To account for this we include a college's overall Best Colleges 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 bachelor's graduates during the early years of their career. That is, everyone wants their bachelor'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 - How many other health & physical education students want to attend this school to pursue a bachelor's degree.
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 bachelor'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 colleges for health & physical education students working on their bachelor'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 Bachelor's Degree Schools in California.
In addition to our rankings, you can take two colleges and compare them based on the criteria that matters most to you in our unique tool, College Combat.
Test it out when you get a chance! You may also want to bookmark the link and share it with others who are trying to make the college decision.
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San Diego State University is one of the best schools in the country for getting a bachelor's degree in health & physical education. Located in the large city of San Diego, SDSU is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Students who graduate with their bachelor's from the phys ed program state that they receive average early career income of $26,327.
Every student who is interested in a bachelor's degree in health & physical education needs to check out San Francisco State University. Located in the city of San Francisco, SFSU is a public university with a very large student population.
Soon after graduation, phys ed bachelor's recipients generally earn an average of $26,176 at the beginning of their careers.
It's hard to beat Saint Mary's College of California if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in health & physical education. Located in the suburb of Moraga, SMC is a private not-for-profit college with a small student population.
Those health & physical education students who get their bachelor's degree from Saint Mary's College of California make $6,035 more than the average phys ed graduate.
Every student who is interested in a bachelor's degree in health & physical education needs to check out California State University - Long Beach. Located in the city of Long Beach, CSULB is a public university with a very large student population.
Students who graduate with their bachelor's from the phys ed program state that they receive average early career income of $22,148.
Sac State is a very large public university located in the large city of Sacramento.
Bachelor's recipients from the health & physical education degree program at California State University - Sacramento get $3,492 more than the typical graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
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.