If you pursue a bachelor's degree in health & physical education, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #9 most popular program in the country. So, there are lots of possibilities to explore when you're trying to determine where you want to get your degree.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 533 schools in the United States to determine which ones were the best for health & physical education students pursuing a bachelor's degree. Combined, these schools handed out 48,205 bachelor's degrees in health & physical education to qualified students.
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. 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 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 consider 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.
Average Early-Career Salaries
Average early-career salary of those graduating with their bachelor's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your bachelor'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 - 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 full 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.
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 Bachelor's Degree Schools list to help you make the college decision.
To further help you make the college decision, we've developed a unique tool called College Combat that allows you to compare schools based on the factors that matter the most to you.
Go ahead and give it a try, or bookmark the link so you can check it out later.
Best Schools for Bachelor’s Students to Study Health & Physical Education in the United States
Learn about the top ranked colleges and universities for health & physical education students seeking a a bachelor's degree. Only those schools that rank in the top 20% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
University of Michigan - Ann Arbor is a great decision for individuals interested in a bachelor's degree in health & physical education. Located in the medium-sized city of Ann Arbor, U-M is a public university with a very large student population.
Those health & physical education students who get their bachelor's degree from University of Michigan - Ann Arbor make $12,463 more than the typical phys ed student.
Any student who is interested in a bachelor's degree in health & physical education has to look into Texas A&M University - College Station. Texas A&M College Station is a fairly large public university located in the medium-sized city of College Station.
Health & Physical Education bachelor's degree recipients from Texas A&M University - College Station earn a boost of about $6,001 above the average earnings of health & physical education graduates.
University of Iowa is a great choice for students interested in a bachelor's degree in health & physical education. Located in the city of Iowa City, Iowa is a public university with a fairly large student population.
After graduating, phys ed bachelor's recipients generally earn an average of $31,998 in the first five years of their career.
The University of Texas at Austin is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a bachelor's degree in health & physical education. UT Austin is a very large public university located in the city of Austin.
Bachelor's recipients from the health & physical education degree program at The University of Texas at Austin earn $4,540 above the standard college grad in this field when they enter the workforce.
Located in the small city of Bloomington, IU Bloomington is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Those health & physical education students who get their bachelor's degree from Indiana University - Bloomington make $4,830 more than the standard phys ed student.
Located in the city of Columbus, Ohio State is a public university with a very large student population.
Health & Physical Education bachelor's degree recipients from Ohio State University - Main Campus receive an earnings boost of around $5,549 above the average income of health & physical education graduates.
Located in the fringe town of Oxford, Miami University - Oxford is a public university with a large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the health & physical education major at Miami University - Oxford get $9,443 above the average college grad in this field when they enter the workforce.
UGA is a fairly large public university located in the medium-sized city of Athens.
Bachelor's recipients from the health & physical education major at University of Georgia make $2,065 more than the typical college graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
Located in the medium-sized city of Syracuse, Syracuse is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the health & physical education degree program at Syracuse University earn $3,778 above the average college grad in this field when they enter the workforce.
Located in the small city of Harrisonburg, JMU is a public university with a very large student population.
Those health & physical education students who get their bachelor's degree from James Madison University make $4,912 more than the standard phys ed grad.
UMN Twin Cities is a very large public university located in the city of Minneapolis.
Health & Physical Education bachelor's degree recipients from University of Minnesota - Twin Cities earn a boost of about $5,007 over the average income of health & physical education majors.
Located in the small city of Waukesha, Carroll U is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population.
Health & Physical Education bachelor's degree recipients from Carroll University earn a boost of around $2,290 above the typical earnings of health & physical education majors.
This list represents the remainder of the schools awarded a Best Health & Physical Education Bachelor's Degree Schools badge.
Showing in this list means the college was ranked in the top 20% of the 533 different United States health & physical education schools we analyzed.
These are some additional schools worth mentioning that are also great but just didn't quite make the cut to earn our top Best Health & Physical Education Bachelor's Degree Schools award.
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.
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. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
