Avila University Online Master of Science in Kinesiology

Avila's online M.S. in Kinesiology is a performance-minded master's for coaches, trainers and career changers. You take 11 courses at $650 a credit, $20,150 in all, with eight-week terms, no GRE and textbooks inside each course.

It's built around biomechanics, strength training, recovery and mental performance. It isn't a clinical program. There's no internship, no lab courses and no certification prep, so it won't get you to the ACSM clinical exercise physiologist exam.

Avila University is a private Catholic university in Kansas City, Missouri, founded by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet. The online master's runs with Risepoint, an online program manager, and Avila says it keeps control of curriculum, teaching, admissions, tuition and accreditation. Federal data for the whole university show 2,768 students, an 88 percent admit rate and a 52 percent graduation rate.

The degree is 31 credit hours: ten 3-credit courses plus a 1-credit capstone. Avila describes the field as human movement, biomechanics, orthopedics, strength and conditioning, sport psychology and motor learning.

You need a bachelor's from an accredited school. The unconditional GPA is 2.75, and 2.5 gets provisional admission if you then earn a 3.0 across your first nine credits.

Courses are 100 percent online and accessible anytime, so you set your own hours inside each course's deadlines. Avila promises faculty feedback beyond pointing out mistakes. The 2026-27 calendar shows starts on August 31, October 26, January 11 and March 8, with applications due 10 to 14 days ahead.

Avila says the degree takes 18 months. Do the arithmetic and eleven eight-week courses taken one at a time is 88 weeks, about 20 months. Getting to 18 probably means taking two courses at once in some terms, so ask how many a working student can handle and whether any term is skipped.

There's no residency, lab or internship, so this is one of the simpler programs to fit around a job. That's also why it feels less clinical than others.

Who It Fits

• Coaches and trainers who want graduate-level programming. KN 665 has you design strength training programs for injury risk, general fitness and athletic development, and KN 627 teaches you to read research on recovery so you can advise athletes.
• Career changers with an unrelated bachelor's. Avila adds a leveling course, KN 516 Anatomical Kinesiology, for students outside kinesiology or admitted provisionally. It's a built-in on-ramp, and it costs extra.
• Adults who want to budget course by course. Each 3-credit course is $1,950, the rate is the same for every U.S. resident, and eight-week terms start several times a year.

Who Should Skip It

• Anyone aiming at clinical exercise physiology. Avila's career list mentions clinical exercise physiologist, but the curriculum has no exercise testing, no ECG interpretation and no supervised hours. Start with the clinical exercise physiology master's programs instead.
• People who want an athletic trainer credential. Athletic training runs on its own accreditation and board exam, and this is not an athletic training program.
• Applicants living outside the United States. Avila says the program isn't visa-eligible, and international applicants residing abroad can't enroll.

Seven of the ten core courses cover the body in motion. KN 519 Applied Biomechanics leans toward resistance exercise. KN 520 Environmental Physiology studies how ambient temperature, altitude and stress change performance. KN 576 Motor Performance covers skill acquisition. KN 581 Exercising Muscle digs into bioenergetics and hormones during training.

KN 618 Clinical Kinesiology is the closest thing to hands-on work. Its practical activities include measuring joint range of motion, movement assessment and corrective exercise programming, and it asks where a strength coach's scope of practice ends when rehab is involved.

KN 639 Advanced Sport Psychology and KN 652 Mental Performance Coaching cover the mental side. KN 643 Measurement and Evaluation adds athlete monitoring and statistical software. KN 685 is a 1-credit Professional Portfolio, an electronic collection of your work that you can present to industry experts.

Courses the School Names

• KN 519 Applied Biomechanics
• KN 520 Environmental Physiology
• KN 576 Motor Performance
• KN 581 Exercising Muscle
• KN 618 Clinical Kinesiology
• KN 627 Evidence-Based Recovery for Performance
• KN 639 Advanced Sport Psychology
• KN 643 Measurement and Evaluation
• KN 652 Mental Performance Coaching
• KN 665 Science and Practice of Strength Training

Standout Features

• Curriculum spans biomechanics, environmental physiology, exercising muscle, clinical kinesiology and strength training science
• Sport psychology and mental performance coaching courses (KN 639, KN 652), with a dedicated mental performance coaching page
• Evidence-based recovery for performance course (KN 627)
• Textbooks provided within the online course

Tuition is $650 per credit, $1,950 per course and $20,150 for the 31 credits. That price assumes you don't need the leveling course. If you do, KN 516 adds 3 credits and $1,950, bringing 34 credits to $22,100.

Avila says additional fees may apply. Textbooks are delivered inside each course, so you won't buy books separately.

If you're bringing graduate credits or veteran benefits, ask before you enroll how they apply. Avila's graduation rate is a university-wide federal figure, not one for this degree.

31 credits at $650 a credit comes to $20,150 in tuition, before fees.

Avila is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, a regional accreditor recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. No programmatic accreditation is listed, and Avila doesn't name a certification the degree prepares you for.

That matters less for a master's than for a bachelor's. NSCA's CSCS exam asks for a bachelor's degree today, and from January 1, 2030, U.S. candidates need one from a CASCE-accredited program. Neither rule turns on this master's.

The ACSM clinical exercise physiologist route with a master's requires 600 hours of clinical experience, and from August 15, 2027 the degree must come from a CAAHEP-accredited program or one in process. Avila isn't on the CAAHEP list we pulled, and this degree is kinesiology, not exercise physiology. Personal training certifications need no degree at all.

Where this degree can lead: Exercise Science Jobs.

The full rubric is on the methodology page. A factor marked Peer Median had no published input, so it counts at half weight.

• The leveling course adds $1,950 for anyone without a kinesiology-related bachelor's or admitted provisionally, so the advertised $20,150 is a best case.
• The at-a-glance box says minimum 2.5 GPA, but 2.5 is the provisional threshold. Unconditional admission is 2.75.
• No internship, labs or certification prep appear anywhere on the program page, and the only applied piece is a 1-credit portfolio.
• The KN 639 sport psychology listing shows learning outcomes about charts, statistics and performance norms, which reads like measurement content. The syllabus may differ from the page.

• Will I need KN 516, and can my transcript or work experience waive it before I pay for it?
• Is 18 months realistic for one course at a time, or does that require two courses in some terms?
• What fees sit on top of $650 per credit, and do books stay included for the whole degree?
• How many graduate credits can I transfer in, and does Avila offer a discount for military or veterans?
• Can I see a sample syllabus for KN 618 and KN 639, and what do the practical activities look like online?
• What do graduates use this degree for, and does Avila have alumni working in coaching or strength roles I could talk to?

Private Catholic university in Kansas City, Missouri; the online MS in Kinesiology is delivered with online program manager Risepoint (Avila retains curriculum and accreditation responsibility) and centers on human movement, biomechanics, strength and conditioning and sport psychology.

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