Central Texas College Online Kinesiology (KIN4.AS, CIP 31.0505)

Central Texas College's online Associate of Science in Kinesiology is a cheap way to do the first two years of a bachelor's, not a career credential on its own. It's 60 credits at $125 to $250 per credit, and only about 18 of those credits are kinesiology courses. The rest is general education and science.

Use it to transfer into a four-year kinesiology or exercise science program, and don't expect exercise physiology courses, an internship or programmatic accreditation.

Central Texas College is a public community college in Killeen, Texas, accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges to award associate degrees. Its department page says the A.S. in Kinesiology is offered and designed to transfer to four-year schools, and it says the degree is available fully online.

The college's distance education office lists more than 500 online courses and more than 60 online degrees and certificates. Admission is open, but Texas residents who want Texas tuition rates online must meet the Texas Success Initiative requirements, which means testing unless you're exempt.

The department page calls the degree fully online, but the catalog doesn't label which sections are online. It says distance courses come in online, blended or hybrid, and synchronous formats. The distance education page promises monthly starts, self-paced classes and 5 to 16 week courses, while the catalog says 8-week online courses usually start monthly and some run 12 weeks.

Those statements don't quite match, so ask an advisor to show you the actual online sections for each course in the plan. The physical activity electives deserve a question too. Weight Training I is listed as 0-3-1, meaning no lecture hours, three lab hours and one credit, so ask how it's completed at a distance.

Who It Fits

• Texas residents who plan to transfer. In-district students pay $125 per credit and other Texas residents pay $163, so 60 credits costs $7,500 or $9,780 in tuition. CTC lists transfer agreements with Cameron University (read our Cameron review) and with Texas A&M University-Central Texas for a B.S. in Exercise Physiology and Human Performance.
• Soldiers, veterans and military families. Army Tuition Assistance runs through CTC registration, and the college evaluates military education and experience from your Joint Services Transcript. Browse our online exercise science degrees for military students for bachelor's options after the associate.
• Future personal trainers who want a degree behind a certification. CTC's own transfer pathway names personal fitness trainer, with certification, as the career option at the associate level.

Who Should Skip It

• Anyone who wants to study exercise physiology now. The plan has no exercise physiology course, and the science is biology, anatomy and physiology and either a second A&P or general chemistry.
• Anyone who wants to work as an athletic trainer or exercise physiologist. CTC's department page marks those careers, and physical education teaching, as needing a bachelor's. Start with our online bachelor's in exercise science list instead.
• Out-of-state students. The nonresident rate is $250 per credit, or $15,000 for 60 credits, which is well above other choices on our online associate degrees in exercise science list.

The plan is 21 courses. Five are three-credit kinesiology courses: KINE 1301 Foundations of Kinesiology, which introduces human movement and the history of the field; KINE 1338 Concepts of Physical Fitness; KINE 1304 Personal/Community Health; KINE 2356 Care and Prevention of Athletic Injuries; and one of KINE 1306 First Aid, CPR and Safety Practices, KINE 1321 Principles of Athletic Coaching or KINE 1350 Fundamentals of Strength and Conditioning.

If you're heading toward strength coaching, KINE 1350 is the choice that touches biomechanics, exercise physiology and program design. You also take three one-credit physical activity electives, such as weight training or yoga.

The science is BIOL 1406 Biology for Science Majors I, BIOL 2401 Anatomy and Physiology I and BIOL 2402 or CHEM 1411. The rest is English, math, history, government, psychology, speech and humanities.

Courses the School Names

• KINE 1301 Foundations of Kinesiology
• KINE 1338 Concepts of Physical Fitness
• KINE 1304 Personal/Community Health
• KINE 1306 First Aid, CPR, and Safety Practices (choice of KINE 1306, 1321 or 1350)
• KINE 2356 Care and Prevention of Athletic Injuries
• KINE 1321 Coaching/Sports/Athletics (option)
• BIOL 2401 Anatomy & Physiology I
• BIOL 2402 Anatomy & Physiology II (option; alternative is CHEM 1411)
• PSYC 2301 General Psychology

Standout Features

• Formal transfer agreement with Eastern Oregon University: KIN4.AS applies toward EOU's B.S. in Physical Activity & Health
• Credit for military training, CLEP, DSST and other exams accepted toward the degree

CTC's 2026-27 catalog lists tuition per semester hour at $125 for in-district Texas residents, $163 for out-of-district Texas residents and $250 for nonresidents and international students. Over 60 credits that's $7,500, $9,780 and $15,000. In-district means you live in the Killeen and Copperas Cove school districts or qualify through property taxes.

Extras add up. BIOL courses carry a $15 per-credit differential, some courses charge $30 to $40 per credit hour for instructional materials, and the TSI assessment is $25.

60 credits at $250 a credit comes to $15,000 in tuition, before fees. At the in-state rate of $163, the same 60 credits come to $9,780.

The college is accredited by SACSCOC, a regional accreditor, and the kinesiology degree has no CAAHEP or CASCE accreditation. That's normal for a two-year transfer degree. An associate degree can't meet the bachelor's requirement for the ACSM-EP or the CSCS, but the personal trainer exams from ACSM, NSCA, NASM and ACE don't require any degree.

What matters is the bachelor's you move to. From August 15, 2027, ACSM-EP and ACSM-CEP candidates must graduate from a CAAHEP-accredited program, and from January 1, 2030, U.S. CSCS candidates need a bachelor's from a CASCE-accredited program. Check both lists for any school you pick. Four-year colleges generally accept up to 66 lower-division academic credits, so you can bring the whole degree with you.

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.

• It's exercise-science light. Roughly 18 of the 60 credits are kinesiology-prefixed, and there's no exercise physiology course, research course, internship or capstone.
• The online claim rests on one sentence. Sections may be online, hybrid or synchronous, and the activity courses may have hands-on components.
• The cheapest rate isn't for most online students. The $125 rate applies only in-district, and out-of-district Texas residents pay $163.
• CTC's pages disagree on the degree's code and format. The catalog calls it KIN4.AS, while the department page links KIN15.AA, and the distance page says self-paced while the catalog describes monthly 8-week terms.
• CTC's federal graduation rate is 11 percent. It covers first-time, full-time students only, so it says little about part-time transfer students.

• Is this degree the A.S. in Kinesiology (KIN4.AS) or the A.A. (KIN15.AA), and which one transfers to my target school?
• Which sections of every course in the plan are online this year, and which are hybrid or synchronous?
• How do the physical activity electives work at a distance?
• Which tuition rate applies to me, and am I in the CTC district?
• Do I need to take the TSI assessment, or am I exempt?
• Which courses charge the $30 to $40 per credit hour instructional materials fee?
• Will my target bachelor's program accept all 60 credits, and is it CAAHEP-accredited?

Public community college headquartered in Killeen, Texas, next to Fort Hood, with a large military-serving footprint and a distance-learning arm (online.ctcd.edu). Its Kinesiology department is a transfer-oriented associate program housed at Central Campus.

• Best Online Exercise Science Degrees Rank 9 of 11, associate
• Best Online Associate Programs Rank 9 of 11, associate
• Best Online Kinesiology Degrees Rank 3 of 4, associate
• Cheapest Online Programs Rank 6 of 11, associate
• Best for Military Students Rank 5 of 5, associate
• Best for Working Adults Rank 8 of 8, associate
• Best for Personal Trainers Rank 6 of 7, associate
• Best 100% Online Programs Rank 9 of 11, associate
• Best Online Programs in Texas Rank 2 of 3, associate

• Blinn College District

  Kinesiology, Associate of Science

  Texas $359 per credit Score 37.0

• Georgia Military College

  Associate of Science in Kinesiology

  Georgia $169 per quarter credit Score 47.0

• Bryan University

  Associate of Arts in Applied Exercise and Fitness

  Arizona $538.75 per credit Score 47.5

• Eastern Iowa Community College District

  Exercise Science & Kinesiology Transfer Major

  Iowa $230 per credit Score 48.4