Northeastern State University Online Health and Sport Science

Northeastern State's online M.S. in Health and Sport Science is a broad, low-priced master's where exercise science is one of four options. In the Exercise Rehabilitation option, half of your 36 credits are rehab exercise courses and the rest is research, statistics, ethics, an internship and a capstone. The whole degree costs $12,330 at the Oklahoma online rate. It won't qualify you for the ACSM clinical exercise physiologist exam.

Northeastern State University is a public university in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, with additional campuses in Muskogee and Broken Arrow. The M.S. in Health and Sport Science is offered in Tahlequah and fully online. It has four options: School Health Education, Sport Administration/Management, Sport Analytics and Exercise Rehabilitation. You pick one.

Only Exercise Rehabilitation is exercise science. Choose it and you get six graduate courses in cardiopulmonary rehabilitation, biomechanics, aging and neuromuscular control inside a wider degree. Dr. MooSong Kim is the department chair listed for the program. Admission needs a bachelor's degree with a 2.5 GPA, or a GRE or MAT scaled score above the 25th percentile.

For 2026-27 the Graduate Online Only rate is $342.50 per credit for Oklahoma residents, made of $309.75 tuition and $32.75 in mandatory fees. Everyone else pays $343.50. Thirty-six credits comes to $12,330 or $12,366. The same 5000-level courses on campus cost non-residents $707.75 a credit, so the online rate is the one to plan around.

Add the $50 graduate application fee. NSU's fee page also warns that online courses may carry extra fees and lists college charges, such as $10 per credit hour for the College of Education and $26.50 for Science and Health Professions. Ask which apply to H ED courses. The page calls every rate an estimate.

Transfer won't shrink the bill much. NSU allows only 9 hours from outside the university, and prior learning credit tops out at 7 hours.

36 credits at $343.50 a credit comes to $12,366 in tuition, before fees. At the in-state rate of $342.50, the same 36 credits come to $12,330.

Who It Fits

• You want graduate coursework in rehab exercise without a private-school bill. Thirty-six credits comes to $12,330 for Oklahoma residents, and non-residents pay just a dollar more per credit at the online rate.
• You already work in cardiac or pulmonary rehab, a clinic, a gym or a school, and you want a master's for a raise or a title change. Courses run 8 or 16 weeks, so you can pace yourself around shifts.
• You'd rather skip the GRE. A 2.5 undergraduate GPA is enough, and the test score is only the alternative route in.

Who Should Skip It

• Skip it if you're aiming for the ACSM clinical exercise physiologist credential (ACSM-CEP). Starting August 15, 2027, candidates must graduate from a program accredited by CAAHEP, the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs, and this master's lists no programmatic accreditation.
• Skip it if you want a degree that's mostly exercise science. About half the credits are statistics, research methods, legal issues, seminars, an internship and a capstone shared with the school health and sport management students.
• Skip it if you need a defined clinical placement. The internship is 4 credit hours, and you'd have to work out the site and hours with the department.

The core is 18 credits that everyone takes: H ED 5443 Statistical Analysis of Health and Sport Science, H ED 5553 Research Methods, H ED 5563 Legal and Ethical Issues, H ED 5740 Seminars in Health Education and Sport (2 credits), H ED 5953 Capstone, and H ED 5990 Internship (4 credits).

The Exercise Rehabilitation option adds six 3-credit courses: H ED 5233 Advanced Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation, H ED 5253 Advanced Exercise and Rehabilitation Modality, H ED 5263 Advanced Principles in Biomechanics, H ED 5273 Aging and Rehabilitation Exercise, H ED 5283 Neuromechanical Control and Regulation of Coordinated Movement, and H ED 5293 Rehabilitation and Exercise Injury Psychology.

That's 18 of 36 credits. The list has no course named exercise physiology, exercise testing or nutrition, so bring that background from your bachelor's degree or ask how the department covers it.

Courses the School Names

• Statistical Analysis of Health and Sport Science
• Research Methods in Health and Sport Science
• Legal and Ethical Issues in Health and Sport Science
• Advanced Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation
• Advanced Exercise and Rehabilitation Modality
• Advanced Principles in Biomechanics
• Aging and Rehabilitation Exercise
• Neuromechanical Control and Regulation of Coordinated Movement
• Rehabilitation and Exercise Injury Psychology

Standout Features

• Exercise Rehabilitation option with Advanced Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation, Advanced Principles in Biomechanics, Aging and Rehabilitation Exercise and Neuromechanical Control courses
• Only one of four options is exercise-science-based; the degree is a broad health and sport science master's

All courses are delivered online, and the program page says classes are either synchronous or asynchronous, led by an engaged faculty member. Courses run 8 or 16 weeks. That mix matters if you work shifts: an asynchronous course lets you study at 10 p.m., while a synchronous one puts you on a video call at a set time.

The 4-credit internship (H ED 5990) and the capstone (H ED 5953) are required, and the program page mentions no campus visit. The Graduate College's manual says the capstone manuscript must be in publishable condition, so expect a serious writing project rather than a short paper.

NSU is approved by the Higher Learning Commission and the Oklahoma State Regents to offer distance education. That's institutional accreditation. The master's itself carries no programmatic accreditation, and no certification is tied to it. The Graduate College page names the Certified Health Education Specialist credential for the Health Education option and nothing for exercise rehabilitation.

NSU's bachelor's in Health and Human Performance is CAAHEP-accredited, but that's a different degree. The ACSM-CEP master's pathway requires 600 hours of clinical experience and, from August 15, 2027, a CAAHEP-accredited Exercise Physiology master's program. This one is neither. The Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) rule that starts January 1, 2030 concerns your bachelor's, which must come from a CASCE-accredited program.

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.

• Only one of the four options is exercise science. The other three are school health education, sport management and sport analytics, and the shared core is research, statistics and ethics rather than exercise physiology.
• NSU's pages disagree. The program page says M.S. with four options, while the Graduate College page calls the degree a Master of Education, describes two emphases, lists careers only for those two, and shows the option at 15 hours in one line and 18 in another. Get your option's degree plan in writing.
• Clinical experience is thin. A 4-credit-hour internship is far short of the 600 hours ACSM-CEP asks for, and the page says nothing about who arranges placements.
• The $342.50 headline isn't the full bill. There's a $50 application fee, possible extra online and college fees, and rates that can change without notice.

• Which of the six Exercise Rehabilitation courses meet at set times, and which are fully asynchronous?
• Can I get the current degree plan for the Exercise Rehabilitation option in writing, since the Graduate College page still lists two emphases and a Master of Education title?
• How does the 4-credit-hour internship work: how many clock hours, who finds the site, and can my current job count?
• Are there fees beyond the $32.75 mandatory fee on online H ED courses, such as a college fee?
• How often does each option course run, and how many terms does a working adult usually need to finish 36 credits?
• Would a graduate course I've already taken count, given the 9-hour limit on work from outside NSU?

Public university with campuses in Tahlequah, Muskogee and Broken Arrow, described by NSU Online as Oklahoma's fourth-largest public institution and the oldest institution of higher education in the state; approved by the Higher Learning Commission for distance education.

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