Southern Connecticut State University Physical Activity and Chronic Disease, M.S. (Online)

Southern Connecticut State's online M.S. in Physical Activity and Chronic Disease is a health promotion degree with an exercise physiology foundation, not a clinical exercise physiology degree. One required course, Foundations of Exercise Physiology, is core exercise science, and the rest covers behavior change, epidemiology, biostatistics and program planning.

It fits people who want to design physical activity programs for communities and workplaces. The program page shows no online price, so get one in writing.

Southern Connecticut State University is a public university in New Haven, Connecticut, accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education. The degree is offered by the Department of Health and Movement Sciences in the College of Health & Human Services, with coursework from the Department of Public Health too.

It's a 33-credit, 100% online, interdisciplinary master's that prepares graduates to promote and program physical activity as community health workers or in other public and private health promotion jobs. The program page lists no prerequisites, individualized advising, chances to join faculty research, and hands-on experience measuring physical activity with Actigraph and ActivPal devices.

The degree is 100% online, and the program page describes individualized advising so you can focus your coursework on your own goals. Several core courses run in one semester a year. The catalog schedules PCH 500 and PCH 586 in fall, and PCH 515 and the thesis proposal course HMS 590 in spring, so your start term shapes your path.

The internship option places you in supervised off-campus settings. The course description names health and physical activity promotion, community health promotion and cardiac rehabilitation as examples. Ask early where you'd be placed if you live far from New Haven.

Who It Fits

• Nurses, health educators and community health staff who want to add physical activity programming to what they already do. Much of the coursework comes from public health.
• Career changers with a bachelor's in almost any field. The program page lists no prerequisite courses, though the graduate catalog asks for a 3.0 undergraduate GPA and the program coordinator's recommendation.
• People who want the option of a thesis. The capstone can be a two-course thesis, and the page lists doctoral study in exercise science or public health as a next step.
• Residents of New England, New York and New Jersey. The program page advertises discounted tuition for those states.

Who Should Skip It

• Skip it if you want to be a clinical exercise physiologist. CAAHEP, the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs, accredits SCSU's separate M.S. in Exercise Science with Clinical Exercise Physiology and Human Performance concentrations. This degree isn't one of them, and from August 15, 2027 ACSM-EP and ACSM-CEP candidates must graduate from a CAAHEP-accredited program.
• Skip it if you want to train athletes. The required courses don't cover strength programming, biomechanics or sport performance.
• Skip it if you want a degree that's mostly exercise science. Expect public health language, statistics and policy in most courses.

The catalog's core is HMS 500 Foundations of Exercise Physiology, HMS 554 Research Methods, HMS 578 Behavior Change in Health and Physical Activity, PCH 500 Foundations of Public Health, PCH 515 Biostatistics, PCH 564 Health Systems and Policy and PCH 586 Health Promotion Methods and Strategies.

You choose one epidemiology course, HMS 510 or PCH 551, and one planning course, HMS 581 or PCH 577. HMS 500 covers bioenergetics, exercise metabolism and the body's major systems, then applies them to physical activity and wellness.

You also select one elective from ten options, including Obesity Prevention and Treatment, Theories of Counseling and Social and Cultural Diversity. The capstone is either a thesis (HMS 590 and HMS 591) or an internship (HMS 595).

Courses the School Names

• HMS 500 Foundations of Exercise Physiology
• HMS 554 Research Methods
• HMS 578 Behavior Change in Health and Physical Activity
• PCH 515 Biostatistics
• PCH 586 Health Promotion Methods and Strategies
• HMS 510 Epidemiology, Physical Activity, and Chronic Disease
• HMS 581 Physical Activity Programming and Evaluation

Standout Features

• Objective physical activity measurement (Actigraph accelerometers, ActivPal)
• Accelerated 4+1 option for SCSU Exercise and Sport Science and Health Science undergraduates

Southern Connecticut doesn't print a Physical Activity and Chronic Disease rate on the program page. Its Fall 2026 and Spring 2027 part-time graduate schedule lists $484 per credit in tuition and $396 per credit in the general university fee, or $880 per credit, plus a $10 writing center fee and a $55 registration fee each term.

The schedule notes that part-time rates are the same for residents and non-residents and for online and on-ground students.

At $880, 33 credits come to $29,040 before term fees. A single 3-credit course costs $2,705 that term, and 6 credits cost $5,345. Ask whether the advertised regional discount changes those figures.

33 credits at $880 a credit comes to $29,040 in tuition, before fees.

The university's institutional accreditor is the New England Commission of Higher Education. This degree has no programmatic accreditation, and it's separate from the CAAHEP-accredited concentrations in SCSU's Exercise Science master's. The clinical concentration uses a hybrid mix of online and on-ground coursework, while this program is fully online.

That difference matters if you're picking a school for credentials. The CSCS, the NSCA's Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist exam, is also unaffected. It looks at your bachelor's degree, and from January 1, 2030 that bachelor's must come from a CASCE-accredited program for U.S. candidates.

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 credit math doesn't add up on the page. The catalog lists nine core courses, a select-one elective and a 6-credit capstone at 3 credits per course, which would be 36 credits, while the degree is billed as 33.
• The internship course, HMS 595, lists a prerequisite of the Exercise Science master's Human Performance and Sport Psychology concentrations only, yet the catalog offers it to this program's students.
• PCH 586 lists prerequisites of PCH 504 and PCH 520, and PCH 504 isn't in this degree's requirements. HMS 510 and HMS 581 also have no entry in the graduate course listing.
• The exercise science content is small. If a hiring manager or licensing rule wants an exercise physiology degree, this one won't read that way.

• Can you send a degree plan showing exactly how the 33 credits break down, including the elective and capstone credits?
• What is the total tuition and fee price for an online student from my state, and does the regional discount apply to me?
• Can students in this program take HMS 595, and where have online students done internships?
• How do I satisfy the PCH 586 prerequisites, and will HMS 510 and HMS 581 run when I need them?
• Which start term keeps me on track, given fall-only and spring-only required courses?
• How do thesis students in this program find advisers and collect data from a distance?
• Do the accelerometer measurement skills on the program page happen online, and how?

Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven, CT houses a Department of Health and Movement Sciences in a new Health and Human Services building with about 4,500 sq ft of laboratories, and hosts the only CAAHEP-accredited clinical and applied exercise physiology master's tracks in Connecticut.

• Best Online Exercise Science Degrees Rank 94 of 99, master's
• Best Online Master's Programs Rank 94 of 99, master's
• Best for Healthcare Workers Rank 18 of 20, master's
• Best 100% Online Programs Rank 76 of 78, master's

Also at Southern Connecticut State University, but not counted here because they are not fully online: Exercise Science, M.S. - Clinical Exercise Physiology (master's, hybrid); Exercise Science, M.S. - Human Performance (master's, on campus).

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